Indian Shell-Form Offering Bowl with Entwined Elephant Motif

Two elephants link trunks over nearly four feet of marble shell.

This shell-form offering bowl with entwined elephant motif comes from Rajasthan, India, and dates to the 20th century. It is marble. Rajasthan has supplied marble to Indian builders for centuries, and the elephant has long carried auspicious meaning in Indian art. A broad scalloped basin opens from a slightly raised back edge, its pale grey-white stone flecked and veined. At the back, two small elephants in harness turn toward each other, each with a round form at its rear, their trunks knotted at center. Forty-six and a half inches wide and 11 high.

They seem to have reached an understanding. The shell is keeping out of it.