Bronze, Signed Hamish Mackie
Numbered Edition of 12
Dated 2024
71cm high x 34cm long x 30cm wide [including 10cm high Ancastor stone base] (28″ x 13.5″ x 12″)
Sculptures can be shipped world wide at cost, no VAT payable on exports outside the EU.
£8,000 inc VATBelonging to the crow family, the chough has a red bill and legs. It breeds on the western coasts of Ireland and Britain, southern Europe, North Africa, Central Asia, India and China.
Legend has it that when King Arthur died, his soul migrated into a chough with the bird’s red feet and beak symbolising his bloody end. It appears on the Cornish coat of arms, and is commonly known as the Cornish Chough. It has also been depicted on stamps from countries including Bhutan, The Gambia, Turkmenistan and Yugoslavia.
Cornish numbers have happily increased from just two in 2011 to over 50 today. Although it is still a small number, the chough’s habitat is being increased by cattle grazing cliffs. I have been lucky to see a single chough in Cornwall and many more on Skomer Island as part of my research for this chough sculpture.
The red-billed colouring on this sculpture can be changed to yellow to make this sculpture an Alpine chough which are the same shape and size. I have seen Alpine chough in the Alps.
They are incredibly acrobatic in the air. I have sculpted a chough mid-flight as though diving down a cliff with its primary feathers widely spread.
