Featured Nesuke-like item. Thoughts?

Any ideas on this? Google image found one close match (in a white material), a necklace on a California craigslist... maybe can post that link below. But curious what I have and what the material is. Thinking this is more vintage than antique? Maybe ivory or bone? A friend says it looks like her cat when it's attacking.







BIG opening on one side:







Here is the link I found of a very similar piece, but part of a necklace:

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/jwl/d/belmont-18-asian-lion-carved-netsuke/7817812097.html

All thoughts appreciated! Thanks.

 

The eyes sure look Chinese. Those flecks on the back sure make me think bone, but the weird circular lines on the front in pic #1 make me wonder if it's something else...

 

to me, bone , and a newer version of a foo dog with a fruit.....??

 

For me, bone, foo dog, ball.

 

Bone, critter, with a ball. If that's a foo dog it's one with rabies.

 

Thank you for the responses so far.

So do I describe this as Netsuke if selling?

 

Do any of the holes connect to one another - in other words, could you thread a cord through them - or are they all dead ends?

 

ok ok..... A SHISHI WITH BALL..... ( Lion Dog )
maybe a netsuke..... but looks newer Chinese rather than older Japanese..



the holes in the ball, could hold a cord.....

.

 

By the dentition, it must be a vegetarian foo dog. Think it's just meant to sit around, look interesting & collect dust.

 

Foo dogs often have a reticulated ball under one paw. When a pair often the male has a ball under paw and female has a puppy. Could be a netsuke but could just be an okimono. I would use both keywords just to get the right eyes. It’s really cool looking imo but not of the quality it would be in the era they were actually using netsuke for their intended purposes most likely imo.

 

A quick search of foo dog netsuke doesn’t show any using the ball to pass cord through. I didn’t dig deep though.

 

Bone Foo lion ('dog') with brocade ball, indicating that it is a male lion. The brocade ball symbolizes the pearl of wisdom. Female Foo lions have a small cub with them.

It came from a necklace similar to the one you posted. These were popular ca 1980.
So not a netsuke or okimono.

 

Absolutely.

 

Just back. Great questions here! I checked, almost all of the ball holes except one are "dead-ends". The piece does not stand on it's own, so not a display piece. But that got me looking more, and there is a tiny hole in the top that does connect with a tiny hole on the bottom (you can see the bottom hole near it's feet, photo #3) so agreeing that this is a 1980's carved charm-like piece from a necklace similar to the Craigslist one. And the 1980s makes sense based on when former owner would have been traveling, etc.

Thanks, everyone!!