Inlaid Elephant Statue Pair on Carved Plinths

Stand at the entrance of any old Rajasthani haveli and count what flanks the door. Elephants, nearly always elephants, because in this part of the world the elephant at the threshold is the oldest welcome there is, strength greeting the guest, fortune walking in alongside them. This pair was made for exactly that duty, two elephants in ceremonial dress, standing to attention on their plinths, waiting for a doorway worth guarding.

The decoration is the whole event. Each elephant wears its full parade costume rendered in pale inlay against the dark timber, a latticed carpet across the back edged in a fringe of arches, floral scrollwork flowering over the head and haunches, medallions at the temples, anklets circling all four legs down to the inlaid toenails and the trunk carrying its own vine of blossoms. Hundreds of individual pieces per animal, each one cut, set and levelled by hand at the bench and the two are dressed to match, a true pair rather than two strangers standing together. Under each elephant, a stepped and moulded plinth in the same dark wood raises the pair to presence height and finishes them like the sculptures they are.