Antique French Limestone Trough

A long antique French limestone trough, 88 inches end to end, with a surface that tells you where the ground line used to be. The upper walls are blanketed in rust-orange lichen and dark charcoal staining, and then, a few inches above the base, the weathering stops along a sharp horizontal line and the stone below is pale and clean. That band is where it sat in earth or against a floor for a very long time. The thick rim drops into a bright pale beige basin.

It measures 88 inches wide, 33 inches deep and 26 inches high: a serious block that travels on a pallet and is set by crane or forklift. It came off a French farm and, by its form, dates to the 18th or 19th century. The lichen is dry and stable and we would leave it alone.

A stone trough this long marks the edge of a crushed-stone courtyard, catches a sheet of water beneath a wide weir, or runs alongside an outdoor dining pergola with two or three brass spouts feeding it. Clipped boxwood on either side makes the straight lines stricter. This limestone trough has sold. Long troughs are the ones we hunt for most; ask and we will tell you what is on the water now.