The Elephant Lamp

Our sitting room is filled with objects from our respective families, which turns the room from a rather featureless box into a much more interesting place. One of my favourite pieces is the elephant lamp which stands on Grandfather Haylett's inlaid table beside where Gill sits.

From the size of his ears, the elephant is an Asian as opposed to African elephant. According to the record I have from my mother, he was bought in Zanzibar from one of my father's captains who had obtained him in Burma. That's all the information she gives but there's obviously an interesting story there.

As can be seen, he's managed to keep up with the times for, as well as providing excellent reading light, he's in charge of the television remote controls.

He did have a pair of real ivory tusks but one was lost along the way and the other wouldn't stay in its socket, so Tony Hizzard made us two replacements out of a less sensitive material. Sadly both of those now fall out. Despite the lack of his ornamental teeth, he still looks a happy elephant.

The elephant has travelled many miles, from Burma to Zanzibar to Dar-es-Salaam to Mombasa to England with my parents, and then with us to Scotland and back. Fortunately, a screw holds his trunk in place, so it can be removed for packing, something we expect to be doing again shortly.