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Posted

Hello Everyone,

Has anyone encountered any menuki similar to these? Or know a possible school, or time period? I believe these are depicting Foo dog faces and are made out of shakudo. Not sure if the picture do them justice but they are extremely detailed. 

Thanks,

Eric

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Posted

Thanks Grey,

Here are a few more pictures showing the size. They have slight differences to each other when you see them in person but I agree they were made to be identical. 

Thanks,

Eric

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Posted (edited)

To me these look like tobacco pouch ornaments like Grey said. Both the size and round shape would suggest this is likely.

They may have been repurposed as menuki at a later date.

 

This would suggest to me that these might be Meiji Period works.

 

They are quite well made and there are some fine details there. Condition could be better however...

 

Some examples from the net:

bC5qcGc

 

picture1-3428.jpg

 

dealer_antikdragon_full_1687349122184-8166686649.jpg

 

45478-0-medium.jpg?v=63863289995210

 

Many artisans who made tosogu also dabbled in other ornamental metalwork such as these.

Edited by Jake6500
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Posted

Thank you both for the information. I had not thought about these being tobacco pouch ornaments. They need a very light cleaning they have dirt and grime in all the small details.

Thanks,

Eric

Posted

Menuki pairs did not need to be exactly the same and many had deliberately differences.


A foo dog is a Chinese-English expression, but these do seem to be a kind of Shishi-Shikami cross. 
(Some similarities with this tsuba?)

 

IMG_2307.thumb.jpeg.5f7a4df7623fc3bfa817b693eb670924.jpeg

 

 

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Posted

I do see some similarities with the form of the faces on the tsuba. I called them Foo dogs because I couldn't find another name for them. They do appear to have more of a lion like appearance than foo dog. Thank you for the great feedback and the example tsuba.

Thanks,

Eric

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