Featured Ivory Boxer on Pedestal - Why?

A recent acquisition that I found impossible to resist. But I have no clue as to why he might have been created. Has anyone seen anything similar? About 5" high.

 

Looks like Joe Louis.

Debora

 

And, apparently, there are Joe Lewis sculptures.

Debora

 

Similar stance.

Debora

 

In hand, the features do not look African American. But an interesting suggestion.

 

Wonder if it wasn't originally the head of a walking stick, now salvaged as art.

 

Another interesting suggestion! Trying him out in my hand, he seems a little too small, and uncomfortably lumpy. But possibly for a swagger stick.

 

Amazing find 2Man,fine folk art.

 

Maybe a chess boxer?

 

At 5", a pretty big chess set - but not impossible.

 

Looks like he's popping out of an old-school telephone earpiece.

 

There certainly is a resemblance. But I don't know what the bell end of a phone earpiece looks like, to see if one could have been modified as a stand. There does appear to be a filled hole in the center of the stand, that could have been where a wire went through. The stand, as it is, is 3 1/8" high. The material is uncertain - not obviously wood, perhaps something like bakelite, with a black lacquer coating.

If it is a phone piece, it might argue more for a folk art piece.

 

And it's Bill Goldberg? LOL!

 

That's probably too short to be a phone piece... just resembles one.

 

Yeah. A quick internet search and ear pieces appear to have been 5 1/2" tall.

Debora

 

It certainly seems like folk art, I wonder whether the artist got lazy before finishing the bottom half? or it broke off and was replaced with something someone thought would be sightly enough...

OP, I know you say the features don't look African American to you, but this strikes me as somewhat of a smoking gun...being modeled after Joe Louis would also fit with the likely age of the piece if it's an ivory carved figurine - early 20th century?

And I still think chess piece is a good guess even if it would be a quite large one.

Perhaps it was conceived to be kind of a bust style statue, but due to the necessity of including the arms - showing a boxer - it resulted in the somewhat awkward half-man half-pedestal centaur being.

 

So weird! The face looks glued on to me, like something happened to the original face and a new face was substituted. My guess is that the original figure was broken and this repair (adding a base) was the best they could do. Since I hate boxing, I could easily have walked past this guy and left him alone.

 

Intriguing piece, and very well carved.

Even on the photos I can see a European nose and a square jawline, whereas Joe Louis had a much more oval face.

The stance is one of those boxer stances, could be anyone.

 

Could be a well-done prison,POW,folk art piece-w/o any clues...?

 

It would have had to have been a professional ivory carver who ended up a prisoner or POW, this is excellent quality.