{"product_id":"couchant-griffin-with-a-crown-stone-statue-100cm","title":"Couchant Griffin With a Crown Stone Statue - 100cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA griffin lies couchant with the head and hooked beak of an eagle turned to one side, the eye and the cere cut sharply. Its wings rise from the shoulders and sweep back in tiered rows of feathers ending in a carved scroll, while the body and haunches are those of a lion. One forepaw rests on a crown carved with arches and a top orb. The beast sits on a deep rectangular pedestal whose face carries a sunk diamond of acanthus scrollwork, closed at one end by a large scrolled bracket. The stone is a warm beige with a fine even grain.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eFeathers in Tiers, and a Crown Under the Paw\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eA wing is carved in rows, from the trailing edge forward. The long flight feathers at the back are cut first because they are the deepest and set how far the wing stands off the shoulder; the covert rows in front of them are then stepped over the top, each row overlapping the one behind. Working the other way round would mean reaching past finished feathers with a chisel every time. The scroll at the wing tip is what stops the run of feathers structurally as well as visually - it thickens the most exposed corner of the whole piece. The crown is a separate problem: its arches are pierced, so it is left solid until the paw above it is complete, and only then are the openings cut through.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA griffin holding a crown is a heraldic device rather than a wildlife study, and it reads as one - it is about guarding an entrance and it looks slightly lost in open planting. It comes with its own carved pedestal, so it needs no plinth building: set it on a gate pier, a wall end, a landing or either side of a doorway, where the beaked head can turn out over whoever is arriving. The 100cm is the beast and the pedestal together, which puts the head at about waist height. The beige stone sits comfortably against brick and against gravel, and the scrollwork on the pedestal face wants raking light rather than full sun.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA Heraldic Beast Wants a Threshold\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTen to twelve weeks, and the pedestal is a substantial part of that rather than an afterthought - the sunk diamond and its acanthus are cut with the same tools and the same care as the beast, and the scrolled bracket at the end is the single most time-consuming element on the piece. The order is bottom-up: pedestal squared, its mouldings run, then the beast roughed couchant on top of it. The wings are blocked out early as a solid mass either side of the shoulders and carried through most of the carving that way, because they are the parts most easily knocked; they are separated into feather rows near the end. The crown is pierced last of all. The eagle head, beak and eye are cut after the wings are safe. Nothing on the piece is pinned or joined. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops. Around 584kg complete with its pedestal, craned in one lift and bedded on a prepared pad.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMore mythical beasts sit in \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, and entrance pieces under \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/garden-statues\"\u003egarden statues\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\u003e100cm\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 Stone\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e","brand":"Giant Sculptures","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53832724676955,"sku":"MST-ANI-028","price":15579.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-028_1.jpg?v=1787147752","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/couchant-griffin-with-a-crown-stone-statue-100cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}