Little wooden bear

Hi

I have this little wooden bear about 10cm long. No markers and a damaged foot. I wondered if there was a name for this style of wood carving so I could do a bit more research on him?

Thanks!

 

They are usually called black forest carvings, a generic term for them.

 

Thank you so much, I found him!

 

Looks more like flat plane style than Black Forest.

 

Yeah possibly, I found this old ebay listing, this looks like him but the person selling obviously wasn't sure if he he was black forest as they used a question mark. Thanks!

 

Carved wood bears are also a specialty of the Ainu, of northern Japan, and those are often found misidentified as "Black Forest" carvings on line. (And recently, Mexican copies of Ainu bears have also started appearing.)

So be careful when attempting to identify based solely on using the internet as a reference.

Ainu bears tend to follow a few traditional styles or patterns, while Black Forest carvings have more diversity. This particular carving doesn't really look like the typical Ainu bear in its form, but does in the carving method. The wood itself may help determine where it is from.