Outstanding "Beautiful Lady" (Kyoto-Bijin) in Rare Side-Seated Pose, Circa 1890

Live Auction

13" (33 cm.) seated h. Carved wooden head with rounded shape of face that is unusual for this genre, gofun finish, glass eyes with heavy eyelids, aquiline nose, slightly open mouth with teeth and tongue, feathering of hair around the forehead. Her black silk fiber hair in very ornate fashion is decorated with red silk crepe ribbon, an ornately-coiled bow of fawn-spot silk crepe (which matches her obi) and an elaborate foil hair pin. She is posed in unusual seated manner, her bent knees and legs folding to the side, and has arms and legs sculpted up to her elbows and knees, bare feet peeking from beneath her kimono, and extended arms with expressive fingers. She is wearing a bold purple silk crepe (chirimen) kimono with a repeated pattern of presentation ribbons (noshi) highlighted with couched gold thread, and a fawn spot patterned silk crepe obi with an extended train at the back. She is posed upon her original wooden base. Excellent condition. Meiji era, circa 1890. The beautiful lady with rare side-seated pose and exceptional costume is a portrait doll of a merchant's wife, likely a private commission, and a very rare genre of which few other examples are known to exist. The doll appears in Japanese Dolls, The Fascinating World of Ningyo by Alan Scott Pate, page 124.