Vintage brass statue of the Hindu Deity Ganesh on a stand.
Ganesha, also spelled Ganesh, also called Ganapati, elephant-headed Hindu god of beginnings, who is traditionally worshipped before any major enterprise and is the patron of intellectuals, bankers, scribes, and authors. Like a rat and like an elephant, Ganesha is a remover of obstacles.
This statue would have been made using the lost wax technique where the statue is first formed in wax, a mould is created using the wax statue, the wax is melted and poured out and then the cavity filled with molten bronze.