Vintage Cast Iron Tulip Doorstop in Sunshine Yellow and Green

Here is a bunch of tulips that will never droop, drop a petal or need the water changing. Three bright yellow blooms rise from a sheaf of dark green leaves, one standing tall in the middle with the other two leaning out on either side, as if someone has just arranged them in a hurry and decided they look rather good like that.

They are solid cast iron and painted by hand, the petals in sunshine yellow on blue green stems, the leaves in deep green shading to olive at the base. Below them sits a black plinth picked out with gold scrolls across the front. The back is painted white, with a flat tab that slides under the door to hold it in place. It measures 8cm by 9.5cm by 6cm, a sweet small size for a bedroom, bathroom or cupboard door.

Tulips arrived in Europe from the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century, and by the 1630s the Dutch were so taken with them that single bulbs changed hands for the price of a house, in the episode now remembered as tulip mania. Prices have calmed down a great deal since, but the tulip is still the flower most of us think of first when spring comes round.

The paint is bright and cheerful, with a few small chips to the tips of the petals and leaves, some tiny marks along the edges of the base, and light wear to the white paint on the back and tab.

Stand them by a sunny door, put them on a kitchen windowsill as a bunch of flowers that never needs watering, or give them to a keen gardener, a Mother's Day mum or anyone who could do with a little colour in winter.