Featured Thai Elephant Ceramic or Pottery Vessel What and How Old

I found this at a thrift store and just found it so interesting. The price tag they had on it said it was a teapot but I am certain it isn't that. The material it is made of has a light red appearance...like clay, on the unglazed rim of the bottom. There is a hole in the elephants mouth leading to the interior, not his trunk. I am just not sure of it's age or purpose...any collectors out there that can help? Thanks in advance

 

Very nice, colonelm. It looks like a ca 1970s take on a traditional kendi/gendi, a water vessel. It is a miracle that the trunk is still in one piece.
Thai could be right, but just wondering, how did you come to that conclusion?

@Silver Wolf , have you ever come across a kendi like this?

 

I actually googled "elephant rider vessel" and this one popped up
from here:
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1989.238.41/
and they just looked so similar that I thought the origin must be the same. Mine being more modern of course but it is still so unusual

 

Yes, they are clearly related, and very unusual. I like them both. Maybe Silver Wolf has come across one like yours before, he has been tagged.

 

Thank you

 

One of those things you buy "just because" ! So cool looking .

 

thank you,so this is a thai pottery style base the sawankhalok or sangkhalok pottery of 14-15th century in the northern thailand in sukhothai province,but this one looks a recent or modern reproduction,the old one using the brown clay.i do recognize the elephant style and the rider because i have the original one of sangkhalok pottery.

 

do the elephant nose tip has the hole?i think this kind purpose of vase,the old one has many shape in statue and jar/jarlet form aj

 

mine is similar with this one but maybe smaller and already losing its' glaze color,since it was river found item

https://www.si.edu/object/fsg_S2005.293

 

I’ve hardly ever seen an elephants trunk on the secondary market that’s not broken. At a thrift store it truly is a downright miracle.