Featured Small bone or Ivory and tortoise shell carved thing?

I hope someone can tell me what it is.
It is 6" long, either bone or ivory and the dark end piece I think is Tortoise shell? A totem style carving on one side with four figures.
Some look like birds?
I figured it was interesting enough to fork out $2.00 for it.
Mikey

 

Too short for a conductor's baton, so...?

 

Can’t it maybe be a hair pin? Hair stick? Or part of a hair cover ‘clip’

 

I agree with Boland. Looks like a very pretty hair pin.

 

Maybe a fishing net awl?

 

A little birdie just told me it is Alaskan carved totem calligraphy pen missing the nib.
Mikey

 

Yes, made to hold a steel nib-


I have a similar one, made of walrus tusk ivory. The dark part is, I believe, made of baleen.

 

So most likely Ivory and baleen. Does baleen give that reddish color like tortoise shell? Dark and translucent.
Mikey

 

Only if those whales didn't brush their teeth.

 

Good to see you and your sence of humor @Any Jewelry

 

Always good to see you too, Mikey.

 

Bulldog beat me to it. I have plain wooden ones. Nothing fancy like yours.

 

Hard to be 100% sure based on photos, but that seems most likely. I believe these were made as souvenirs in Alaska, so these are the materials most available and traditional. Baleen is made of keratin, like tortoiseshell, so they are similar in appearance and properties.

 

Logical. I've used dip pens before, but with no ink stains I bet this was just a desk ornament.

 

Is this no chopstick? Panda bear below with those dark circles around his eyes?

 

No panda; Northwest Coast (Alaska) native designs. The red color would be an added pigment. A pen certainly.

 

Ok. Clear.
Then i follow hairpin.
And i was thinking it perhaps could be a cloth closer pin. Also an ancient usage of such pins from stoneage and up. Could be reasonable to close a fur skin cape in Alaska.

PS, beautifull object!

A bone example...

 

Just to clarify, this is a pen, a dip pen, as others have mentioned, made of ivory and baleen; if it was in hand, you'd see at the thick end where the nib would fit in. Not an uncommon item, but hard to find in an internet search unless you know exactly what to search for - like "carved ivory dip pen totem design" perhaps.
Here's a similar one, from Flickr, captioned as a dip pen:

 

Sorry. Must have overread that.