In the formal gardens of 17th-century France, at Versailles and the great châteaux that followed it, urns like this stood along every terrace and stairway, and the French have kept them in their gardens ever since. Found in Montpellier, this vintage urn carries that classic shape on a smaller scale, its bowl wrapped in a band of rounded lobes the French call godrons, its surface weathered pale and speckled with lichen from years spent outdoors. Urns like this brought a little of the grand château garden to the terrace of an ordinary house, standing at the top of steps or framing a doorway in pairs. Sylvie sets it on the stone steps by the kitchen door, planted with white geraniums for the summer. Two available, sold separately.
