Curious lead figure

Any thoughts on this little figure please?. Wonder if anyone recognised what it may have come off?
As usual arrived in a box of scrap!. Around 2 inches tall including the rod. Worn and battered but clearly looks like a bust, head and shoulders.
Thanks

 

A doorknob? Small though. Maybe more for a very fancy piece of furniture that had a latch or lock that it turned?

 

It's kind of awfully close to see.....I think I see the profile of a person....with a rod sticking out of its head.....? AND now on re-reading your post, @KSW, I see that's what you're saying that's what it is...……….

 

Is it attracted to a magnet?

 

Would have to be a really teeny lamp. It's designed to sit upright when not in use. I don't recognize the figure, but it reminds me for all the world of the busts of famous composers people used to like to put on their pianos. For a piano or music cabinet lock?

 

Yes, it does look like a scaled down version of these. Maybe there were several of them holding something up?.
Probably never know but that's given me an insight as to how it was used.

 

It's no clearer from further away even with it in my hand. It takes a leap of faith to see its a bust at all!

 

I easily see it as a bust on a socle, particularly in the side view, if you take the 'doorknob' off the top:

 

Thought of this, shutters stop, shepherdess head:
https://images.app.goo.gl/eVVKBbprXdWMrT4F6

 

Good thought. I've not seen those before.

 

Yes, The rod is strongly magnetic although the figure may not be.

 

Typically French!