{"product_id":"seated-griffin-beige-marble-statue-150cm","title":"Seated Griffin Beige Marble Statue - 150cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA griffin sits back on its haunches, one forepaw reaching and the hooked beak open. The head, neck and breast are avian, cut in overlapping scale-like feathers with two pointed ears lifted; the body, hind legs and tufted tail are leonine. One broad wing stands behind the shoulder in long radiating tiers of feather. It sits on a canted rectangular slab. Warm cream-beige marble, a fine network of darker tan veins branching right through it. This one is eagle-headed, which is what makes it a griffin rather than a winged lion.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eReading a Vein Network to Place the Wing\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis block is not a plain stone. A fine network of darker tan veins branches right through it, and unlike the drifting grey of a white marble those veins are strong enough to compete with carving - a wing full of feather tiers with a heavy vein running diagonally across it reads as damage rather than as pattern. So the block is wetted and read before anything is cut, and the single broad wing is placed on whichever face carries the quietest vein network, with the busiest passages steered into the slab and the mass of the haunch where there is nothing fine for them to interrupt. That decision fixes the beast's orientation, so it is taken first, and everything after it - which way the head turns, which paw reaches - follows from where the wing had to go.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA cream-beige stone veined in tan behaves quite differently from the whites in this range. It will hold against dark planting, brick, render or gravel on hue alone and needs no contrast arranged for it. What it will not do is stand beside white marble: put the two together and the eye reads the colour difference first and the carving second, on both. At 150cm the beak is near head height, which is where the eagle head does its work. A griffin is a heraldic guardian and it reads strongly as one of a pair flanking an entrance, a gate or the foot of steps - worth deciding before one is placed. The vein network is legible close to and disappears at distance, so favour a position people pass within a few paces of.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA Coloured Stone Wants Its Own Ground\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSixteen to eighteen weeks. Reading the vein network wet decides which face carries the wing, and that precedes any cutting. The slab is dressed, the beast roughed seated upon it and the single wing held as a thick slab behind while the body comes down. The leonine haunches and tufted tail are modelled first, then the avian head, neck and breast, whose overlapping feathers are laid out in courses from the beak backward. The raised forepaw is freed late, standing clear in open air, and the wing's radiating tiers are cut last of all. Beast, wing and slab take no pin and no filler; the wing is not a separate piece. Some 1,969kg for beast and slab, which one gantry lift will bed onto a prepared footing. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHeraldic creatures recur across \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, and coloured stone within \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/marble-sculptures\"\u003emarble 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\u003e150cm\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":53836753895771,"sku":"MST-ANI-126","price":22249.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-126_1.jpg?v=1787176883","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/seated-griffin-beige-marble-statue-150cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}