How do you keep coming up with this stuff????
Could they be paper mache?....not that that helps me to know what they are.....

Something about them suggests to me that they might be holiday decorations of some sort...

Hope we find out ;-)

Hey y'all :) They're more substantial than paper mache but do feel more like plaster than ceramic. They've never been used, I sense, because the little loops would have had to have been turned out. It's a puzzlement.

I think they're miniature masks from Chinese opera characters.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cantonese Opera

I think you're right! How silly of me to jump to Japanese. Thank you so much! I'll go do more research on them now. MUCH appreciated :)