2016
Type: Netsuke
Sold. Russia, private collection.
Materials: Walrus tusk, mammoth tusk, jet and mother-of-pearl inlay.
Dimensions: 59×30×21 mm.
Weight: 20.6 g.
Happy fox on catching fish is dancing for joy.
A great number of old Japanese netsuke of "dancing foxes" served as the prototypes. But since the fox is happy and dancing I would like to give it a good reason – caught fish. The butterfly adds to the fox a kind of femininity and playfulness.
The netsuke is carved of walrus tusk. The butterfly is inlaid with color petrified mammoth tusk that has the insertions of jet and of mother-of-pearl.