It's a cat bead from Ancient Egypt and I knew I had to have it! The seller could provide authentication and details as to its background - that it was part of a lot of small Egyption artifacts sold by a collector through Crafoords auction house. Here is the whole lot - my cat is in the top right corner:
The bead is at least 3000 years old and could even be much older. It's carved from stone and is so tiny. I keep it in a little box as it's too small to display - one sneeze and it would blow away!
