Pair of Cast Resin Elephant Candle Holders, Trunks Raised, Greek Key Howdahs with Gilt Metal Cups, Faux-Ivory Finish, c. 1990–2020

The Piece

Two elephants walking forward with their trunks thrown up over their heads, each carrying a small drum-shaped howdah on its back with a candle cup set into it.

The modelling is better than the category usually manages. The hide is worked all over in fine wrinkling that follows the muscle, the ears are separately formed and stand proud of the skull with the vein structure showing, the tusks curve out and up, and each face carries a modelled eye under a heavy brow. The trunks are raised in a full curl with the fingered tip open at the top.

The howdahs are banded in a Greek key fret, and seated inside each is a gilt metal cup — a separate bright gold insert, press-fitted into the moulded rim, which is what a candle actually sits in.

The finish is a warm cream, matte and lightly chalky, with a darker wash settled into the wrinkles and recesses so the modelling reads from a distance. It is made to suggest carved ivory or old bone.

The undersides of the feet are flat-cut and plain, with small green felt pads applied.

History & Provenance

The subject carries real meaning and it is worth knowing which way round it goes. An elephant with its trunk raised is the lucky one — across South and Southeast Asian custom and the Western decorating tradition that borrowed it, an upraised trunk is read as showering good fortune, while a lowered trunk is held to be storing it up. Both of these have their trunks up, which is the configuration people specifically look for and the reason elephants like these are given as housewarming and wedding gifts.

The howdah — the carriage seat on the back — is the detail that turns an elephant figure into a candle holder, and it is drawn from the real thing: the framed seat strapped over a working elephant across India and Siam. The Greek key band around it is European ornament rather than Asian, which is a fair signal on its own that these are decorative objects in the Orientalist manner rather than anything made within that tradition.

The construction is straightforward and we would rather set it out plainly. These are cast resin, not carved, not ceramic, and not bone or ivory of any kind. Mould seams run down the trunk and along the body, the two figures are identical in every modelled detail, and the material is a light, dense poly-resin taking a painted and washed finish on the surface. The gilt candle cups are separate metal inserts seated into the moulded rims, and the feet carry modern green felt pads.

There is no maker's mark, foundry stamp, or label anywhere on either figure, and the pair is not attributed.

Cast resin gives very little to date from — it does not patinate, corrode, craze or wear the way clay, wood or metal do, so the usual evidence is simply absent. What the material, the applied felt pads and the inserted metal cups together support is later twentieth-century into recent decorative production, given here as c. 1990–2020. The pair is offered as exactly that: well-modelled decorative candle holders, not as antiques and not as carved ivory or bone.

Product Details

Why It Belongs in Your Home

Candle holders that are also small sculpture earn their place twice. Unlit, these are a pair of figures with real modelling in them — the wrinkled hide and the standing ears read from across a room. Lit, the flame sits directly above the head and throws the trunk and ear shadows up a wall behind them, which is a genuinely good effect and one a plain stick holder cannot produce.

They work as a facing pair on a mantel, either end of a console or a sideboard, flanking a mirror, or set on a dining table with the trunks turned inward. Cream and gold is an easy pairing: it sits with brass, warm wood, black metal, marble, plaster walls and any amount of pattern without arguing with it.

And the trunks-up detail makes them a specific gift rather than a vague one — a housewarming, a wedding, or anyone who collects elephants, which is a surprisingly large group of people.

A note on care and use, and the first part is a safety matter. Resin is not heat-proof. Use only a candle that sits fully inside the metal cup, never let one burn down to the rim, and never leave one burning unattended — a flame allowed to reach the resin can soften, scorch, or deform it. Tea lights or short tapers cut to fit are the right choice; anything that overhangs the cup is not. Keep them well away from anything that can catch.

For cleaning, dust with a dry soft brush worked into the wrinkling, where dust settles and a cloth cannot reach. If they need more, wipe with a barely damp cloth and dry immediately — do not soak them, and use no solvent or abrasive cleaner, which will cut straight through a painted resin surface and take the wash out of the recesses with it. Lift the metal cups out to clear spilled wax rather than picking at it in place; warm water will release the rest. Keep them out of direct sun and away from a heat source, since prolonged heat and UV both yellow and embrittle resin over time. Handle them by the body, never by the trunks or tusks — those are the thinnest sections and they are where this pair has already lost material.