Some sort of clay animal figure

[Ivybridge]

Found this at a thrift store awhile back... any ideas on what it could be is much appreciated.

Stands just over 3 1/2" tall. It seems to be made of a type of clay and is hollow with 2 holes in the belly and a slit in the top of the head and a bigger slit in the back.

Thanks!
Angel

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[DCMatt]

Put your fingers on the holes and blow into the top of the head. It is an ocarina (flute). Is it a squirrel?

DCMatt

 

[Ivybridge]

Wow thank you very much! I never would of figured that out and it sounds great! Might be a squirrel... any idea on where it could of come from?

 

[Subterranean]

Based on the face, ears, and tail, I say it may be a cat, and yes, a possible flute. Looks Mexican. Cool find! Sub

 

[Ivybridge]

Thinking it may be a monkey instead of a squirrel because of the way it's sitting.

 

[Minrelica]

DCMatt is your best friend for "what is it's"

Nice piece... Looks like a CatMonkey

 

[nsdq]

neat looking for sure

 

[nhbenz]

From what I could find the style of your ocarina seemed most influenced by Mayan examples I could find, although being likely quite a bit newer, it is varied from those too. From their location I found that perhaps the critter is a cacomistle?; Cacomistle photo - Bassariscus sumichrasti - G137476 - ARKive
Funny thing about a lot of the ancient ones I came across is that animal descriptions often include "likely meant to portray a..." (In other words, the experts didn't know what the animal is)

 

[Ivybridge]

Thank you for the information... interesting little critter that is too!
Any idea on how to determine what the age of it may be?