An Egyptian Limestone Figure of a Frog, Roman/Early Coptic Period, circa 2nd/6th Century A.D.

seated on a fragmentary rectangular base and looking up with mouth agape and tongue protruding, with small indented nostrils, prominent circular eyes with lozenge-shaped pupils, long dorsal ridge, and cape-like scale pattern carved on the back, a small circular limestone plug, including the tongue, inserted in the mouth, a larger circular plug underneath the base.

Alexander Iolas, New York
Jeanne and Fritz Bultman, New York, acquired from the above in the early 1950s
thence by descent to the present owner

Losses as shown to the left proper foreleg, right foot, left ankle, and upper right leg; edge of base fragmentary, surface wear in areas, old chips on the mouth and right eye, minor old chips and abrasions overall. There is a repair across part of the hindquarters.
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This sculpture may have served as  garden ornament, a usage suggested in part by the plugged apertures in the mouth and under the base, which point to its possible function as a fountain device, the mouth serving as a water spout. Such ornaments were popular in Pompeii for example, and the Egyptians often decorated pools with animal sculptures.  

See W.F.Jashemski and F.G. Meyer, eds. The Natural History of Pompeii, p.327 ff., and fig. 275. Also compare National Archeological Museum, Naples, inv. no. 121323.