Amazing Japanese Mingei Folded Paper Snake with Glass Bead Eyes summer folding screens

folding screens

hand-carved

and solid black but for a blue-gray bill and two light gray stripes on the beautifully shaped back

made all the better by the red center stripes that have endured here and there

I do believe old stone (marble) fruit

Amazing Japanese Mingei Folded Paper Snake with Glass Bead Eyes summer folding screensWhat a lot of careful folding went into the creation of this very wonderful paper snake, Japanese (Mingei essentially means 'folk art' in Japanese) and dating to the early 20th century I believe. I've only found one other of these out there, near identical in manner though somewhat larger than this one, sold via 1st Dibs; that one was housed in its original wooden crate, with hand painted paper label, which helped in the dating of this one. It appears