#48

Highly Desirable Late 18th Century Mitsuore-ningyo (Triple-jointed Doll) with Kimono Display Rack
Live Auction

$5,000
sold
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Description
14" (36 cm.) Classic Mitsuore-ningyo (triple-jointed doll) with articulated hip, knee and ankle joints, made of wood and covered overall in a fine gofun with painted details, silk fiber hair arranged in a tall takamage arrangement with hair pin, right hand posed to hold a fan, wearing a purple chirimen silk crepe kimono with lightly embroidered designs of flying crane and pine boughs secured by a gold silk brocade obi tie belt, is posed kneeling on a long silk zabuton cushion. Along with lacquered miniature kimono rack displaying a light blue under kimono with matching design and a figured silk uchikake outer kimono with longevity turtle pattern and supplemental embroidery. Minor craquelure, hair replaced. Edo Period, late 18th century. Exhibited Japan Society (1996). Published Ningyo: Yesteryear's Doll Museum Collection (1983), p. 30-31 and Ningyo: The Art of the Human Figure, p. 69. 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, Massachusetts. The original purpose of the development of articulated dolls was to facilitate the changing of clothing. And "playing with dolls" in the traditional Japanese context consisted of the arrangement and changing of kimono.