This little guy is not perfect, but he's so charming he certainly warrants a place in your collection. The rather rare large carved fox has glass eyes, wonderful anatomical detail but for his snout, which has been lost and remade as a reconstruction at some point in history. It's not that difficult to either carve a replacement or mold one from wood filler, mount it over a screw you've driven into his head with screw head acting as a support and anchor for the newly molded snout. This is, from the look of it, what someone has already done, but they were not very adept in their sculpting. A little long and pointy and lacks definition. Had I time for it, I'd love to restore him a little better. But, alas, I'm trying hard to work through crates and crates of unlisted antiques and that's where my time is allotted. So, you get him at a fraction of his true worth. Very good condition for age and type. As noted above. Normally a largish carved fox figure like this would be about double our price. Sure, he's cute as can be just as he is, too, but his body is nicer than his snout restoration. That said, at one time there was also a hinged lid on that open stump, and the inkwell would have been a recessed glass pot. The lovely old Victorian glass inkwell that rests into the open tree trunk now is lovely, and is capped with a carved wood lid with acorns.
All in all, as mentioned, not perfect but absolutely rare enough to find a place on your desk, shelf, in your collection of these hand carved animals from the Swiss artisans of the Black Forest region. We'd date this little guy at c.1880, give or take 10 years. Measurements are noted on the photos, but he is 7" tall overall, with a sturdy base of 6" x 4.25" oval. All carved from one slab. Tiny nips to his ears and an age crack which one can see on the base, in front of the fern.
