Antique French Limestone Trough

An antique French limestone trough that stands taller than most, 39 inches high on a footprint of 53 by 19 inches. The outside is two-toned: dark charcoal staining across the upper half, and a mossy green creeping up heavily from the base, both laid over a deeply pitted surface. At the rim the color changes abruptly to a chalky white inner basin with softly rounded corners. A single round drainage hole has been cut through the lower part of one long face.

It measures 53 inches wide, 19 inches deep and 39 inches high, which puts the rim at hip height and makes it a trough you can use standing up rather than a planter you look down into. It is a French farm piece of the 18th or 19th century by type. The drainage hole can be plugged or left open; the green on the base is live moss and would go gray indoors.

This limestone trough would take a wall fountain above it, where the broad white interior shows off the falling water, or hold structural succulents in a dry garden, or stand on a lawn as an oversized birdbath. Against slatted teak fencing or on dark basalt cobbles the green base shows best. The trough has sold; we usually have tall narrow troughs of this kind in the yard or coming from France, so ask and we will send what is current.