Ruby "Elephant Clock" with Omega Movement — L'Aquart × Luis Alberto Quispe Aparicio

A table clock in the form of an elephant, hand-carved from ornamental ruby on a zoisite base, fitted with an Omega movement. One of one.

The object

The fire-red companion to the chalcedony elephant: the animal carved from ornamental ruby, set on a zoisite base, with bronze plated in vermeil and accented with ruby, and an Omega movement keeping the time. Sculpture and timepiece in a single object.

The stones

Ruby is the red variety of corundum — crystalline aluminum oxide colored by chromium — and at 9 on the Mohs scale it is second in hardness only to diamond; in its saturated ornamental grade it gives the elephant its deep red body. The base is zoisite, the green calcium aluminum silicate that occurs together with ruby in nature (the rock known as anyolite) — so the pairing of red and green is geologically true as well as beautiful.

The subject

The elephant stands across cultures for wisdom, memory, strength and good fortune, and has carried clocks since the medieval automata of al-Jazari. Rendered in ruby, the time-bearer becomes a thing of fire.

The artist

Luis Alberto Quispe Aparicio is a Peruvian-born lapidary sculptor and creative director of L'Aquart, heir to a family atelier whose tradition reaches back to 1968. An engineer by training, he gave the bench what engineering could not match; his carved works are held in museum collections worldwide, and since 2010 he has collaborated with S.T. Dupont on Haute Création pieces. His practice insists on harmony between lapidary carving, metalwork and structural planning — and on refusing difficulty as a reason not to proceed.

Offered by

Surround Art & Diamonds — North American representative of L'Aquart — presents this work as a singular object at the intersection of lapidary art, fine craft and collecting, with nearly a decade placing Quispe Aparicio's sculptures in private collections across the United States and Europe.

• Material: Ornamental ruby; zoisite base; bronze plated with vermeil, ruby accents; Omega movement
• Dimensions: 15 × 8 × 19 cm (5.9 × 3.1 × 7.5 in)
• Year: 2020
• Artwork origin: Peru
• Edition: Unique, one of one
• Status: In hand, available