Two boxwood netsuke of a leaping frog and a fish


By Jack Coutu (1924-2017), English, the first carved in August 1993, the second carved May 1980The first a frog with outstretched legs, its arms folding over its chest forming the himotoshi, the eyes inlaid in horn, signed on a silver tablet JC, 11.3cm (4 3/8in) long; the second a fish of stained boxwood, its mouth open to reveal a set of sharp teeth, one eye left open to form the himotoshi with the gill, the other eye inlaid in ivory, mother-of-pearl, and tortoiseshell, the teeth of stag-antler added at a later date, signed on a silver tablet JC, 7.5cm (2 7/8in) long. (4).
|Sold together with Jack Coutu's reference cards, the first (no.231) stating: 'I enjoy the form of a sashi netsuke. This particular frog should have had his hands down when in the leaping position, but "Artistic Licence" enabled me to put them up to make a suitable sashi form and at the same time provided a himotoshi as well. It should take a nice patina with time! It is not as all over brown as the bad colour print makes it.'The second (no.79) stating: 'This "elderly" fish was found on a beach at Mousehole in Cornwall. He lacks one eye which made a suitable himotoshi!, and smelt strong enough to ensure that my sketch of him (on the card) was as brief as was necessary to obtain enough information for a carving. The stain is rubbed away on his lower body to give a slight colour change. He received a new set of deerhorn dentures in December 1990 in time for Christmas.' The card erroneously states at the top that the dentures are made of ivory.