A large boxwood netsuke of the hunter, the dove and the bee


By Jack Coutu (1924-2017), English, carved in October 1996Standing leaning to one side and holding the struggling bird as the large insect alights on his cheek, the wood stained and the eyes inlaid with dark horn, signed on a silver tablet JC.
11.6cm (4 5/8in) high. (2).
|Sold together with Jack Coutu's reference card (no.265), on which he explains that the subject is taken from the fable by Aesop: 'The story is of a bee who flew too close to a river to drink and fell in. The dove threw a twig to which the bee clung and was saved. Later, a hunter trapped the dove, whereupon the bee came down and stung him on the cheek, and he released the dove. The carving is rather heavy when compared with the sketches (on the card).'