18/05/2025
Graphite elephant carved in Ceylon and displayed in the Melbourne International Exhibition
Object No. 6189
1875-1880
This is a fine example of an ornamental elephant (Elephas maximus maximus), and of the use of graphite as a sculptural medium. It represents both the involvement of Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) in the International Exhibitions of the nineteenth century and the boost those exhibitions gave to the establishment of museums. In 1880-81 the elephant was displayed in the Melbourne International Exhibition's Ceylon Court, and it was later acquired for this Museum, which arose from the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879. In 2004 it became the symbol of the Museum's Foundation, which was set up to raise funds for new acquisitions.
To Buddhists the elephant symbolises strength of mind, and the animal plays an important role in the culture of Sri Lanka, a predominantly Buddhist country. This, along with a desire to promote graphite, the country's only mineral export, is why the elephant was selected for display at the Melbourne Exhibition. Across the world, the elephant has long been a popular subject in the decorative arts. It has been modelled in many materials including ebony, ivory, jade, glass and metal. Graphite, also called plumbago, black lead or pencil lead, is a soft form of carbon that is relatively easy to carve and has an attractive surface sheen.
An important element of the graphite elephant's story is that it survived the 1882 fire that destroyed Sydney's Garden Palace and most of the Museum's early collection and records. In recent years doubt has been cast on the survival story's veracity, and several people have tried to uncover the truth.
In 2014 the elephant was identified in a photograph taken at the Melbourne International Exhibition. The clinching feature is the distinctive unevenness towards the back of its base; even if a sculptor carved several almost identical elephants, surely only one could have this exact flaw. The annual report of the Museum for 1881 confirms that it obtained a range of flammable objects, as well as plumbago specimens, from the 1880 exhibition's Ceylon Court; as none of them appear in the Museum's extant records, they probably all arrived in Sydney before the fire. A subsequent search in the National Library of Australia's Trove database uncovered a newspaper report from December 1883 that confirms the story that the elephant survived the fire.
In the flurry of collecting that followed the disaster, the elephant was not formally accessioned into the collection. Some years later it was assigned the number of a graphite specimen (6189) part of a group of 29 'minerals used in colouring etc' acquired from Germany in 1884. The evidence from the Melbourne photograph and contemporary newspaper reports refutes the possibility that the elephant was purchased from Germany and re-instates it as a rare survivor of the disastrous Garden Palace fire.
Debbie Rudder, Curator, and Barbara Palmer, Registrar, 2014
References
Photo H3858, State Library of Victoria, http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/69775
1880 'SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.', The Argus, 9 September, p. 4, viewed 10 September, 2014, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5982453
1887 'A TRIP TO SYDNEY. ', Fitzroy City Press, 19 February, p. 3, viewed 21 September, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65649584
1883 'THE TECHNOLOGICAL MUSEUM.', The Sydney Morning Herald, 31 December, p. 9, viewed 21 September, 2014, http://nla.gov.au/nla.newsarticle28373291
1883 'TECHNOLOGICAL, INDUSTRIAL, AND SANITARY MUSEUM. ', The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 June, p.7, viewed 21 September 2014, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13537072
1880 'THE PLUMBAGO INDUSTRY OF CEYLON', A M & J Ferguson, Colombo, http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/91184
https://collection.powerhouse.com.au/object/17251
