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I recently bought the silver object shown in the pics below. It appears to be a seated mule with an acorn on its head and a monkey by its side. It is playing some sort of stringed instrument, maybe a lute. I'm not entirely sure what this object could be. My first thought was that it could be a besamim spice box. The little acorn on top of the mule's head doesn't open but there is an opening under the mule that seems to travel all the way into the hollow acorn. The opening would be small, however, because water poured into the opening under the mule just barley trickles out of the acorn. I'm not sure where the marks are from either. They almost look like they could be some heavily worn old Austrian marks but they seem a little different. It measures about 6 inches tall and about 3 inches wide. Any help identifying what this could be and where it is from would be greatly appreciated.

Coud it be a toothpick holder?

Peter.

Agree this is a toothpick holder. They were popular as table-top novelties, and have become collectible, like novelty individual napkin holders
Regards.

Thanks so much. I guess I was thrown off by the fact that the acorn was hollow so I immediately thought that it must be a container of some type. A toothpick holder makes alot more sense. Any ideas on the marks and the age?

I’d say donkey, not mule. Perhaps guitar rather than lute? And why does that coyote looking dog-thing next to him have a head like a duck? There’s got to be some story this is taken from. Could it point to Spain? Or is it from a Germanic fairy tale source?

If I had to hazard a guess (always risky to speculate) I’d say the toothpick holder is a representation of one of the musicians of Bremen, from the beloved fairy-tale. The other musicians also might have been depicted as a set of objects for tabletop decoration.