I have a feeling this was the coral bark maple, Acer Sanko-Kaku – but then it is a quite mature shrub and not more than 4’tall, so that might rule it out. ‘Corralinum’ has the right stem, but the first flush of leaves are shrimp pink… I’ll be looking out my copy of Vertrees ‘Japanese Maples’ for something more definitive. Whatever name I come up with, it’s a beauty.
The pictures above were taken just as the leaves were emerging. The next three were taken yesterday.