A boar-tusk netsuke with an applied snailBy Seiyodo Tomiharu (1733-1810), Iwami Province, dated 1785-6The short tusk applied with a snail of pale honey-coloured horn emerging from its shell, signed Iji Tenmei gonen ryushu kinoto-mi fuyu rogetsu jugonichi Seiyodo Shi Tomiharu kyonen gojusansai Sekiyo Iwami-gawabe ni oite chokoku mono nari (carved at the age of fifty-two by the Iwami River in Sekiyo by Seiyodo Shi[mizu] Tomiharu in winter, during the last month of the fifth, kinoto-mi, year of Kansei [1785-6]), with a seal Tomiharu and a pot seal. 8.8cm (3¼in).注脚猪牙彫根付　蝸牛　銘 「維時天明五年竜集乙巳冬臘月十五日青陽堂清富春享年五十三歳而於石陽石見河辺彫刻者也」　1785-6年Provenance:Raymond and Frances Bushell Collection.Sold at Christie's, New York, Part IV, 23 April 1991, lot 89.Published:Rokusho 20, p.6, no.3.Earle, Huthart, p.38, no.18.The Iwami River is another and rarely used name for the Eno River.