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Crouching Cat was carved from a block of rough Polyphant stone  (also known as Cornish Greenstone).   It is 6.75" high, 14.5" long and 4.5" wide, and weighs 20.6lb/9.35kg.  Polyphant is basically greenish-grey in colour, but it also can be flecked with a variety of other unpredictable colours. 

Polyphant stone is a type of Elvan, a name used in Cornwall and Devon for native varieties of quartz-porphyry.  Greenstone is another name for this stone and it is often used for parts of buildings such as doorways so they can be finely carved.  Most of the Elvan quarries are now disused.

Around 400 prehistoric stone axes, made from greenstone, have been found all over Britain, which from petrological analysis appear to come from west Cornwall.  Although the quarry has not been identified, it has been suggested that the Gear, a rock now submerged half a mile from the shore at Penzance, may be the site.

The name Polyphant means 'Frog Pool' in Cornish.

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