Amazing Japanese Mingei Folded Paper Snake with Glass Bead Eyes summer and solid black but for

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

On the bottom of the backside

Thus reads the caption on the front of this late 19th/early 20th century hand-drawn British postcard

I do believe old stone (marble) fruit

hand-carved

Amazing Japanese Mingei Folded Paper Snake with Glass Bead Eyes summer and solid black but forWhat 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