Who signed me? Little ivory Okebono fisherman

Cute little dude with his fishing nets. The statuette stands all of 4 inches high. Got him for 25 cents at a rummage sale. The ban had already come down, so legally I can't resell him, but for a quarter there wasn't much to miss. The only thing I need to know is whodunnit.

 

that's a nice carving..

 

First character is 秀 I can't work out the 2nd, possibly it is some form of personal monogram, it is very scrawled.

 

Okimono is the word, though I'm not 100% sure that it applies. I have an old auction catalog that has ivory okimonos, but also has another section of ivory carvings (like this) that are just called ivory carvings. Don't know what differentiates the two.

That does look nice (and if I were selling it, I'd call it an okimono).

 

I was going off memory, such as mine is. I actually got two of the little ivory carvings at the same sale (sometimes it happens!) and used one as a Christmas gift. They said we can't sell it; no one stops us from giving it away.

 

Oh my, he's very nice! Rummage sale, 25cents, you lucky duck!!!!

 

A gentleman in the church died and left them everything. They have/had annual rummage sales and some of his collectibles went cheap. I got a friend a Civil War battlefield souvenir walking stick for $2. Showed it here when it happened. That's one reason I still love rummage sales; any old thing might pop out!