A finely carved late 19th century (circa 1900) Black Forest carved linden wood humidor or tobacco box in the form of a seated brown bear, with a brass mixing bowl at his feet.The bear is seated, his arms outstretched with a a cheroot or cigarette holder in his right paw (possibly not original), his left paw probably originally holding a box of matches. He has a brass bowl resting on his legs either for mixing tobacco, holding matches or as an ashtray, his head lifts and opens up for storage. The items produced in Brienz were mainly connected to animals or hunting, the smoking related items particularly produced for the masculine market with smoking and hunting mainly being male pursuits at the time.The small village of Brienz in The Swiss Alps is renowned for superbly and finely carved linden wood figures of farm and domestic animals that integrated into Swiss life as well as many other types of carvings. The carvings from the Brienz region were known for being superbly naturalistic and realistic with wonderful depiction of fur, feathers etc. and from being carved from one piece of wood, often from lime or linden wood. These figures are finely carved with superb detail of their fur, faces, legs and tails etc. and this being typical of Black Forest carved figures.Although this item was originally made as a humidor it can of course be used for a number of other uses nowadays and also is just a very gorgeous carved brown bear!Various examples of Black Forest humidors can be found in the book �Black Forest Woodcarvings� by Peter F. Blackman.This figure is in very good condition for age, is of stable construction and can go straight into a home.Size: Height: 10'''' / 25cmWidth: 7.75'''' / 19cmDepth: 6'''' / 15cm******************************************LVS Decorative Arts is a small family run business based in Suffolk, specialising in an eclectic mix of fine quality and decorative antiques from around the world...