12” tall by 8.5” diameter.

This wood has a story. The tree that this piece came from was harvested in the early 1980’s by a man who traveled the world harvesting exotic species from different tree plantations on several continents. Pink Ivory only grown in West African countries and was once considered a “royal tree” by the Zulu court of Kings. Until the anglo-zulu wars of 1879, it was illegal for anyone who wasn’t a member of the royal family to possess this wood in any form. It has always been highly prized for the depth of color and the incredible density of this wood. The trees take a very long time to grow and it is one of the hardest woods in the world.

Pink Ivory is considered the rarest wood in the world due to the difficulty in acquiring any of it. This piece was harvested long before the embargo’s imposed on shipping it out of Africa in the early 2000’s.

The wood for this form was brought to a property in south Florida and it remained there for a very long time. At one point, the owner realized that someone was stealing from this valuable stash of wood so he took all the wood and submerged it in a pond on the property so no one would be able to see it, much less steal it.

The creation of this hollow form was one of my most difficult challenges to date. Due to its hardness, it took me about 10 times longer to hollow out this piece than any pieces I have made that are 4 times as large as this and I had to sharpen my tools every 5-8 minutes or so just so they cut stay sharp enough to cut.

This tree had been burned at some point, and the part you see that has been turned through to the hollow interior, was part of that burned portion.

Due to the overall nature and story of this piece, I finished it with Danish oil to maintain a more natural look.

This piece would be the crown jewel of almost any collection.