From out of a drgamr r r

by Gage McKinney MacBeath Hardwood Co.

I F YOU BELIEVE thar eter phants bring good luck, then you can add a heap of luck to your life by buying the life-sized wooden elephant hand-carved by Chris Schambacher, 29, and now on display at Abercrombie and Fitch, 9424 Wilshire Blvd. in Beverlv Hills, Ca.

You may need a second mortage on your house to acquire all of this luck, however, because Schambacher's elephant, carved from 600 board feet of African shedua, a dark, walnut-like wood, costs $ss,000.

Schambacher used everything from a chain saw to dental picks and disk sanders to shape the elephant. It measures 9'6" long, almost 7' to the top of the ear, and weighs nearly 1,000 lbs. A roll top desk, complete with desk lamp, is built into the elephant's belly, making this pachyderm not only lucky but useful.

"l saw the elephant in a dream," Schambacher said. He developed designs from anatomical drawings and hand-selected each piece of shedua. The drawers and writing surface of the desk and the elephant's tusks are birdseye maple.

Schambacher began carving his elephant while an art student at Central Washington University, Ellensberg, Wa., and completed it four years later. If he sells the piece, this elephant will have proven itself as a good luck charm.