$14,000
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Description
18 1/2" (47 cm.) Pair, Wakagime-Himegime (Imperial Prince and Princess) gosho-ningyo (palace dolls), each with carved wood bodies covered overall in a fine white gofun, painted features, silk fiber hair done in imperial style, he with a chasenmage tea whisk style and she with a chigowa butterfly style. Elegantly attired, he is wearing a broad-shouldered stencil-dyed bast fiber kamishimo jacket and trousers bearing the katabami (wood sorrel) crest, over a black silk kimono; she is wearing a fine figured silk uchigake outer kimono with matching gold embroidered katabami crest, over a white figured silk inner kimono secured by a broad green silk obi with fan, and silk brocade pouch. Minor wear and fading to kimono, overall fine condition. Edo Period, early 19th century. Exhibited Japan Society (1995), Mingei International Museum (2005). Published in Ningyo: The Art of The Human Figure, page 86. and Ningyo: The Art of the Japanese Doll, page 19. The pair were initially collected in Japan in the early 1950s through the curator of the Imperial Museum, Nishizawa Tekiho (1889-1965), by Colonel Robert and Eloise Thomas and part of their Yesteryear's Museum in Sandwich, MA.