Rectangular fern box made of cast iron and painted black. This large planter shape is called a cassone, referring to the shape and size of marriage chests in Renaissance Italy. The planter has vertical ribbing in relief and sits low to the ground on four claw feet. A decorative band with rosettes wraps around the center of the body. A ring-shaped handle on the front is attached to a circular stylized shell inside of a shield cartouche. The fern box features Eastlake style design elements like geometric ornament and low relief carving.
Label Text:
Since ancient Egyptian times, containers for plants, flowers, herbs, and edible plants have evolved according to the needs, fashions, and technology of the time. Through the centuries, these vessels have influenced the horticultural and aesthetic role of plants, and allowed for their cultivation, transportation, and display. The Industrial Revolution in the 1800s brought mechanization and mass production techniques that allowed a variety of eclectic plant containers to be produced cheaply and efficiently. Cast-iron, china, terra cotta, and wooden plant containers were readily available in variety of styles and sizes. These containers were placed both indoors and in the garden. With a long historical tradition of designs and styles of containers to draw on in the nineteenth century, Victorians grew their plants in a diverse collection of containers depending on the family’s income and taste.
Planters, sometimes called flower boxes or ferneries, are a type of container usually placed outdoors and used for growing and displaying live plants, flowers, herbs, or edible plants. They came in a wide range of dimensions and materials and could be highly decorative or plain and unpretentious. Like urns, planters were used in the Victorian garden to define spaces and direct the eye. They were placed to mark perimeters and frame vistas in large gardens, or when placed in small gardens, helped to better make use of the limited space. Depending on their size, design, and placement planters acted as simple accessories or principal features. These qualities appealed to the moderate budget of the middle class, who wanted to ornament their gardens but could not afford large, heavy sculptures of marble and lead.
