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Kovels - Antiques & Collecting: Week of April 9, 2012

18.05.12

If you don't already have rabbits hopping around your garden, you might want to buy an antique garden rabbit to fool your friends.

The wealthy English and French of the 17th century liked formal gardens with paths, fences and planned flower beds. They put urns, statues, fountains, sundials, gates, furniture and odd pieces like finials and wall sculptures into their gardens. In America, ornaments and furniture were being used in gardens by the 1600s. A brass sundial from 1630 is the earliest American garden piece that still exists. A wooden bench from the 1700s is the earliest known wooden piece. Gardens first had wrought-iron furniture and gates in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

By the mid 19th century, most garden pieces were made of cast iron, not wrought iron, because cast iron was stronger. Gardens were filled with iron ornaments and fences. Full-size deer, dogs and other animals, tiered fountains, iron benches made to look like twining vines or tree branches, obelisks and sundials were all made of cast iron. So were armillary spheres that help map the "movement" of the stars around the earth.

Source: Auction Central News