This is a very old Plaster of Paris console, or some may call it a corbel, which was salvaged from the interior of a building in Cairo Egypt. It dates to circa 1900, maybe a little older, from the era of British rule when the city had a huge influx of Brits and others who brought their arts and artistic preferences with them.

The sculpture was literally caked with what passed as paint, sand and dust, and the only way to remove what was loose and clean it a little was to quickly rinse it under a hot water hose in the bath tub. The water disolved a lot of the "paint" which seemed to be little more than dry colors mixed with a liquid and applied on the walls and ceiling of the room it came from.

The sculpture was certainly made in a mold on the job site, and was tinted thin walled plaster reinforced with burlap, some damage during removal plus a break during shipping required back filling the hollow portion with new plaster and fiberglass strips embedded for reinforcement. While that was done a heavy wire was also embedded in the plaster so as to use it for hanging this on the wall.

I bought this from a Canadian antiques dealer, he had a large supply of several different plaster designs like this, but most were extremely damaged and broken. He was selling them cheap and promoted their use as garden ornaments, unfortunately plaster of paris will simply disolve in the garden from the rain no matter how much "sealer" or whatever is applied on it, it will soon be completely destroyed.

I think destroying antiques in that fashion by knowingly sticking them out in the yard as garden ornaments is criminal, especially given the fact that doing so WILL destroy them.