Featured Clay? animal bird whistle flute figurine no idea of what exactly or where from

Hi, I have seen items similar to this and the descriptions tend to be all over the place. Flute, whistle, ocarina. There are several very similar to this described as toucans but I have found if placed in different positions other animals seem to appear. One way it does look like a bird, but another it looks like some sort of rodent and another, maybe a canine of some sort. Of course that may all be my imagination. Anyway, I would appreciate any help with the what and where of this item. Thanks in advance for any help or ideas or leads.

 

I collect pottery whistles, and have this particular one. It's from Mexico, and I
think it's designed to look like different animals, depending on how you hold it.

And technically, it's an ocarina. Whistles, by definition, have only one note.

Two or more notes, but made like a whistle, it's an ocarina. Ocarinas are a wind instrument, and some will say, a type of flute.

But a flute, as it is commonly thought of, is different from an ocarina. I think the difference is you blow into an ocarina, and across an opening on a flute. Two different instruments, producing different types of sounds.

 

I hate to disagree with @Taupou, but your ocarina may be from a bit farther south in Costa Rica. Similar examples of the multi-animal style, with incised decoration, are attributed to Costa Rica:

https://www.catawiki.com/l/26364273-whistle-1-pottery-nicoya-culture-costa-rica

https://www.etsy.com/listing/586880...how_sold_out_detail=1&ref=nla_listing_details

And here is a blog entry describing an artisan selling his versions outside the National Museum in San Jose, Costa Rica:
https://boingboing.net/2011/07/05/ocarina-takes-the-fo.html

They seem to be based on precolumbian types produced by the Nicoya culture.
https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/costa-rican-ocarina-waterbird-163j-c-ed21a3e829
https://emuseum1.as.miami.edu/objects/11741/ocarina?ctx=9d9e377c-4694-4a7a-ba27-ecfc6cc1fb36&idx=59

As they are popular and easily reproduced, it may not be possible to tell if yours is a modern or precolumbian example.

 

Mine came with a little black and white "Hecho en Mexico" sticker, and was purchased in 1996 at the gift shop in the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, so I am assuming there are copies made elsewhere, as well.

One tends to find them all over, they evidently are popular souvenir items, and most are not signed or identified with the country of origin. I've even seen them for sale at a stand on the Four Corners Monument on the Navajo Reservation, with the claim "it was made by my cousin"!

 

It sounds like the best we can say is - probably from somewhere in mesoamerica.

 

I don't think it is representing a cassowary. Wrong part of the world.

 

Thank you everyone. It is an interesting piece. I am having fun showing it around and watching reactions when people see the different animals. Your knowledge also makes me think I should have done more traveling in my life. Anyway it is always good learning something new. Thanks again.