Chuck Ripper (American, B. 1929) "Mother and Baby Asian Elephants" Signed lower right. Original Gouache/Watercolor painting on Masonite. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. This painting originally appeared on the Fleetwood First Day Cover of the United Nations Endangered Species Series S7 Asian Elephant stamp issued March 18, 1994. Few would disagree that elephants belong in the order proboscidea. For the Latin term proboscis is a direct descendant of the Greek word for an elephant's trunk. The elephant is steeped in history. They were well known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who sometimes used them in battle. During the Second Punic War, for example, the famed general Hannibal of Carthage utilized elephants in an invasion force against Rome. More than a century later, a coin of the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar shows an elephant trampling a serpent, graphically portraying the success his legions enjoyed against the Gauls, who were symbolized by the unfortunate snake! Though the elephant has longstanding ties with mankind, both in war and in such peacetime activities as circuses, the Asian Elephant is today in particular danger of extinction. Unfortunately, elephants grow tusks of ivory, a substance long cherished by man. So valuable is ivory, that elephants weighing 10 tons are casually killed by poachers seeking the mere 300 pounds of ivory in their tusks. The carcass is often left to rot. Today, it is thought that fewer than 50,000 Asian Elephants still live in the wild, a number that is dangerously low and has resulted in these mammoth creatures being listed as an endangered species. Image Size: 12.5 x 14.5 in. Overall Size: 14.75 x 17.75 in. Unframed. (B14617)