Netsuke query

[kissakai]

First

光 mitsu

月 gatsu ari tomo

This is the best I can do but may be wrong - Any info helps

 

 

[PietroParis]

I suppose it wants to read Kogetsu 光月. Alas, it looks like a 20-century tourist piece to me, so the reading of the signature is not particularly relevant. It is certainly not the early carver who is listed in Davey's book as using that combination of characters...

P.S. this list of carvers is always very useful when I try to decipher a signature.

[Bugyotsuji]

Sadly, I fear that Pietro is correct on all counts. (Most us us walk this gravelly path in bare feet...)

[kissakai]

Thanks for the feedback

No problem for me as it didn't cost much but I learn a bit more about reading the mei

The list of carvers is a good reference

 

[kissakai]

Hi Pietro

I found the mei listing so useful - thanks

For ease of my use I've put all the names into an excel spreadsheet so it is searchable

It was a big list having almost 3,500 names and just over 850 different kanji

I would have liked to put the search section in count order of kanji but was just too much for me

 

If anyone wants a copy then use the link below

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xexqx5bgiczv5l8/Netsuke mei.xlsx?dl=0

 

If you find it useful then it would be nice to make a small donation to the NMB (your choice)

 

 

Grev

 

[PietroParis]

Hi Grev! I can search the list directly on the webpage, it’s sufficient  to copypaste the kanji in the “find” function of my browser (firefox). This way, as soon as I recognize one kanji in the signature I can quickly browse through all of the names that include it, usually it doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes to find one o more candidates. Then I google around for examples of the carver’s signature to compare. Anyway, I downloaded your excel sheet. It is well organized and I’m sure that lots of people will find it useful.

[kissakai]

I understand what you mean but I'm old school

 

[kissakai]

Is this real ivory? I see it is obviously not bone.

You can clearly see the striations on the first image and I don't want to do a hot pin test as I might return it

Also I have nothing to compare the weight

As I may return I'd appreciation an approximation of the tourist price as it may not be worth returning. Brutal is good in this case

 

 

With thanks

Grev 

[PietroParis]

The striations in the first picture don't look at all like Schreger lines of elephant ivory:

 

 

but I don't know what else they might point to. A useful reference for identifying ivory and ivory-like materials (from which I lifted the picture above) can be downloaded from this link.

 

As to the price, I don't know what to say. I suspect that an experienced nestuke collector would simply not buy it...

 

 

 

[kissakai]

Ideal example - thanks

I read about the Schreger lines so that's help and I will return it