I am silly to part with this one because I think it is about the best thing ever, but I will live with the image of it in my head, and trust that whoever adopts it will love it as much as I do. Perhaps the blue tower in the background is a castle, making this an elephant and castle, who knows? Elephant itself is written twice--once in cursive, looking like "Elepht" and then, more faintly, in fraktur-type capital lettering below. And then this elephant himself, blue and red crayon and I think a little graphite too, with horizontal stripes and diagonal patterns over his torso, blue tail and brown trunk.
The back of the frame reveals that the drawing was done on the inside cover of an old school elementary school geography book. I might guess the name stamped in blue ink was the one time owner of the book itself, perhaps the maker or perhaps stamped at a slightly later date, I'm not entirely sure. Based on the book, I'd guess the drawing dates to the late 19th century or so. Just a purely wonderful thing I think.
Crayon and graphite on board. Sold in the old wooden frame I found it in, which is in pretty good shape and suits it fine. Plenty of old stains, smudges and a few tears to the paper around the edges, but who cares? For preservation's sake, it would be worth having protection added on the backside. Framed: 9 1/2" x 8 3/8" x 1 7/16". Sight: 7 13/16" x 6 11/16".
