I've now thought about this for a bit and will throw in my $0.02....


>1) Top is made of two pieces of walnut crotch more or less 1.5 ft wide and
>elongated (roughly half-elliptical each) which are butt-joined by means of
>hidden butterfly joints on the underside and then cut to form a true ellipse
>and highly polished;
>2) This is supported by support four arms, two long and two short which in
>turn arise out of the neck of;
>3) An urn with an elliptical horizontal cross-section (echo the shape of the
>top);
>4) The urn is fluted; 
>5) Four curving  legs come out of the bottom of the urn at a flattened angle
>and terminate in delicate claw feet.

Elliptical turning isn't a big deal, but is best done with specialized
equipment: either an "elliptical chuck" or a rose lathe type setup with an
elliptical template. You could also, as you said,  use templates and fair it out
by hand. Might be the easiest way, as I would figure (pun intended) that there
will be a fair (pun intended) bit of match-by-eye-- make it look right, rather
than a mathematically perfect piece.

To lay out the fluting, I'd use a tape -- blank, not graduated, to get a
circumference at one end, divide the circ. into uniform measures (it is usually
an iterative process), and mark the piece. Do the same at the other end with
alignment as dead on as you can. Join the marks using a thin, flexible
straightedge to follow the contour. Then the fun begins.
Laying out the fluting equal by angle on a piece with elliptical cross section
(such that the flutes are axial, which it sound like you are doing) will look
wrong, as the widths will vary around a given circumference. It is surprising
how visible it is, and how weird it looks.

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