This curious beast is most likely German from the turn of the 19th century. Animals like this were made from a composite of sawdust and glue, pressed into a mold over a wire armature. These figures were a cheap alternative to porcelain at the time but due to their fragile nature have become quite rare and collectable today.
Composite was also used to make dolls and toy soldiers. Developed on a large scale in the 1800's, different manufacturers used secret mixtures ranging from papier mache, sawdust, eggshells, flour, ground bones, breadcrumbs, dirt, plaster and rags with varying results. Dolls were mass produced using composite materials until the 1940s when the development of plastics eclipsed this material.
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