A Wood Study of a Fledgling, early 19th century

The small bird hatching from a clam shell, its head breaking through a jagged hole in the shell and one wing lying flat over the top, the slightly worn wood bears a good patina and the eyes are inlaid, inscribed Minko with kakihan

The signature, although well engraved, is unconvincing and the work shows affinities with that of Toyomasa of Tamba. For similar examples by Toyomasa, see Ueda Reikichi, Netsuke no Kenkyu, fig. 57 and Shumi no Netsuke, fig. 28, reproduced in the Meinertzhagen Card Index, vol. 2, p. 951. Another is illustrated in The Raymond and Frances Bushell Collection of Netsuke, a Legacy at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art,  p.277, no. 392