THRIFT STORE FIND: SMALL BRONZE? DRAGON CAP? PAPER WEIGHT? WITH MARK

I got this from my friend at a local thrift store (same one I got the Emms dog painting I asked about earlier) - I thought it might be some kind of cap, but he thought it was a paper weight; either way he only wanted $20 for it so I bought it!

It's small but seems bigger: 2 1/2" wide x 1 1/2" tall

Any idea what it is/was? Could it be a netsuke?
Anyone know what the mark means/says?
What is it made of?
Age?

Any help would be appreciated!

 

I am pretty sure we have seen one of these before - a metal cast reproduction of an original stone carving. Now let me see if I can find the original post.......

 

@journeymagazine - did you perhaps post this before? Even the photos look familiar to me, but I can't find the previous post.

 

No - just got it today

 

Now this is going to drive me nuts..... I can't remember how it was described before so can't find the thread.
Anybody else remember this?

 

Oh thank God! Thank you @i need help!

 

the similarities are...

really similar.

 

Further cements my opinion from the other thread that it is modern... I would think earliest mid-twentieth century... and probably mass-produced.

 

mass-produced is certainly one explanation ...

 

Looks like the applied patina is even the same or almost so. So, definitely made at the same time.

 

In the interest of cross-referencing - it is the same object, passed from one antiquer to another, as discovered in this later post:
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/3...cific-northwest-animal-god.34850/#post-496153

Also, in my defense, I would like to clarify that the posts between me and @i need help were crossing. I am not quite as dense as the sequence makes me appear.

 

Words I can relate to on a nearly daily basis.

 

Thanks for your understanding. And I should have said "usually not quite as dense"........

 

Thank you! I wish that I could keep up with more of the threads here. But I already spend more time than I should here. Thanks for the cross-reference!