Antique Style Metal Pedestal Urn Planter with Scroll Handles in Verdigris

Two curling leafy handles, a pierced lacework gallery around the rim and a fluted bowl on a slim pedestal foot: this metal urn has all the drama of a grand garden piece, scaled down to sit on a table, a windowsill or a conservatory step.

The shape takes its cue from the classical urns that lined terraces and orangeries across eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe, usually in pairs either side of a doorway. This is a later piece made in that style rather than a true antique, but time has done a fine job on it. A chalky blue green finish has worn away in patches to reveal warm apricot and rust beneath, and the fluted panels inside the bowl have gathered their own rust lines and speckles. The texture is what makes it, and it changes with the light.

It measures 40cm across the handles, 23cm wide and 23cm high, and weighs 1kg, so it has real presence without being hard to move.

We styled it with dried hydrangeas, a piece of white coral and a bundle of old papers for the photographs, and it looks wonderful piled high with faded flower heads in autumn. In spring, fill it with grape hyacinths or a trailing ivy in its pot. At Christmas, try moss, pine cones and a few clementines on a hall table. Outside, it will sit happily on a garden table or a step, and the weather will only add to the patina. If you would like to plant straight into it, we suggest using a liner or slipping a plastic pot inside.

There are a couple of things to mention, both shown in the photographs. One of the handles has a crack where the scroll meets the rim, and there is a small split along one of the seams just below the pierced gallery. The urn stands steadily, but we would treat the handles as decoration and lift it by the bowl rather than carry it by them. The rust is part of the finish, though it may mark a pale surface, so a mat or saucer underneath is a good idea indoors.

Give it a corner of the garden or a sunny spot by the window and it will look as if it has been there for years.