Carved Elephant Leg Coffee Table

The 4 Elephants

Each leg is one elephant and the elephant is the whole leg. The head sits at the top just under the table, ears spread out to the sides, and the trunk comes down in a curve and turns at the bottom to make the foot. All 4 face outward, so from any side of the room an elephant is looking back at you.

The carving is done with a chisel and a mallet, the same way it was done before there were machines for it and the men doing it in our workshop learnt it from their fathers. Because of that, if you look closely the ears on one are wider than on the next, because a chisel does not repeat itself the way a machine does.

The Top

The top is in 2 parts, 2 flat panels of plain wood set inside a frame and the frame is carved all the way round with a running flower pattern and under the edge there is a row of small cut teeth. So you get a plain surface in the middle for the tea and the plates and carving around the outside for the look and the 2 do not get in each other's way. It is coffee table height, made to sit in front of a sofa and there is a round side table on 3 elephant legs in the same carving if you want the pair.

In most homes the children find the tusks first and after that it is the guests, who lean over from the sofa to count how many elephants there are.