Netsuke

While auction prices for works of art from Japan can scarcely compete with those achieved for pieces from China, the sale at Hargesheimer (28% buyer’s premium) in Düsseldorf on November 30 showed that there is still a healthy market for netsuke.

A new auction record for netsuke – over three times the previous high – has been set in France.

Wooden examples of the art of netsuke are now the focus of collectors following ivory restrictions.

With the ivory versions now heavily restricted, a New York auction provided a test of the current market

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including an 18th century Kyoto carving setting an auction record at Bonhams for any netsuke.

Many of the Asian sales in the US held over recent weeks took place in New York as part of its Asia week celebrations but auctions were also staged in other cities.

Japanese antique ivories have been gradually disappearing from the catalogues of prominent dealers and major auction houses but good examples are still being sold in the regions.

This 7½in (19cm) Japanese wood netsuke shows the standing figure of Ashinaga with his arms outstretched.

Trading with EU member states has become more difficult and expensive since the UK left the European Union, but one dealer may have found a way to avoid the bureaucratic hurdles.

Two hundred eagerly awaited examples from Brockhaus collection generate suitable response.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

During the late 18th century, schools of netsuke carving were established throughout Japan.

For the first time in a decade, Sotheby’s Asian Art in London offering included a designated sale of Japanese art on November 6.

A welcome addition to the November 21 Asian Works of Art sale at Matthew Barton (24% buyer’s premium) of 25 Blythe Road in west London were 79 netsuke from the collection belonging to Edmund de Waal, author of the bestselling memoir 'The Hare with Amber Eyes'. London Japanese art dealer Max Rutherston helped organise the sale and took this section of the auction.

The sales of Asian art at Lempertz in Cologne traditionally devote a large selection to Japanese works of art and the auction on December 7-8 is no exception.

Netsuke from the collection of ceramicist and author Edmund de Waal, made famous by the 2010 memoir 'The Hare with the Amber Eyes', go under the hammer in London.

The 195-lot collection of mask netsuke amassed by Swiss entrepreneur Peter Müller met with mixed success when offered by Matthew Barton (24% buyer’s premium).

With Bonhams the only one of the ‘big three’ in this market, other salerooms carve out a role...

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