Mar 10, 2011 - Sale 2239

Sale 2239 - Lot 174

Price Realized: $ 780
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
TWO RARE "KOBE TOYS" (BLACK MEMORABILIA.) A Pair of "Kobe Toys." Two handmade wooden boxes, 2x2-1/2x4 and 2-1/2x2-1/2 inches, containing exaggeratedly stereotyped black figures, animated by small dials on the sides; one whose arm comes up to his mouth with a piece of watermelon; the other a complicated pair of characters, one inside the box, with a head made from an acorn; and the other on the side of the box who sticks his tongue out when a knob is turned; both pieces need some restoration. Kobe, Japan, Late 19th - 20th century
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Additional Details

A pair of rare Japanese, hand-made wooden Kobe toys or "ningyo." These were made specifically for the American sailors who stopped at the port during the more Western friendly Meiji period of 1870 to 1920. They are ingeniously constructed, having a series of wooden gears and pulleys inside a small wooden box which animate a figure (or figures), which almost without exception are Negroid.