A JAPANESE WOOD NETSUKE OF A TOAD EDO PERIOD, 18TH CENTURY The large amphibian depicted crouching with its head slightly raised, its bulging eyes inlaid with metal studs, the warts and bumps on the skin realistically rendered and the surface with a deep dark-brown patina, signed Shigetada, 4.1cm. Provenance: an English private collection, Somerset, purchased in Japan. Cf. F Meinertzhagen, The Meinertzhagen Card Index on Netsuke in the Archives of the British Museum, Part B, p.734 for other examples of toad netsuke signed Shigetada (which the author reads as 'Yoshitada').