Although I seem rather intimate with this beast on the home page - actually, I don't know! It was a commission, about 10 years ago, from an architectural restoration firm who were restoring a large country house. A carved mythical beast that had once stood on a newel post had been stolen and my job was to replace it. The only record of the original was this grainy photocopy of a poor photograph, shown on the left - much enlarged.
Although it might seem odd that I don't know where the carving went, in fact this is quite often the case if what I carve is part of someone else's much larger project - which may be on the other side of the country. I probably asked, but can find no record (nor on the back of the last photo below!). Here's the back of the carving after I had finished it, but before it went to the architectural restoration firm: The beast seemed to be a mixture of dragon wings and tail, and a lion's head and body.
	A close up of head. Eventually a tongue of iron would be inserted into the mouth. I was given the piece of English Oak to carve. The crack was deliberate and the style of carving was simple: a little crude if anything - and left from the chisel. I have left the original block on the carving (photo above); this has been sawn off in the photograph below.
<Here's the finished carving of the beast on its newel post. Luckily someone took this snapshot on site and sent it to me... You can see restoration work going on in the background. The Oak was stained to match the aged wood around. Lots of dirt was rubbed into the cracks and corners, and the carving polished to give the patina of age.

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