YUSO: A FINE LACQUERED WOOD NETSUKE OF A KABUTO By Yuso, signed Yuso 遊藻 Japan, Edo (Tokyo), 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868) Finely carved and lacquered in gold, red, black, and green in the form of a kabuto with a single plume. With a single himotoshi to the interior. The underside signed YUSO within an oblong reserve. LENGTH 3.4 cm Condition: Very good condition, some wear to lacquer, occasional light scratches. Provenance: Ex-collection Richard R. Silverman, purchased 1974 from Asahi in Tokyo. 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. Literature comparison: Compare a near-identical netsuke, signed Yuso, at Sotheby's, The Raymond and Frances Bushell Collection of Inro and Lacquer, 18 June 1997, London, lot 86 (part lot, together with a single case inro or tabako-ire by Jusensai Nobusada). Compare also a closely related netsuke illustrated (in color) in Jonas, F. M. (1960) Netsuke, pl. VIII, no. 14.