A large carved wood and decorated native Indian. It has great character and is a really good size. The exact age of it is difficult to date but it is known that the previous owner bought it from the famous Portobello Road market in London during the late 1950’s. It is very possible that originally this would have been made to stand outside a tobacco shop. The use of the carved Indian as a symbol in front of a tobacco shop began in England the early 1600s when the ships from America began to bring back tobacco. The symbolism of the statues was because the source of the tobacco supply at that time was from Native Americans and this traditional continued in America through to the 20th century.