DOUG MARSDEN: A WOOD NETSUKE OF A MUSHROOM WITH WILDLIFE By contemporary artist Doug Marsden (born 1958), signed with his mark The elaborate Netsuke carved as a mushroom; its cap surmounted by a snail with its feelers extended over it, the tips inlaid in dark horn. The base is covered by finely carved and green-colored grasses growing towards the stem, among the grass, one can find a frog and a dragonfly inlaid with bone and mother of pearl as well as several inlaid dew drops. Moreover, what appears to be a stylized snake emerges from the vegetation and coils around the stem. All eyes are inlaid. The wood beautifully polished. HEIGHT 6.8 cm Condition: Excellent condition. Provenance: Ex-collection Richard R. Silverman. Richard R. Silverman (1932-2019) was a renowned Asian art collector with one of the largest private collections of netsuke outside of Japan. He lived in Tokyo between 1964 and 1979 and began to collect netsuke there in 1968. Since the 1970s, he wrote and lectured about netsuke and was an Asian art consultant for Christie's, Sotheby's, and Bonhams. His gift of 226 ceramic netsuke to the Toledo Museum of Art constitutes perhaps the largest public collection of these miniature clay sculptures in the world. After moving to California, Silverman became a member of the Far Eastern Art Council at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1984. In 1993, he joined LACMA's Executive Board. He served on the board of directors for the International Society of Appraisers from 1986 to 1994 and served nine years as chair for the City of West Hollywood Fine Arts Commission. Richard Silverman was posthumously awarded the Order of the Rising Sun for his decades-long promotion of Japanese culture.