Brass Squirrel ELECTRICAL? TOY?

Humm, agreed, but I'm not sure I'd go as far as to say 'nothing'. Recall that I am only suggesting this is a smaller piece of a larger unit - similar to the finial suggested earlier, and could be part of such a form. For example: I do an online search for 'art nouveau lamps' and immediately turn up a Tiffany with a tree form, another lamp with a crane form, even one with a frog on it ... So I'd personally believe a squirrel isn't that far a reach. But my intent was to try and fix a date to start looking by genera, not to suggest it was specifically 'art nouveau' in form/function. I find that society tends to follow trends so if, for example, there is a big interest in space (i.e. sputnik era) then the furniture, toys, barometers, etc. tend to all follow that form. The art nouveau period, as I understand it, was centered in the late 1800's early 1900's and was based mainly on "sinuous organic forms", primarily plant formats. I note that while most are trees (and girls), many also incorporated other animal life - especially if they were associated with the plant form being depicted. This is why I believe I often see birds etc. incorporated with them. So I would expect most other items of that time to be along the same, let's call it "nature" then, theme. Personally, I'd lean toward this object being more likely for something like a toy than something like a lamp. I say this simply because I'd build it with the peg part on the squirrel and thereby hide the wires in the base, but I can believe it going either way. Nobody is necessarily suggesting it had to come off a high end product line after all. It will be interesting to see what turns up! Many thanks for your observation though, it is quite valid and it helps me clarify here what I was thinking. Sometimes I forget people can't see my thoughts, just human I guess! 250chief