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Netsuke of Kimi no Eguchi on a recumbent elephant. Signed: Toun. Circa 1850. 33.7 x 30.8 x 22.7 mm. The Courtesan Eguchi no kimi as Fugen, Bodhisattva of Universal Wisdom (Eguchi no kimi mitate Fugen Bosatsu). The imagery satirizes the Buddhist bodhisattva Fugen, whose iconographic mount is an elephant, by replacing the deity with a beautifully coiffed modern courtesan. Such a visual pun (mitate) was an artistic trope, popular in the Edo period. Provenance: Charles Ephrussi (1849-1905) acquired in the 1870s; a wedding gift in 1898 to his cousin Ritter Viktor von Ephrussi (1860-1945) and Baroness Emilie (Emmy) Schey von Koromla (1879-1938); retrieved post-war by their daughter Elizabeth de Waal (1899-1991); given by her to her brother Ignaz (Iggie) Ephrussi (1906-1994), Tokyo; bequeathed by him to his great-nephew Edmund de Waal (born 1964), London, author of "The Hare with Amber Eyes: a hidden inheritance". London / New York: Chatto & Windus / Farrar, Straus & Giroux. ISBN 978-0099539551. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ephrussi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephrussi_family. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_de_Waal. -
The edition consists of two albums:
1) Skizzenbuch: Hundert Federzeichnungen von Heinrich Kley. — München: Albert Langen, [1909]. — pp.: [1-4] 5-63 [64], illustr. Printed by Hesse & Becker in Leipzig. Bound in the original brown moire covered boards, with a paste-down drawing on the front, gilt cover titles, original patterned endpapers.
2) Skizzenbuch II. Hundert Federzeichnungen von Heinrich Kley. — München: Albert Langen, [1910]. — pp.: [1-4] 5-64, illustr. Printed by Hesse & Becker in Leipzig; paper by Bohnenberger & Cie.; binding by E. A. Enders, Leipzig. Bound in the original bluish-gray moire covered boards, with a paste-down drawing on the front, gilt cover titles, original patterned endpapers.
The number of printed copies unknown. Reproduction of ink drawings by Heinrich Kley, 1st edition.
Dimensions of each album: 32 x 24.5 cm; Quarto. Heinrich Kley (April 15, 1863 in Karlsruhe – 1945? in Munich) was a German illustrator, editorial illustrator and painter.
