Timeless touch

By their age and rarity, garden antiques add an aura to the spaces they define.

But finding them is fraught with problems and placing them can be just as tricky.

However, the quest can be a lot of fun and the payoff priceless.

“Anyone can have a boxwood parterre,'' said William Morrow, a Washington-based landscape designer, “but a boxwood parterre with a faux bois planter in the centre of it is one of a kind.''

Welcoming ambience

The comment rekindled long-dormant memories of visits to the boxwood parterre garden of the late Georgetown doyenne Polly Fritchey.

Like its owner, the garden was genteel and welcoming, and the spaces were subdivided into areas of paving and formal shrubbery — most of it choice and slow-growing varieties of boxwood.

What set the garden apart, however, was the placement of a series of choice lead urns and lanterns.

Two, in the form of floral baskets, sat on the gateposts. Inside the garden, two Venetian lanterns provided focal points for both day and night.

On a small, curving patio of herringbone pattern brick, cradled by old boxwood, sat an ornate rococo urn, large enough for a cherub to sit on each side.

In height, scale and sheer sculptural beauty, it transformed what was a tranquil space in the city into a magical one.

Classically inspired ornaments have their own pitfalls in the New World.

A knockoff of Venus de Milo, surrounded by stockade fencing and double-shredded hardwood mulch, is a risky proposition.

Any piece must take its cue from the architecture of the house, Morrow said, which explains why the leadwork in the Georgetown garden worked so well, as it was set against an imposing Victorian abode.

“These types of ornate garden ornaments have to be used very carefully,'' he said, breaking into a laugh.

Another danger is in displaying more decorative pieces or furniture than a garden room can sustain.

Once you get the collecting bug, “there's a major danger of cluttering'', said Maggie Judycki, owner of GreenThemes, a landscape design company in Virginia, US.

Another vital consideration for the outdoors is scale.

A few years ago, I was in Notting Hill, UK, and saw a teak garden table and chair set by noted designer Ambrose Heal.
I sprung for it, half on impulse but half on believing that its smallness would be an asset in my petite patio.

It must have shrunk on the voyage to Alexandria, Virginia. It was so undersized (and uncomfortable) that even the cat rejected it.

Moral: Don't buy anything (or much) on impulse. What I should have done was get the dimensions, make a mock-up and see whether it would work.

But I was in London and someone else was keen to get it. Or so the sellers said.

Get the context

The other problem with impulse buying is that you must then try to fashion a context for the piece.

It is far better to have a rational garden space and then find a sculpture or bench that will create a focal point than try to design a landscape around that three-tiered iron fountain you just had to have.

This is easier said than done, I should say, because finding the right piece is getting more difficult and expensive.

While once garden antiques were sleepers compared with interior pieces, bargains and steals are rare birds these days.

“They're becoming harder to find, the prices are skyrocketing; some of the stores that used to specialise in antiques are now doing reproductions,'' said Judycki, who has a sideline in authentic antiques.

Soaring prices

Barbara Tapp, editor-in- chief of Art & Antiques magazine, said fine statuary in marble, bronze, stone and lead fetch high prices today and that 18th-century English lead sculptures have quadrupled in price in the past five years.

The internet is a major reason why garden antique bargains are scarce now. Anyone can see what a piece might be worth on the international market.

Art & Antiques correspondent Bobbie Leigh warns that the market is awash with fakes from China and Eastern Europe.

Go through an expert if you want to find pieces on the net, she counsels.

The climate factor

A lot of stone pieces are not carved but cast from a reconstituted mix of concrete and aggregate.

This is not necessarily bad but the age and quality of reconstituted stone can run the gamut from cheap, seamed concrete (not antique) from a discount garden centre to expensive Coade stone, used for statuary and building ornament.

It is important to remember that antiques are made keeping in mind specific climates and will not survive in all temperatures.

Limestone is attacked by acid rain while marble can crack from winter freezes.

Terracotta pieces can split in winter.

Many people, therefore, keep garden antiques as sunroom pieces or within the home.