Willy Guhl Marmite Planter

This Willy Guhl planter is a marmite with feet: a stout, round-bellied vessel resting on three short tapering legs, with two rigid angular handles projecting from the wide rim, the way an old iron cooking pot has. The fiber cement has taken a dense, continuous coat of green moss around the lower half. Above the moss the weathered ash gray shows coarse pitting, dark mineral staining and one clear chip on the top edge.

It measures 20 inches in diameter and 18 inches high. It is an original Eternit piece, Swiss, from the middle of the last century. The moss is alive and we have left it; it will keep growing in a damp, shaded spot and fade in full sun. The chip is honest wear and does not affect use.

The three feet lift the body off the ground, so it drains well and sits happily on gravel, a terrace or a shaded courtyard floor. Against a plain modern elevation the mossy body is a strong contrast; it is just as good empty as planted. It reads from a distance as a stone planter. This Willy Guhl planter is in Marina Del Rey; come and see it, or ask us for more photographs and a delivered price.