Antique Style Embossed Metal Pedestal Planter in Verdigris Blue

Ribbon bows, garlands of roses and little forget me nots run all the way round this oval pedestal planter, and the pattern carries on inside the bowl too, so it looks just as pretty from above as it does from the side. Two scrolling handles with leafy tips curl up at either end, and the whole piece sits on a slim stem and a fluted oval foot.

The shape borrows from the jardinières and centrepiece baskets of eighteenth century France, when bows, swags and roses decorated everything from silver to plasterwork. It has been given a blue grey verdigris finish washed over darker metal, so it already looks as if it has spent a few decades in a conservatory, and the raised decoration catches the light where the finish is thinnest.

It stands 14cm high, measures 34cm across the handles and 12.5cm deep, and weighs 650g, so it is light enough to move from the dining table to the mantelpiece on a whim.

Being low and oval, it makes a lovely table centrepiece. We styled it with dried hydrangeas for the photographs, but it would look just as good with a mound of moss and a few white cyclamen in their pots for winter, or piled with clementines on a hall console at Christmas. On a bathroom shelf it will happily hold rolled flannels and bars of soap. If you would like to plant into it, we suggest using a liner or slipping a plastic pot inside rather than filling the metal with soil.

The aged finish is all part of the look, with darker patches and flecks of blue green across the surface just as the maker intended. The stem is good and solid, and it is in lovely condition and ready to use. Put it next to a stack of old books and it will look as if it has always lived with you.