Elephant Stool Side Table - Red & Blue Hand-Painted

What an elephant stool is

The carved elephant stool is a Rajasthani workshop staple - a low four-legged table with the animal's head, ears and trunk cut into the front and a round top across its back. It comes from the tradition of the caparisoned procession elephant, and it does the job of a side table while looking like nothing else in the room.

Why this one

5,760 g - just under 13 lb - of solid mango wood. That weight is the whole argument: it does not shift when you put a mug down on it, it does not need levelling, and at 18 inches ear to ear it holds a lamp, a stack of books and a cup at the same time. The painting is applied freehand over the carving, so the mandala on the top and the detail on the ears differ from one stool to the next.

Where it goes

Beside a sofa or an armchair as an end table. As a bedside table in a room too narrow for a nightstand. Under a window as a plant stand. In an entryway holding keys and a lamp. In a nursery or a child's room, where the elephant is the point rather than the function. Two either side of a bed reads as deliberate; one on its own reads as found.

The rest of the family

The same stool is made in two finishes. On the painted versions the whole body is colour - these read as decor first. On the wood-finish versions the body is left as bare mango wood and only the top and the saddle are painted - these read as furniture first and sit more quietly in a room.

Painted bodies: black body, three tops, black body, orange top, white body, red top. Wood finishes: natural wood, three tops and dark brown wood, four tops.

Care

Wipe with a soft dry cloth. Keep water and cleaning sprays off the painted surface, and stand a wet glass on a coaster - the paint is hard-wearing but it is not a lacquered tabletop. Keep it out of direct all-day sun.