{"product_id":"elephant-in-brilliant-white-marble-statue-160cm","title":"Elephant in Brilliant White Marble Statue - 160cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn elephant stands with its head turned out and an ingot-shaped object at its trunk tip. The cloth carries a scrollwork border and a central roundel, tasselled pendants at the flank and a scalloped fringe along the ear line. A single character is cut inside the roundel. We have not transcribed it, because a character rendered wrongly is worse than one left unsaid, and we have asked the carvers what it is. The tusks are short and the ears deeply folded. Its pedestal carries lotus-petal lobes at head and foot, and between them a frieze of scrolling foliage. A brilliant white marble, almost wholly unmarked - only the faintest grey drift anywhere in it, and the whitest stone in this range. One elephant alone is what this price covers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eNo Veining to Hide Behind\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn almost unmarked white is the hardest stone to carve well, and the reason is simple: veining distracts. On a clouded or banded marble the eye is busy following the stone and a slightly flat plane or a curve that is fractionally out goes unnoticed. Take the veining away and every surface is read purely as form. So on a stone like this the finishing takes proportionally longer than the carving - each plane is rubbed down through more grades of abrasive, each curve is checked against a template rather than by eye, and the tool marks that a veined stone would swallow have to be worked out completely. It is also the most rewarding, because nothing competes with the carving.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is the whitest stone in the range and it behaves accordingly: against pale render, light gravel or limestone paving it gives up its edges and sinks into whatever is behind. Something dark behind it brings the carving forward again - a yew or beech hedge, brick, deep planting, a shaded doorway. At 160cm the back is chest-high, which brings the carved cloth to a readable height. Set it where the light comes across rather than straight on, because a white stone in flat frontal light gives the eye almost nothing to read.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eBright White Needs Something Dark\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSixteen to eighteen weeks, and an unusual share of that is finishing rather than cutting. Setting out both lotus bands with dividers opens the work, so the lobes meet evenly at every corner. The foliage frieze is sunk between the two bands. With the bed proved true, the elephant rises from its own block: stood upright, legs kept massive, then the body brought to shape and the ears cut deep. Its cloth is let into the back, border and roundel together. The trunk and the object it holds come last. Then the whole surface is rubbed down through successive abrasives, which on this stone is weeks rather than days. Not one pin, dowel or filler goes into either the animal or the pedestal below it. About 2,390kg complete, gantry-lifted in two parts and bedded onto a prepared footing. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBright stone animals fill part of \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, with entrance pieces in \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\u003e160cm\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":53835196891483,"sku":"MST-ANI-081","price":21560.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-081_1.jpg?v=1787590624","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/elephant-in-brilliant-white-marble-statue-160cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}