One other piece of advice that didn't quite make it in to the top ten yesterday was: Stick with what you know, to begin with. These will therefore probably not be the only nestuke that I pick up in the early days. I've been collecting netsuke, mostly cheaper modern ones, for a few years now. While I'm not in the league to buy the really amazing ones, I know roughtly what to look for and also know that one of the really cool things about them, which is that the more bizarre they are, the rarer they are.
So this is a set of three, parted from a fourth who had one of his hands off. First thing to note is that they're not all technically netsuke, only the little vexed chick-in-an-egg is bona fide. The other two are just little sculptures. I'll probably drone on about netsuke and inro at some later point, so in short: netsuke are toggles, dating back to medieval Japan, which were used to fix things to your belt. So all netsuke have two little holes in them, for the string to go through.
From left to right in the picture at the top, we've got a wee chick looking balefully out of its egg, a rat losing his mind and kind of kidnapping a tortoise, and a kindly tiger looking after some sword hilts. The Japanese were bastards for a sword hilt back in the day. Never bothered to look after their own though, always left them in the care of a tiger or a rat.
Anyway, these guys are made from resin and are probably pretty recent. The original ones were carved from ivory or boxwood or similar exotic materials but nowadays the modern ones are just cast for the export market. They don't have any signatures or anything like that, but, they're a pretty rad colour.
These were the biggest purchase cashwise of the day, accounting for almost a third of my overall budget. I managed to get them down from £38 to £28 although there was a tense moment when the bloke was overruled by his wife, having mounted a last stand at £30. I'll sell them individually, so if they each clear ten quid then I'm in pocket. Even so, the profit margin probably won't be amazing for them.
Bought for: £28, down from £38
Hopes: muted
Profit: £
Actual cheddar: ££
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