A boxwood netsuke of a street puppeteer. 19th centuryStanding with a wooden box hanging from his neck with an outstretched weasel on top, the front of the box painted with patterns in red lacquer, traces of lacquer to his cap. Itinerant puppeteers (kairaishi) carried puppets in a box, while at a certain point during their performance a weasel (yamaneko itachi) was set loose to entertain the audience. This rare but known netsuke motif was interpreted on the Papp index card as a seller of a young seal (sic!) as an aphrodisiac. This information came from Ohmura. Height 5.9 cmProvenienzFrom Grete Damm, February 1976, who had just acquired it for DM 1300 from the wife of a man who collected rare subjects.Coll. no. 948 (printed and handwritten)A boxwood netsuke of a street puppeteer. 19th centuryStanding with a wooden box hanging from his neck with an outstretched weasel on top, the front of the box painted with patterns in red lacquer, traces of lacquer to his cap. Itinerant puppeteers (kairaishi) carried puppets in a box, while at a certain point during their performance a weasel (yamaneko itachi) was set loose to entertain the audience. This rare but known netsuke motif was interpreted on the Papp index card as a seller of a young seal (sic!) as an aphrodisiac. This information came from Ohmura. Height 5.9 cmProvenanceFrom Grete Damm, February 1976, who had just acquired it for DM 1300 from the wife of a man who collected rare subjects.Coll. no. 948 (printed and handwritten)