Patrick Mavros carved and signed sculpture of a Hippopotamus.

Up for auction is a rare and beautifully carved Hippo by artist Patrick Mavros. Please note that Ivory was the medium in which he learnt his trade, and changed to silver in the 1980's. The international ban on the trade in Ivory was implemented in January 1990. So that would date this piece prior to 1989

Size of the Hippo is 75mm x 35mm x 40mm and weighs 58 grams. The piece is marked with the distinctive PM.

About Patrick Mavros:

Fourth generation Zimbabwean (the family is originally from Scottish/Greek stock), 53 year old Patrick was born in Matabeleland, in the wild south western province where his father was a much respected rural doctor of medicine. "He is highly educated and a lovely man, and was very patient with his not so academic son.  I never quite knew what I wanted to do. I spent eight years in the army and then baked for a while, but above all else I loved wildlife art.

"I wanted to give my wife something unique as a birthday gift so from a small piece of ivory I carved a pair of earrings in the form of roses."  Pretty soon he was inundated with requests from friends for similar pieces and he developed his unique sculpting technique. Within months it became a full time business as he continued to experiment and perfect his style, all based on ivory which he purchased from the Department of National Parks and Wildlife.  He was also inspired by Netsuki and miniatures produced by Japanese sculptors. "But here I was in Africa surrounded by elephants and all sorts of wildlife - the subjects for my work were on my doorstep." However ivory isn't what made him famous. A twist of fate played its hand.

"All was going well with our legal and sustainable ivory carving when all of a sudden in the early 80s I was met with a crisis - the illegal ivory trade was exposed resulting in a ban in ivory trading around the world. While on the one hand I understood, what was I to do?"  Necessity proved the proverbial mother of invention and a piece of Catja's mother of pearl and silver jewellery provided the spark that started him firing coloured enamel onto sterling silver adornment. Inspired, he set about working in silver. "I bought a Hobby Craft kit, and with that kit I learned the skills I needed sufficiently well to create a business which in its first three years cast over a ton of silver and supported 15 workmen." On the family homestead there are workshops, a wildlife sanctuary, offices, reception and a sales studio. Not forgetting a collection of pointers, spaniels, African grey parrots, horses and friends! There is also a state of the art silversmithing workshop. Such is the appeal of his work and the reputation of his studio, not to mention the charisma of the man himself, that Patrick's home has become a must for visitors to Harare - diplomats, tourists, hunters, military, presidents - they all turn up at the door. As do world famous names such as Sharon Stone and Bruce Springsteen.