AN UNUSUAL AND FINE WOOD NETSUKE OF A FISH HEAD Unsigned Japan, mid-19th century, Edo period (1615-1868) A very finely carved wood netsuke of a fish head, the scales rendered meticulously with raised polished areas against a minutely stippled ground. Note also the finely carved fins. The mouth is opened wide, showing rows of inlaid teeth, and forming the himotoshi, the other opening going through behind one of the gills. The eyes are double inlaid with dark horn and mother-of-pearl behind a convex see-through platelet. Another peculiar addition is the inlaid bone showing from the polished area resembling the flesh of the aquatic animal. LENGTH 5.1 cm Condition: The exterior of one of the eyes is a later replacement. Minuscule loss to three inlaid teeth. Otherwise superb condition. Provenance: Ex-collection Richard R. Silverman purchased from Christie's, London, in 1983. Richard R. Silverman (1932-2019) was a renowned Asian art collector with one of the largest private collections of netsuke outside of Japan. He lived in Tokyo between 1964 and 1979 and began to collect netsuke there in 1968. Since the 1970s, he wrote and lectured about netsuke and was an Asian art consultant for Christie's, Sotheby's, and Bonhams. His gift of 226 ceramic netsuke to the Toledo Museum of Art constitutes perhaps the largest public collection of these miniature clay sculptures in the world. After moving to California, Silverman became a member of the Far Eastern Art Council at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1984. In 1993, he joined LACMA's Executive Board. He served on the board of directors for the International Society of Appraisers from 1986 to 1994 and served nine years as chair for the City of West Hollywood Fine Arts Commission. Richard Silverman was posthumously awarded the Order of the Rising Sun for his decades-long promotion of Japanese culture. Literature comparison: The precise incision work and peculiar treatment of the subject is certainly reminiscent of the Iwashiro line of carvers, particularly Hidari Issan. Note a related example recently illustrated in Bandini, Rosemary (2019), The Larry Caplan Collection of Japanese Netsuke, no. 41.