French Antique Limestone Mile Marker

A French antique mile marker in limestone, long and low rather than upright, with a deep square mortise cut into one end. The stone is warm oat and pale sand under cool ash-gray weathering and scattered charcoal-colored lichen. Deep pits, narrow crevices and irregular marks cover the surface, and the edges have rounded the way stone does after a long time in the open. The mortise is crisp inside, a dark square void against the rough face, a trace of a post or a fixing.

It measures 41 inches long, 12 3/4 inches deep and 11 3/4 inches high. It is a single piece of French limestone and heavy for its length; count on two strong people or a small machine. It lies flat on gravel or a prepared bed without fixing.

Use it as the border of a planting bed, as a single rustic step on a garden path, or as a low marker beside an entry where the mortise can hold a small planting or take a timber post. Among loose gravel, wild grasses and old brick it reads as something found rather than bought. This antique mile marker is in our yard in Marina Del Rey; come and see it, or ask for photographs of the mortise and a delivered price.