{"product_id":"seated-dragon-black-marble-statue-130cm","title":"Seated Dragon Black Marble Statue - 130cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA dragon sits back on its haunches, both forepaws raised and the jaws parted. The head is horned and crested and turned out. Two large membranous wings rise and fold behind it, ribbed like a bat's rather than feathered, and a scaled tail coils round the near flank. Overlapping scales cover neck, chest and haunch, and plated bands cross the belly. A very dark marble with a blue-grey cast, softly polished and cloudy rather than veined. It sits on a thin slab of the same stone. Very dark marble, near-black with a blue-grey cast, softly polished and cloudy in tone. The name we were given says granite and gargoyle; it is neither, and the note below says why.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eVoids Behind Two Membranous Wings\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eA feathered wing is a solid tiered mass and can be thinned from the outside. A membranous one cannot: it is a thin sheet stretched between ribs, so the space BEHIND each rib has to be opened out from underneath, working blind into a gap that closes as the sheet approaches its final thickness. There are two of them here, folded rather than spread, which means each void is reached through a narrower opening than the last. So all the boring is done first, while both wings are still thick slabs that can take a tool bearing on them, and only then is either sheet thinned - working from inside the void outward, so the sheet gets thinner as the access gets worse rather than the other way round.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRaised forepaws and a seated haunch make this a warder, and warders belong where something is crossed - on the piers of a gate, at the bottom of a flight, at either hand of a door, closing the run of a low wall. At 130cm the horned head sits near chest height and the wings spread either side. That is a useful height for this particular beast, because the scales, the plated belly and the ribbed wings are all close work that means nothing at distance. It reads strongly as one of a pair. The stone is very dark and softly polished rather than mirrored, so unlike our fully polished blacks it holds its modelling in flat light - but it still wants something pale behind or beneath it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA Threshold Beast at Chest Height\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEighteen to twenty weeks. Boring the voids behind two membranous wings comes before any of them is thinned. The slab is dressed and the beast roughed seated upon it, both wings held as thick slabs and both forepaws as heavy stubs. The voids behind the wing ribs are bored while those slabs are still full thickness. The seated body and haunches come down, then the horned head and crest. Each wing sheet is thinned from inside its void outward, the scales and plated bands cut after them, and the coiled tail freed last. Beast, wings and slab take no pin and no filler, the slab bedded dry below. Some 1,282kg for beast and slab, gantry-set and bedded onto a prepared footing. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWestern beasts are few among \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, and gateway pieces suit \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\u003e130cm\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":53841768055131,"sku":"MST-ANI-171","price":15296.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-171_1.jpg?v=1787232285","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/seated-dragon-black-marble-statue-130cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}