Lacquer Box with Fantastical Creature Handmade in Kashmir, India art pottery vase or European Art Pottery

or European Art Pottery

with glazes --one a painterly brown and dark indigo

but stays on the bottle fine

It was purchased from the estate sale of a multi-generational family of artists near Boston

sometimes artistic weavings can feel a bit too 1970s and/or recent hipster to me

Lacquer Box with Fantastical Creature Handmade in Kashmir, India art pottery vase or European Art PotteryWho is this marvelous fantastical beast that lives on the top of this vintage lacquer box? He looks a bit like a dog with antlers and a head dress, but his face seems positively human, and he has what looks rather like a tiny hand and wrist for a nose! Whatever he is, he's about the best creature I've seen, and is set off perfectly against a bold yellow ground, with additional colorful abstract forms, again rather mysterious, on all sides of the box.