{"product_id":"couchant-camel-with-saddle-cloth-marble-120cm","title":"Couchant Camel with Saddle-Cloth Marble - 120cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA Bactrian camel lies couchant, legs folded, its head raised and turned outward. The two humps stand upright and tufted, a shaggy ruff is cut in separated waved locks down the throat and the tail curls at the near haunch. A saddle-cloth lies between the humps carrying an ornate medallion with a scalloped fringe. A banded girth strap runs round the barrel behind the shoulder. It lies on a thin rectangular slab. White marble neutral throughout, soft grey veining drifting through barrel and slab.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA Strap That Has to Look Tight\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe banded girth running round the barrel behind the shoulder is a harder thing to carve than it looks, and the reason is that a strap has a job. A band cut as a raised ribbon lying on the surface reads as a painted stripe - it sits ON the camel rather than AROUND it. To read as leather pulled tight, the hide either side of it has to swell very slightly over the band and the barrel has to narrow a fraction beneath it, which means the strap cannot be added to a finished flank at all: the compression has to be built into the modelling of the barrel while the barrel is still oversized, and the band itself cut afterwards into a hollow that is already waiting for it. Get that order wrong and no amount of crisp banding will make the strap look fastened.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEverything worth looking at on this camel is on its back: the medallion, the girth banding and the tufted crowns of both humps. At 120cm the raised head reaches the waist and the cloth is read from above. That is unusual and it governs the placing - a couchant animal is normally set where you meet it side-on, but this one wants to be looked down INTO. So a lawn, a gravel bed, a wide terrace, a courtyard floor, the inside of a turning circle; not a raised bed or a plinth, which hides the very thing you are paying for. We make a plain version of this same animal with no cloth at all, which suits a position seen only in profile.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eOrnament That Sits on Top\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSixteen to eighteen weeks. Striking the medallion's rings from one centre precedes any ornament worked into them. With the slab dressed, the beast is blocked out couchant above it - folded legs a single lump, both humps left square. The girth hollow is worked into the barrel while there is still surplus stone to swell either side of it, and only then does the band go in. Head and neck follow, the throat locks undercut late, and the cloth is flattened, its rings trammelled and its boss, beading and fringe cut at the very end. Camel, cloth and slab are one block, with no pin, dowel or filler between them. Only 1,008kg couchant on its slab, gantry-borne and bedded onto a prepared pad. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDesert animals gather in \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, and ornamented carving \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/classic-sculptures\"\u003eclassic sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eSpecification\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ctable class=\"spec_table\"\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHeight\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e120cm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBase\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIncluded\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHand-Carved Natural Marble\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e","brand":"Giant Sculptures","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53841770021211,"sku":"MST-ANI-175","price":15296.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-175_1.jpg?v=1787232293","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/couchant-camel-with-saddle-cloth-marble-120cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}