Cute! Cute! Cute!!
I would guess easily 60 years old....just a feeling but it looks like that cheap stuff that came out of Japan about the end of WW II....after the occupation....or perhaps during with a paper label.
Probably going to be close to impossible to trace it unless you stumble across one by accident.
Be careful!! Don't wash it!
Linda C

He looks pre-World War II to me. I think 1930's.

If it is Japanese, it probably would be pre-World War II unless it is much more recent. That is just an opinion based on the enmity between the two countries during and after the war. I would be surprised to see a Chinese character being made in Japan, although that might be more likely than the other way around considering how the Japanese treated the Chinese during the war. Of course, none of this is based on any knowledge of figurines or ceramics-just history.

The Japanese were smart....made what sells.....but it could very well be made in California....in fact probably was!

I also think it is domestically produced and supposed to look like a Chinese man, based on the wardrobe. Pre-1950s.

All I know for certain is that they were sold in the S.S.Kresge 5 & 10 cent stores (origin of K-mart) in the late 50's & early 60's and my Mother and Dad got into a terrible argument because Mom had wasted a whole $.49 on one. Dad got so mad that he literally threw it on the kitchen floor and smashed it...And Mom immediately went out the back door of the kitchen, walked 4 blocks to Kresge's and bought another one and when she got home she sat it on the table and told DAD, when that one leaves here you better be going out with it..

My Mother is now 86yrs old, living alone in a big farm house in Ohio and she still has that silly thing on the Kitchen table, and if anybody asks her what its for she just smiles and walks away like its her little secret.

Oh Lazypup....what a great story/memory. Thank you for sharing.

Lazypup, was it the exact same thing? With the handle in back?

Here is a link that might be useful: back view of Justlinda's piece

Why didn't you state it was a creamer? It really helps to give as much identification as possible when requesting information. IOW size (there is no reference in the picture) and back view if possible. Some reference books are set up for a particular type of collecting, like salt and pepper shakers, planters.

Sorry, I posted two threads because I got confused (lol) with the new picture posting procedures.

It is 5-1/2" tall (to the top of the spout), and approx. 3-1/2" wide.

The onemy Mother has is the same as the one in the photo. It has a handle on the back and is used as a milk/cream pitcher.

I remember seeing them on the shelf at the 5&10. There was another one exactly the same size only it did not have a handle on the back and it was made in two pieces. The red base that you see was a sugar bowl that extended up as high as the hands on the figure and the yellow shirt of the figure extended down over the top of the sugar bowl.

There was also a set of salt & pepper shakers in the exact same design, but they were only about 4" high. One had three holes on the top and the other had a single hole so you could tell salt from pepper.

If you look at the hands in that photo it appears that the red paint on the shirt cuffs has chipped from age. Now I am not saying that the paint won't chip off, but many of them had those same type of worn spots in the store as if that was the original design.

I remember that the salt & peppers were $.15 each or the pair for $.25 and three or four times I saw my Mother pick them up and ask me,,"What do you think your dad would say if I got these?"