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Itinerant bookseller: O.78-1991

An image of Netsuke
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An image of Netsuke
An image of Netsuke
An image of Netsuke
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Titles

Itinerant bookseller

Maker(s)

Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

Netsuke: katabori: Itinerant bookseller. Ivory, carved and stained. An itinerant merchant carrying a heavy pack of books on his back, wearing knee length robes and a wide, rounded hat; a gong is suspended from his waist and he holds a mallet in his right hand. His left hand is raised and the object he was holding is missing. The characters inscribed on the back of the pack read `The 66 provinces of Japan' (the last character is not the correct version of province). Himotoshi formed by the stand on the base of the pack.

Notes

History note: H.S. Reitlinger (d.1950); the Reitlinger Trust, Maidenhead, from which transferred in 1991.

Legal notes

Bequeathed by H.S. Reitlinger, 1950; transferred from the Reitlinger Trust, 1991.

Measurements and weight

Height: 7.6 cm
Width: 2.9 cm

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1950) by Reitlinger, Henry Scipio

Dating

Edo Period (1615-1868)
Circa 1800 - 1868

People, subjects and objects depicted

Materials used in production

Ivory

Techniques used in production

Carving : Ivory, carved and stained
Staining

Identification numbers

Accession number: O.78-1991
Primary reference Number: 22405
Old object number: JAPWA/768

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Monday 29 April 2024

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Itinerant bookseller" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/22405 Accessed: 2025-12-05 09:34:17

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/22405 |title=Itinerant bookseller |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-05 09:34:17|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-22405

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