Indian Carved Pillar with "Tree of Life" Motif: Cross Top Cantilevered Capitol and Stone Base

A house once leaned on this. The carver made sure it looked good doing so.

This carved pillar with a Tree of Life motif comes from Gujarat, India, and dates to the late 19th or early 20th century. It is carved wood and stone. Gujarat is known for its timber houses, where merchants lavished carving on the structure itself. A fluted shaft rises from a stepped stone base to a dense foliate block with a lattice panel above it. A leafy angled bracket braces the cross top and its cantilevered capital. Traces of pale green linger on the brown wood. It stands 100.5 inches high.

Structural work is seldom this fussy. Nobody here seems to regret it.