Small figurine

[newnan man]

This is a little figurine that was collected by my mother-in-law. She travelled a lot with her husband who was a pilot for Pan Am. We know nothing about it as it was in a ton of things left to the family when she passed years ago. It's been on a shelf for years and I have been meaning to post it as I know some of you here are very knowledgeable about these types of items.
I have no idea if it is old or a souvenir from south of the border. It has some writing but I can't decipher it.(That pic is upside down!) We're not sure if it is even from the Americas. Any help is appreciated. It's staying on the shelf no matter what.

 

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[joshuaream]

Google Chancay Dog

The Chancay were a group in Peru that made a lot of figurines like that with that type of color pattern. They also had a breed of hairless dog, the Peruvian Hairless, that commonly has splotchy skin. (It could be a llama, or some other four legged animal, they were pretty quick with their little figurines.)

And Pan Am flew there.

 

[Out Of Time]

Wild guess is it's from India.

I have seen little clay animal figures from there that are quite similar.

The inscription is hard to see and decipher. Looks like the first character is some kind of symbol. The rest may be writing (perhaps Hindi or Urdu?).

It's a sweet little thing and probably a cheap souvenir.

 

[Out Of Time]

Obviously I hadn't seen joshuaream's reply.

Forget I said anything.

 

[arrow86]

Any way to get better pic of the writing ? Maybe a etching ?

 

[joshuaream]

Any way to get better pic of the writing ? Maybe a etching ?

That is a good suggestion.

It looks like it's carved into the material from the pictures. Sometimes you can get a bit more contrast if you take a wet finger and lightly pass it over the etching, the high spots will get wet and darken a bit, while the engraving will stay dry and the same color.

 

[joshuaream]

Out of Time, India isn't a bad suggestion. The Harappan Civilization (one of the Indus Valley groups) made a lot of pottery animals. I've seen a lot more of the bull/ox with big horns, but I'm sure they less manly animals as well.

The English in the Victorian Era, as well as Americans that followed the trends, loved collecting small, odd exotic curios from far flung places in the empire. It's not uncommon to find cool old things from India, Hong Kong, the colonies in Africa, Australia, and the Middle East mixed into normal knickknacks that have made it through family collections.

Wild guess is it's from India.

I have seen little clay animal figures from there that are quite similar.

The inscription is hard to see and decipher. Looks like the first character is some kind of symbol. The rest may be writing (perhaps Hindi or Urdu?).

It's a sweet little thing and probably a cheap souvenir.

 

[newnan man]

Thanks for the replies and I will this evening try to do a close up of the writing. Some of the things she brought back are amazing. She left us ivory carvings from Japan that were so detailed, supposedly from the 18th century. We gave them to a relative as we felt bad karma from them being made from elephants. Art from France, etc. She was a professor of Humanities and very eclectic. We have just been curious as to where it may have been from. Thanks again.

 

[sandchip]

I know nothing other than it's a cute lil' critter.

 

[newnan man]

Here is the writing and it is inscribed into the surface. A friend I haven't seen in years was telling me today his neice found a 6" spear point on their get-away property near Ft. White, Fl. He's going to try and get it to show me. I'll take pics if he does. The pic is upside down! I've tried to correct it, no luck.