{"product_id":"indian-elephant-in-beige-sandstone-statue-220cm","title":"Indian Elephant in Pink Sandstone Statue - 220cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eTrunk curled back over its own head, an elephant stands beneath a tasselled headpiece. A beaded collar crosses the throat and the ears lie close to the head. A small saddle-cloth bears a foliate device, and rope-carved rings encircle each ankle. Beneath is a low pedestal with a pierced lattice band above a frieze of rosettes in a running border. Warm pink-buff sandstone, cream where the light catches its raised passages, the grain fine and matte and faintly porous.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA Stone That Crushes Where Marble Chips\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSandstone is worked quite differently from marble, and the reason is what the material is: grains of sand held together by a natural cement, rather than a single crystalline mass. Strike it as hard as you would strike marble and it does not chip cleanly - it crushes, taking a shallow crater of loosened grains with it that no amount of rubbing will restore. So every blow is lighter and there are far more of them, the chisel is kept sharper because a dull edge bruises rather than cuts, and the finish comes from abrasive alone. The reward is that sandstone carries fine detail crisply, which is why the pierced lattice and the rosette frieze are possible at this scale.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSandstone is the most openly weathering material in this range. It will darken, take lichen in its hollows and soften at its sharpest arrises over years outdoors, and all of that is the stone behaving properly rather than deteriorating - it is why old Indian carving looks the way it does. So it belongs outside and unsealed. What it does not want is standing water: an open-grained stone holds it, and held water plus frost is the one combination that does real harm. At 220cm the raised trunk goes well overhead, and the piece is composed for that. Ground that drains suits it best.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA Stone That Weathers Willingly\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwenty-four to twenty-six weeks. Sandstone is cut with lighter blows than marble, its grain crushing rather than chipping under a heavy hand. The pedestal is cut first and its rosette frieze set out with dividers, and the lattice band pierced right through afterwards - the slowest single operation on the piece. The animal is roughed standing above it, legs as columns, then body and the close-lying ears. The headpiece and its hanging tassel are cut next, the tassel undercut so it hangs clear. The trunk curled back over the head is the last and most exposed work. Neither the sandstone beast nor its pedestal carries a pin, a dowel or any filler. Near 6,214kg of sandstone, craned in two parts onto a poured concrete foundation. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIndian-carved beasts appear in \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, and weathering stone in \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/outdoor-sculptures\"\u003eoutdoor 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\u003e220cm\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 Sandstone\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e","brand":"Giant Sculptures","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53836584288603,"sku":"MST-ANI-091","price":38450.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-091_1.jpg?v=1787171645","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/indian-elephant-in-beige-sandstone-statue-220cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}