{"product_id":"gate-drum-stone-with-an-elephant-marble-120cm","title":"Gate Drum Stone With an Elephant Marble - 120cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA gate drum stone rises from a scrolled base, a small caparisoned elephant standing on its top. The drum is carved in relief on both faces with peonies, foliage and a long-tailed bird among the branches, and its base rolls forward into a volute at the foot. Even the finial elephant is caparisoned, its saddle-cloth and headpiece cut in miniature. The whole sits on a stepped plinth banded with scrolling friezes and a cloud-scroll apron. White marble, faint grey veining crossing the drum face and the plinth courses. One drum stone is what is priced; they are made to face in pairs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eTurning a Drum True on Both Faces\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eA drum stone is a disc, and a disc that is not truly circular announces itself from across a courtyard - the eye is far better at spotting an out-of-round circle than an out-of-square rectangle. So the drum is brought to shape before any ornament exists: scribed from a centre point, worked back to the line on both faces, and checked by rotating a template against the rim rather than by measuring across it, because a shape can measure right across several diameters and still not be round. Only when it holds true is the relief laid out on it, and the two faces are set out separately - they are different pictures, not one repeated.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a gateway fitting rather than a sculpture in the round, and it is composed for the job: a drum stone stands at the foot of a gate jamb, one either side, where it braces the post and stops a cart wheel. That is where it looks right - flanking an opening in a wall, a courtyard entrance, a pair of gate piers, the head of a drive. Standing alone in a garden it reads as a fragment of something missing. At 120cm the drum face sits at waist to chest height, where its relief can be read. The relief is cut for that height and rewards being walked past rather than viewed from a distance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eAn Architectural Piece, Not a Statue\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwelve to fourteen weeks. Turning the drum true on both faces opens the work, before either relief field is laid out upon it. The scrolled base and its volute are cut from the same block as the drum, and the stepped plinth separately with its friezes and cloud-scroll apron. The two relief fields are then laid out on the drum faces and sunk, each set out on its own. The small elephant finial is carved last of the drum work, caparison and all, at a scale where the cloth is a few millimetres deep. Plinth and drum are bedded dry. Drum, scrolled base and plinth are free of pins and fillers, each bedded dry. Near 1,008kg for the one drum stone, gantry-set and bedded onto a prepared pad. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eArchitectural stonework sits apart from \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, and gateway pieces belong to \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\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":53836584812891,"sku":"MST-ANI-095","price":15296.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-095_1.jpg?v=1787590636","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/gate-drum-stone-with-an-elephant-marble-120cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}