A JAPANESE BOXWOOD NETSUKE OF TWO TOADS MEIJI ERA, 19TH CENTURY One smaller amphibian clambering on the back of the other, the animals realistically carved with large bumps on their skin and their eyes inlaid in black horn, the belly of the larger toad signed Masanao (for Masanao of Yamada, Ise Province), 4.3cm. Provenance: a private Irish collection, Dublin. Cf. B Hurtig, Masterpieces of Netsuke Art: One Thousand Favorites of Leading Collectors, where this netsuke is illustrated and discussed, and the International Netsuke Society Journal, vol. 23, no,4, Winter 2003, p.27, where it is also illustrated.