French Antique Cast Planter

A French antique cast stone planter, a wide, low basin on a sturdy footing, with the look of a piece lifted from a Mediterranean garden. The surface is soft oat and warm stone gray, bleached by the sun like old limestone; inside the basin, darker weathering and mineral deposits have gathered into the shadows. The thick rolled rim has lost all its sharpness and feels smooth under the hand.

It stands 11 inches high and measures 30 inches across the rim. It is a cast stone planter, not cut limestone, which is how most French garden basins of this type were made, and it is heavy enough to want two people or a pallet. The rim has the small chips and softened edges that come with age; we have not cleaned them away.

Outdoors, a basin this wide anchors a gravel courtyard, sits on a low terrace wall or works beneath a spout as a basin. Indoors it holds a moss garden or a group of orchids on a central table. The planter is in our yard in Marina Del Rey; come and see it, or ask us for more photographs and a quote.