Antique Stone Trough With Deep Weathered Basin

A large antique stone vessel, an oversized trough with a deep straight-walled basin and an exterior gone green: bright moss and yellow lichen cling to the pitted ash-gray walls on every side. The thick top rim has a smooth dip cut into one edge, a deliberate spillway, and a round drainage hole is bored into one bottom corner of the basin.

It measures 73 1/4 inches wide, 37 3/8 inches deep and 27 1/2 inches high. It is European farm stone, 18th or 19th century to judge by the shape. The corner drain means it can be planted without standing water, and the rim dip gives a fountain an overflow point without any new cutting.

At the base of a high courtyard wall it catches the fall from a bronze spout; with its drain open, it is a large planter for a small tree; set into a tiered garden, the rim dip sends overflow down to a lower basin. White stucco behind it makes the moss sing, slate paving beneath it shows the weathered base, and a line of clipped box beside it plays up the wildness of the surface. An antique stone trough this size is set by crane. This stone vessel has sold; ask us what large troughs are current in the yard or on the water.