Antique Granite Bench

An antique granite bench of real weight: a thick, squared slab of solid gray granite laid across two pedestal blocks. The top is flat and heavily speckled, and the front edge drops away into deep gouges and natural fractures, so the piece reads as a block of rock before it reads as furniture. The two pedestals carry distinct vertical grooves, the kind of marks left when the stone was first shaped.

It measures 82 inches wide, 24 inches deep and 20 inches high overall, of which the seat slab accounts for about 9 inches. The straight-cut ends let it sit flush into a corner or run along a wall. Edges are chipped and uneven, as they should be on stone this old, and the top has been leveled by use rather than by a machine.

A slab this long suits the edge of a motor court, the long side of a kitchen garden, or a spot beneath a pergola where the length makes it a destination rather than a perch. Set on a bed of loose river stone it looks as if it grew there; next to dark steel edging or a smooth concrete wall the battered edges show more. This granite garden bench has sold. We usually have similar granite benches in the yard or on the water; ask and we will send what is current.