Tiny Stoneware Sgraffito Flask.

Another piece I've had since God was a boy, and I absolutely love it. It is incredibly tactile and fits snugly in the palm of my hand. The two lugs are for threading a length of cord or ribbon so it can be hung around the neck or off a belt. It is, in my opinion, a beautiful little object.

I've long pondered both its use and place of origin. I feel that it is either Japanese or Japanese-influenced, and that it was intended as either a snuff flask or a container for scented oils or similar. Being of a flattened shape, whatever was intended to go in had to be either liquid or finely powdered, and not much of it at all.

On the rear is what appears to be an incised mark which looks to me somewhat like a wolf's head face-on.