Japanese Small Statue Three Frogs 19th Century Netsuke Japan

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3 Frogs; this netsuke was obtained by my consignor's late husband while traveling to Japan in the 1960's. Dimitri Parsons was an artist and his work is hanging in galleries around the world. He traded one of his paintings for this prized 19 C. netsuke. It has the holes for the cord that hung around men's garments. The artist's signature is on the underside of the frog. See photos. From Wikipedia, we find this about Netsuke objects: Netsuke ( ?? ?) are miniature sculptures that were invented in 17th-century Japan to serve a practical function (the two Japanese characters ne+tsuke mean "root" and "to attach"). Traditional Japanese garments—robes called kosode and kimono —had no pockets; however, men who wore them needed a place to store their personal belongings, such as pipes, tobacco, money, seals, or medicines. Their solution was to place such objects in containers (called sagemono ) hung by cords from the robes' sashes ( obi ). The containers may have been pouches or small woven baskets, but the most popular were beautifully crafted boxes ( inro ), which were held shut by ojime , which were sliding beads on cords. Whatever the form of the container, the fastener that secured the cord at the top of the sash was a carved, button-like toggle called a netsuke. Netsuke, like the inro and ojime, evolved over time from being strictly read more

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