Cast Iron Elephant

I picked this up today. I think it's cast iron, but two holes on its feet show a plasterlike white coating on the inside. The holes don't go all the way into the torso. Any idea of age?

 

Life size?

 

Six inches long and four inches tall.

 

Does a magnet stick?

 

No

 

Then definitely not cast iron. If metal - then it's something non-ferrous. From the pics it kind of doesn't look metallic to me.

 

Agree with Aaron, not cast iron if the magnet doesn't stick.
This looks like a silver color metal - like pot metal. The plaster up in the back legs may have been used to fasten the elephant onto something like a book end, lamp or some other item.

Elephants are collectible, especially with the trunk up for good luck.

 

It's painted. Some of the paint has come off, revealing the underlying silver metal.

I'm glad they're collectible. I wasn't sure if I should buy it or not, since I didn't know how old it was. But it seems old, and it was pretty heavy, so I figured if anything it would make a nice decoration on my bookshelf.

 

A wonderful elephant, in spite of the damage to the paint.
It looks like cold painted spelter. Very popular at the beginning of the 20th century, think painted Art Deco bronzes. Spelter was a cheaper alternative to bronze, and often used in the same period.
Your elephant would probably have been on a plinth made of marble or a similar stone.

 

Just to clarify, spelter and pot metal are similar if not the same alloy.

 

I think pot metal is the term for a wider range of alloys, spelter being one (or several) of them.