Are antique urns usually sold in pairs?

Pairs are the habit of this category. 68 titles say pair, more than any material word, and eight of those add 'large pair'. Sets larger than two are less usual. A garniture of four, a three-piece pot pourri set and three large French pots each appear, and once a set of twenty-five confit pots.

What are antique urns made from?

Two materials dominate almost evenly. Porcelain appears in 48 titles, terracotta in 44, and they overlap only in silhouette. Porcelain covers the indoor pieces: painted, gilt, lidded, sometimes with gilt bronze mounts. Terracotta covers the garden and storage side, including oil and olive jars and urns on pedestals.

How old are most antique urns on the market?

The dated field runs 1800 to 1960, and the largest single bucket is simply '19th Century' at 81 listings, so dating here is usually a century rather than a year. Where decades are given they cluster in the 1880s, 1920s, 1900s and 1860s. Eighteenth-century pieces are a minority, and a few entries run into the 1940s and 1960s.

What does pot pourri mean in an urn listing?

It's a covered vessel made to hold scented petals, usually porcelain. The word appears in 11 titles. These sit mostly within the English factory group, and their share is up among what's currently for sale.

Which urns are garden pieces and which are for indoors?

Terracotta is the garden material. Titles in that group name garden, pedestals, plinths, tazza and campana shapes, alongside oil and olive jars made for storage. Porcelain is the interior side: covered vases, pot pourri jars, ewers, garnitures and centrepieces, often painted or gilt.

What unusual urns turn up in this category?

Alongside the two main groups, East Asian jars account for roughly one in eight listings: ginger jars, temple jars and koro incense burners. One-offs appear too. A toleware chestnut urn, a rose water sprinkler, a chintz urn-shaped slop pail, a stoneware water filter vessel and a pilgrim flask each show up once. The rarest origins recorded are Hungarian, Portuguese and Turkish, one sample title each.

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Antique Urns

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An urn is a classical vessel shape, made in terracotta for gardens and pedestals and in porcelain for mantels and tables, often with a cover and often in twos.