Unsigned
Japan, 18^th century, Edo period (1615-1868)

The double gourd shaped netsuke beautifully detailed in thick enamels with scrolling veins in turquoise issuing coral double gourds and white leaves, all suffusing from the supple lid. The toggle banded at the waist in bronze and finished with a loop which doubles as the handle and himotoshi.

HEIGHT 5.6 cm

Condition: Good condition with old wear and firing irregularities. Some losses to enamel.
Provenance: Gallery Themis, Brussels, March 5, 1949. Collection of Robert and Isabelle de Strycker, acquired from the above. Robert de Strycker (1903-1968) was a French engineer who specialized in metallurgy. He was a Stanford graduate, a professor at the University of Leuven, a director of the Institute of Metallurgy at the Université Catholique de Louvain, and one of the most influential members of the faculty of applied sciences. After World War II, he made large contributions to France’s post-war recovery. Robert and his wife Isabelle (1915-2010) first encountered Chinese art at the British Museum during a stay in London in the 1930s. Enamored with the style and beauty, they both decided to study and collect Chinese works of art. In 1938 they eventually began to build their collection, buying from Belgian, Parisian, and English dealers. They kept close contact with the famous English collector Sir Harry Garner (1891-1977) and noted Czech collector and expert Fritz Low-Beer (1906-1976). In 1964, the couple lent 174 objects from their collection to the Belgian city of Leuven’s museum for an exhibition titled Oude kunst in Leuvens Privébezit (‘Old Art in Private Collections in Leuven’), and in 1967 they lent around thirty Japanese objects to the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels for their exhibition Kunst van Japan im belgischen Privatverzameingen (‘Japanese Art in Belgian Private Collections’).

Museum comparison:
A closely related ceramic netsuke with metal mountings in the shape of a gourd is in the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art in the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, accession number F1902.83a-b.