THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 4, 1995 TAG: 9506020099
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF & WIRE REPORTS
LENGTH: Long : 155 lines
AS LONG AS men and women have cultivated gardens, they have found ways to bring water to their plants.
The centuries-old passion for gardening and a wistfulness for simpler times contribute to the watering can's rise to the stature of collectible. Garden antiques, in general, are a small but growing genre that includes not only statuary and urns, but also hose nozzles, primitive wheelbarrows and moss-encrusted clay pots.
Once you begin noticing watering cans, you'll see a range of shapes and sizes. American cans have the same basic profile, whether their capacity is 2 pints or 2 gallons.
The differences are in the details: the handle's shape and material as well as the exterior texture (some cans are corrugated in vertical stripes, for instance, while others have indented circular bands of varying widths).
In earlier times, watertight baskets and wooden buckets were developed to carry water, followed by the forerunner of the modern watering can - a Tudor clay contraption called a watering ``potte.''
Made of clay, the pot was immersed in water to fill it, then the gardener pressed his thumb over the narrow opening at the top to create a vacuum, retaining the water inside. With the thumb removed, the water rained gently onto the plants through holes pierced in the pot's bottom.
The weight of earthenware, however, limited a pot's size. During the 18th century, copper and tin cans began to replace clay. In fact, George Washington's hand-hammered copper watering cans from France are on display at Mount Vernon.
But it wasn't until Victorian times, and the craze for the indoor cultivation of ferns and tropical plants, that the watering can became the essential gardening tool that it remains today.
When purchasing a can these days, a consumer usually chooses a molded plastic model - if he or she plans to actually water plants with it.
Antiques collectors, however, regard a vintage galvanized metal watering can - peeling paint, dents, leaks and all - as one of the newer collectibles. According to the logic of the antiques world, old paint is valuable; new paint renders the can worthless as a collectible.
European cans offer the most variety, most notably in the shape and length (up to 3 feet) of the spout and the design of the sprinkling head pierced with many small holes, known as the rose. English and French models show up most frequently, but German cans have begun appearing as the watering can has become a bona fide collectible in the eyes of the mass market.
Although cans have yet to reach their peak in terms of supply and demand, connoisseurs already pass up many galvanized American versions in favor of European models and disarming children's examples.
Margaret Shanks, a Brenham, Texas, dealer who specializes in garden antiques, now buys a domestic can only if it is unusually small or has an otherwise uncommon detail.
Most of her inventory these days comes from England, where ``there's been a gardening enthusiasm for hundreds of years that we don't have in America.''
In Hampton Roads, there hasn't been as heavy a downpour of customers seeking antique cans as there has been in other areas of the country, notably the northeast, west and other Southern cities, such as Dallas and Atlanta. But the forecast is for increased local interest in American, English and continental pieces in the near future, according to area shop owners and dealers.
Two English watering cans sit amid the garden accessories, fresh greenery and antiques at The Garden Gallery on Laskin Road in Virginia Beach. Made of galvanized steel with long-reach spouts, each is about 150 years old and costs $110. The rose of one is copper, the other brass.
Shop owner Anne Hauser said that although watering cans have always been popular during the five years she's been in business, interest has picked up recently, maybe, she suggests, because more people are taking up gardening as a hobby.
The English watering cans she sells appeal to the customer who appreciates both antiques and garden pieces.
``Some of the cans can still be used for watering but people seem to use them more as accent pieces,'' she said. ``They can be filled with fresh or dried floral arrangements and look pretty set outdoors, maybe on a picnic table.''
The folks who buy the American models from the '30s and '40s generally in stock at Carriage House Antiques on Granby Street in Norfolk most often use them as decoration, according to Carol Paulsen, who works at the shop.
The two on display recently were free of leaks and dents, still in good enough shape to put to use although they were missing their roses or sprinkler heads. They were priced at $20 each, quite a jump from the $10 pricetag they would have worn a year ago, Paulsen said.
``With their sprinklers, they could sell for $35 or $40 apiece,'' said Paulsen, who added that she's sold four or five old watering cans in the last eight months. ``Within the last year they've become very popular. First it was wheelbarrows, then garden statuary and wrought iron furniture, now watering cans.''
The copper and brass roses on the two English watering cans at Palace Antiques Gallery on 21st Street in Norfolk still glow brightly.
``The rose is a really big selling point on a can,'' said antique dealer Lorrie M. Saunders, one of a group of dealers represented at the gallery.
Pointing to the shiny copper plate on the larger can that reads ``2 gallon,'' she explained that an in-tact plate also adds to the can's value and desirability. The two-gallon can was priced at $75, the 1 1/2-gallon model was $65. On each, the handles were bolted, not welded, an indicator that the cans are quite old.
Along with the clay pots, drain spouts, old spade and other garden items Saunders has carried, watering cans have received a steady stream of attention over the last several years, she said.
Dallas shop owner Ann Fox Foley keeps a large selection of domestic watering cans at both of her stores. They are perfect icons for her brand of cottage-style decorating: informal, bucolic and engaging.
``They all have their own personality,'' says Foley, who has been buying them by the carload for five years. ``We're kind of snooty about it now. We don't like plastic snouts at all. An original label is a nice point, to me. I buy every single one with any fleck of paint on it.''
She advises clients who buy watering cans as decorative objects to display them in groups, such as on a wooden or wire plant stand, or lined up above kitchen cabinets.
Kay Chefchis, a client of Foley who ``hyperventilates'' at the sight of a tiny child's painted watering can, collects them not as valuable antiques but as poignant symbols of her childhood. Cans abound in her house, on her front porch and even in her daughter's tree house.
``The garden hose with my thumb over it is what I use,'' she admits, ``but the can is a symbol for a lifestyle that - according to the little old ladies who walk in this neighborhood - is gone.''
Most of her cans are recent examples, but pedigree does not matter to Chefchis. They remind her of her grandparents and her father, who enjoyed growing trees from seed.
``It really represents a symbol of working out-of-doors, respecting the earth. It's a symbol of the work ethic,'' she explains. ``That all represents the relationship with nature that my father helped me realize. It's like a clutching of the past.''
Last year Norfolk antiques dealer Lorrie Saunders came up with another use for an old English watering can: She turned it into a Father's Day present for her dad.
``He's a gardener, very practical, so he uses it and thoroughly enjoys it,'' she said.
MEMO: Norfolk freelance writer Mary Flachsenhaar and Mariana Greene of the
Dallas Morning News contributed to this story. ILLUSTRATION: RICHARD L. DUNSTON/Staff color photos
Foxglove Ltd. in Norfolk sells copper-colored reproduction watering
cans, along with many gift items featuring the popular motif.
An antique English watering can at The Garden Gallery in Virginia
Beach is about 150 years old and sells for $110.
A ceramic teapot at Foxglove Ltd. appeals to the growing number of
American gardeners.
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION/Photo
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has a brass watering vessel,
excavated at the Mathews plantation in the Denbigh area where it was
discarded about 1660.
by CNB