Antique Limestone Block Garden Trough Planter

An antique limestone trough cut from a single block, nearly square in plan and deep, with a raw split-face exterior full of tool markings, old fractures and surface pitting. The color is a mix of oatmeal and warm biscuit with weathered charcoal mineral veins running through it. The walls are thick and the interior is deep, which is what makes it a planter rather than a basin.

It measures about 37 inches wide, 36 inches deep and 26 inches high. It is a European farm piece, 18th or 19th century by type, and the fractures in the exterior are old, weathered to the same tone as the surrounding stone, and stable. It has lived outdoors for generations and can go on doing so.

A limestone trough of this depth holds enough soil for a small tree: an olive, a bay, a fig trained flat. It also marks the corner of a motor court, or stands at a formal entry gate as one of a pair. With a pump inside, the depth hides the plumbing for a fountain. This stone trough has sold. Deep square troughs are not common, but ask and we will send what is current from the yard or the water.