Fantastic Folk Art Lion with Moveable Legs, Long Tail and Bared Teeth! geometric design Very late 19th or early

Very late 19th or early 20th century

The winder for the music box is on the bottom and works great

and I interpret the image as a woman's face in profile

who travelled to the Canadian Arctic with Icelandic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879-1962)

strangely and evocatively elongated like a late-day shadow

Fantastic Folk Art Lion with Moveable Legs, Long Tail and Bared Teeth! geometric design Very late 19th or earlyThis lion was clearly made by someone special, and maybe for someone special too, and I sure love them for it. The shapes and positioning of the jointed legs make for a luxuriously long lion stride, and then this marvelous mane, done as an additional later and painted with blue and orange dabs, with little cutout ears layered on top of that, attached by nails. Plus great big carved white teeth against blood red lips, and a long stiff rope tail,