Russell modeled these informal little sculptures primarily for his own amusement and that of his friends. One old cowboy remembered a period when the young Russell kept a studio in back of a large beer hall in Great Falls, and would sit at the tables and model small figures of animals. He recalled one group in particular, “an old sow and several suckling pigs,” and the work on display here fits that description. The sow and her piglets are modeled in a dark colored wax and affixed to a rough block of wood that has been crudely shaped by a whittling knife. “Speaking of the little images he carved out of wax,” the cowboy wrote in a letter of reminiscence many years later, “when he [Russell] got up from the table he would leave the little figure there and there would be a scramble to see who would get it first.” A number of these small, casually modeled figures of animals survive; some are less than one or two inches in height. Russell was famous in many circles for his ability to model some of these behind his back or in his pocket, without looking, and bring forth the finished piece to everyone’s amazement.