Property from a private collection HŌSHINA gold lacquer four-case inrō Edo period (1615-1868) or Meiji era (1868-1912), 19th century Of rounded rectangular profile with applied cord runners, decorated in gold, silver, black, and red hiramaki-e and takamaki-e against a gold kinji and fine hirame ground, depicting a large stag beetle and other insects including a grasshopper, a mantis, and a dragonfly, signed Hōshin ; fitted with a glass bead ojime 3 1/4in (8.2cm) high Provenance Senator S. Collection Shep Brozman Collection Christie's, London, November 10, 2010, lot 434 Published George Lazarnick, Netsuke and Inrō Artists and How to Read Their Signatures , Honolulu, privately printed, 1982, p.494 Louis Lawrence, Japanese Inrō from the Brozman Collection , London, Genlux Holdings Ltd., 1993, p.156