Featured Stone carving of elephant

Got this little fella off the Eboo - another late night purchase (really need to stop that).

I think he's carved from some variety of marble. Really not sure where from. Any thoughts?

He was covered in nicotine stain, I gently washed him with a bit of gentle soap and water and got some of it off, although he's still tobacco tinted. He's carved very muscularly - actually pretty realistically carved , except the rear part of the body isn't quite as low/big as most elephants - perhaps he's meant to be an older/thinner elephant, or the carver just didn't quite nail it - anyhow he's an interesting creature - and now part of my menagerie.

Base has some glue residue. He's 4.5 inches long and about 3.25 inches tall.

 

He does have an interesting look about him..........but....that's also one strange critter !!!

 

u either have a master piece...or a carving from someone who's never seen a lelephant !!!!

 

An oddball for sure. Never seen another elephant carved quite like this - probably not a good thing He fits in with my other pets on the island of misfit carvings.

 

With that back hump perhaps it is a mammoth?

 

Doesn't look like a mammoth to me - of course, not really like a modern elephant either. If we're going prehistoric - I'd vote more for mastodon than mammoth.

 

baby mammoth....artist rendition...
still....looks different than that/..

 

I keep thinking perhaps an elderly asian elephant ...something like this:

 

From an article comparing mammoths to mastodons: But mammoths also possessed fatty humps on their backs that provided them with the additional nutrients necessary in their more northerly, ice-covered habitats.

 

Now I'm thinking maybe the stone is howlite - not marble. The extreme veining...

 

It kept asking "does my behind look big in this sculpture?".
I love it though, full of character. Could have been modeled after a specific elderly elephant who was the darling of a zoo. The eyes were probably inlaid.

 

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I like him!

 

Looks like alabaster with a sealer on it.
The sealer often yellows over time.
Alabaster with no sealant dissolves in water. I'd be careful washing it.

 

Love it! Not boring to look at!!!