A FINE SILVER AND SHAKUDO MANJU NETSUKE Unsigned Japan, 19th century The two-part cushion-shaped manju of domed and rounded square form, intricately worked with silver and shakudo to create an appealing woven bamboo design. WIDTH 3.5 cm Condition: Excellent condition with minor wear, very slightly dented. Provenance: Ex-collection Richard R. Silverman. 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: A very similar netsuke is in the Linden Museum Stuttgart, inventory number OA 19.367. Auction comparison: Compare a closely related manju netsuke, also of rounded square form and with a similar simulated woven pattern, but in copper and shakudo, at Van Ham, Asiatische Kunst, 7 December 2017, Cologne, lot 2394 (sold for 1,900 EUR excl. buyer's premium).