HIROMICHI: A FINE LACQUER NETSUKE OF A COURTIER By Hiromichi (Hiromishi), signed Hiromichi 弘道 Japan, 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868) Depicting a nobleman dressed in elaborate attire, lavishly decorated in silver lacquer with gold lacquer panels showing various scrolling, floral, and dragon designs. The lustrously polished face with black lacquered features and hair. The underside with asymmetrical himotoshi and signature HIROMICHI. LENGTH 3.5 cm Condition: Excellent condition with hardly any wear to lacquer. 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. The artist is listed in MCI p. 154 with an unillustrated lacquer manju netsuke with kai-awase design. See also The Wrangham Index of Inro Artists p. 73, where an Inro dated to the 18th century, formerly in the Hart collection, is mentioned.