![[PRIVATE ENGLISH COLLECTION, SOMERSET] JAPANESE BRONZE OKIMONO GROUP OF THREE TURTLES](https://media.app.artisio.co/media/104cbde6-0d38-43cb-9e0f-bb721ef57bcf/inventory/84987c76-63b9-4c3e-bcb9-5845e846b911/e3237599-be79-430e-bbd7-38042a6af41d/0001_nnHZAT_original.jpg)
[PRIVATE ENGLISH COLLECTION, SOMERSET] JAPANESE BRONZE OKIMONO GROUP OF THREE TURTLES
BY RYUKI (NOGAMI TATSUOKI, 1865-1932), MEIJI TO TAISHO PERIOD
Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000
Auction: 16 May 2025 from 09:00 BST
Description
明治至大正 野上龍起 銅鑄三龜置物
naturalistically cast with finely wrought details, showing small turtles attempting to climb on the back of the adult turtle, the smallest turtle already poised on the adult’s back, signed on the base ‘Nogami Ryuki’ within a square seal
Dimensions
23cm wide; 1724g
Provenance
Private English collection, Somerset
Footnote
The artist Nogami Ryuki graduated from the Tokyo School of Fine Art, examples of his works (turtles) can be found at his graduate University and also at the Tokyo National Museum (grasshopper and rice plants). He exhibited several bronze works of kame (turtles) at the Paris Great Exhibition in 1900. Ryuki studied bronze casting under Oshima Joun (1858-1940), one of the most notable metal craftsmen of the Meiji era, who was a professor at the Tokyo School of Fine Art.
A closely comparable example of a bronze okimono group of three turtles, also by Nogami Ryuki, Meiji or Taisho era, late 19th/early 20th century, was sold at Bonhams London, 11 May 2017, lot 376; also compare to a bronze okimono of turtles, only two in the group, was sold at Bonhams New York, 16 September 2014, lot 2161.