Antique British Betel Nut Toothpaste Apothecary Jar with Gilded Border carved Walnut it is possible it is

it is possible it is a sea lion

Smaller measures 6 3/4" long x 2 3/8" widest x 7/8" deep

there are no significant chips or cracks

once he'd made the sculpture

but the knowledgable dealer I purchased it from classified it as a card case

Antique British Betel Nut Toothpaste Apothecary Jar with Gilded Border carved Walnut it is possible it isI love these old late 19th c. transfer printed porcelain apothecary jars, most of them made for toothpaste, which, by the 1880s, most pharmacists were making formulating their own recipes for. This one, for Bell's Betel Nut Toothpaste (the betel nuts, also known as areca nuts, presumably imported from Southeast Asia) was produced by Ferris and Co in Bristol, England, "Chemists to the Queen"and is fairly rare in featuring a gilded border. 3 3 8" in