Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic On weekends from now until September, you\u2019ll often find me wandering around a National Garden Scheme open garden, wondering why everyone else seems to be better at weeding, and desperately trying to identify plants I want. But also wishing that I had the budget for the antiques that some of the best gardens feature: because nothing seems to ground a garden quite like a wrought-iron gate or a painted bench, perfectly parked at the end of an avenue of trees.\u00a0The world of antiques \u2014 particularly for the garden \u2014 can sometimes appear hard to navigate. Where do people begin? That depends on the style of your house and garden, explains Travers Nettleton, who runs Garden Art Plus, a two-acre site in Hungerford, Berkshire, full of garden antiques from early Roman pieces to tiered fountains and Victorian benches. \u201cI\u2019d start with something to sit on and something to eat at. We have clients coming to us and saying, \u2018We\u2019ve just bought a beautiful Georgian house \u2014 what would be in keeping?\u2019\u201d\u201cI\u2019d start with some beautiful Georgian strapwork metal benches, produced by high-quality blacksmiths. And then, if you are a purist, 18th-century statues and urns and planters.\u201dSuch items not only look beautiful, they also help to create a sense of history or tell a story about our homes. \u201cSculpture and architectural antiques have always been used through the centuries to draw your eye to a different part of the garden,\u201d says Nettleton. And clever placement of the items can make a big difference: \u201cIt can introduce harmony and peace as well as help the gardener draw the person around the garden.\u201d Gates, for example, can frame a view \u2014 Nettleton recently took a huge, 3-metre-high pair of blacksmith-worked gates to display at Chelsea Flower Show. \u201cPeople like putting gates up even if they don\u2019t own the land beyond it,\u201d he says.It will come as no surprise to hear that the garden antiques scene is not really a place where trends apply. However, there are certain items that are ever popular and collectable. One notable example is the Coalbrookdale bench, made from cast iron at the Coalbrookdale foundry in Shropshire, and enjoying its heyday in the Victorian era. Michael Thompson, who runs Thompson\u2019s Garden Emporium, is a Coalbrookdale bench specialist (a dealer, restorer and passionate collector). Their desirability, he explains, is down to the quality, both in terms of the manufacturing process but also the designs \u2014 the most famous of which is the Convolvulus pattern of twisting vines, first registered in 1842. Other examples include Fern and Blackberry and Nasturtium, highly detailed floral patterns, recognisably Victorian in style.\u00a0The designs were first produced in wood, pressed into sand to make a mould, before molten iron was poured in. If you look closely at the back of an original Coalbrookdale bench, you\u2019ll see that it is actually quite thin and beautifully crafted, says Thompson. So antique hunters beware: \u201cThe modern reproductions are a lot heavier than the original Coalbrookdales so it\u2019s a bit of a myth when people say \u2018that\u2019s heavy, it must be a Victorian one\u2019, because it\u2019s actually the other way around.\u201dThompson says that Queen Victoria purchased Coalbrookdale benches for Osborne, her home on the Isle of Wight. They were, and still are, expensive. To buy an original, says Thompson, will cost from \u00a33,000 and could escalate to \u00a312,000 depending on desirability, so it\u2019s an investment piece. But they have stood the test of time and should continue to do so if looked after and restored when needed.Of course, if your house and garden predates the Victorian era, an 18th-century bench might be more in keeping. Unlike the Coalbrookdale benches that were produced in a large foundry, these were made as one-offs, often by estate blacksmiths. They tend to be simpler in design than the later Victorian models, with little turned-out feet to stop them sinking into the earth. To find examples, try auctions or specialist antique garden furniture dealers such as Lichen Garden Antiques or Garden Art Plus.French antique garden furniture is also highly sought after. Caryl Tincknell runs Violet Grey, which sources furniture from Europe from the 19th and early 20th centuries, including Arras pieces, hand-forged decorative furniture with distinctive claw or hoof feet. Much of it is found at d\u00e9ballages \u2014 huge antique fairs in the south of France. The company also specialises in unusual planters \u2014 it currently has an enormous, metre-wide copper pot for sale, used to make marmalade in the south of France circa 1900. It\u2019s a striking piece with huge rivets \u2014 ideal for flowers or even for conversion into a water feature.\u00a0\u00a0It is garden table sets, however, that have proven to be hugely successful for Violet Grey. Its approach is to find pieces \u2014 usually iron tables with marble tops, and then match them with sets of chairs from similar eras. Most pieces are grit blasted and powder coated (often in green) before being sold on to clients. It\u2019s a less traditional process but Tincknell says it protects the pieces from the weather. Demand has been huge. \u201cAs soon as they [the table sets] go online they\u2019ve been selling out. We can\u2019t keep up with it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Most antique garden furniture does show its age through patina and imperfections, but if you would rather ensure that the end aesthetic is less shabby chic and more contemporary chic, architecture and interior design practice De Rosee Sa has just launched a new collection of restored garden pieces, with a sleek and modern finish. The collection includes 1960s French wrought-iron foldable chairs, painted, restored and kitted out with square striped-linen seat pads, and a 1950s French garden set that the founder and director, Claire S\u00e1, says has been \u201creimagined as a homage to the coastal furniture found in Positano patios\u201d. It has a new paint job, a new marble top and vibrant orange linen seat cushions.S\u00e1 says that there is \u201can appetite for a romantic and whimsical garden\u201d and says that the new collection \u201caims to tap into a more environmentally conscious consumer who understands the importance of \u2018buy once, buy well\u2019.\u201d Its careful paint choices and\u00a0new upholstery, including stripes in different thicknesses, show just what can be done to make these older pieces appeal to a new generation of collectors.Find out about our latest stories first \u2014 follow @FTProperty on X or @ft_houseandhome on Instagram<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic On weekends from now until September, you\u2019ll often find me wandering around a National Garden Scheme open garden, wondering why everyone else seems to be better at weeding, and desperately trying to identify plants I want. But also wishing that I had the budget<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-98016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98017,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98016\/revisions\/98017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}