TOMOSHIGE: A RARE WOOD NETSUKE OF A SNAIL ON A WELL BUCKET COVERBy Gyokuryusai Tomoshige, signed Tomoshige 友重Japan, Nagoya, c. 1820-1850, Edo period (1615-1868)Carved from a single block of wood and masterfully stained in various subtle tones, depicting a snail slithering across a well bucket cover, its arched body forming the cord attachment, the spiraling shell smoothly polished and fleshy body neatly stippled, a little hole carved in the interior of the shell to represent the breathing hole of the mollusk. Signed underneath TOMOSHIGE. A rustic, yet remarkably refined netsuke with a distinct Zen-Buddhist aesthetic.LENGTH 4 cmCondition: Very good condition. Some minor nicks here and there and few natural age cracks, some of the wear is simulated.Provenance: Ex-collection Teddy Hahn, Darmstadt, purchased from his dear friend Klaus Riess, Munich. Theodor “Teddy” Hahn was a well-known and respected collector of netsuke and other Asian works of art. After spending time in museums to study the early cultures of the world, finding particular interest in their sculptures, he began collecting, remarking, “I somehow knew it would have a profound influence on my life. How right I was. And how happy I have been.” Teddy Hahn was a passionate collector of snail netsuke, arguably building the greatest collection of snail netsuke ever assembled.The artist Gyokuryusai Tomoshige was a pupil of Arima Tomonobu of Nagoya. Furthermore, due to the use of the same kanji Shige 重 it is likely that Tomoshige was the predecessor to Shigemasa, who arguably perfected this type of snail netsuke in the latter half of the 19th century through the brilliant use of various stains to a single block of wood.Museum comparison:Compare to a closely related wood netsuke of a frog on a well bucket cover by Shigemasa is in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), accession number M.84.34.Literature comparison:A related wood netsuke of a snail on an old bucket by Tomoshige, dated to the early 19th century, is illustrated in Eskenazi Ltd. (1993) Japanese Netsuke from the Carré Collection, no. 193.