Vase held by sculpted saint seen on top of Elgar's grave (9)
I believe the answer is:
saturnine
'grave' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'vase held by sculpted saint seen on top of elgar's' is the wordplay.
'vase' becomes 'urn' (urn is a kind of vase).
'held by' indicates putting letters inside.
'sculpted' indicates an anagram (I've seen this in other clues).
'seen on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'top of' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'elgar' is 'e'.
'saint' is an anagram of 'satin'.
'urn' placed into 'satin' is 'saturnin'.
'saturnin'+'e'='SATURNINE'
(Other definitions for saturnine that I've seen before include "offering little amusement" , "dismal" , "Turn in sea makes one gloomy" , "Gloomy (temperament)" , "may be brooding" .)