Antique Metal Jardinieres
A metal jardinière is a container for a potted plant, made in brass, copper, bronze or iron for the 19th-century drawing room, where palms, ferns and aspidistras were grown indoors.
What They Are
Brass leads the category, in 119 of 251 titles, with copper next and a substantial bronze group behind it. The form you'll meet most often is a Victorian or late 19th-century English brass bowl or pot, embossed or cast, sometimes footed, sometimes with ring or lion-mask handles. Copper versions of the same thing are the second commonest.
Read 'planter' and 'jardinière' as one word. Planter appears in 94 titles, more than any spelling of jardinière, so searching only one term hides half of what is listed on Sellingantiques. Around eighty dealers have offered them, a few dozen a year, which makes this a category spread across many stockrooms rather than anyone's specialism.
A second population is Asian: 31 titles say Japanese, 18 Chinese, and the bronzes take in cloisonné, champlevé and shallow suiban basins made for ikebana or bonsai rather than for pot plants. Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau metalwork, beaten copper and brass, some on their own stands, accounts for roughly one in seven.
The heading is elastic. Log bins, wine coolers and cisterns, jam pans, hip baths, cauldrons and mortars all get sold under it, and a smaller group are stands or pot-on-stand combinations. Dealer dates run from 1800 to 1930; '19th Century' is the largest single bucket at 66 listings, with Victorian next, so many pieces are placed in a span rather than a decade.
What Moves The Range
Metal and technique set the shape of the range. Plain or embossed sheet brass and copper pots sit at the bottom, with plain Edwardian and Art Nouveau copper the cheapest thing in the archive. The top is held by Japanese and Chinese bronze, cloisonné and champlevé work, and by French gilt, silvered and ormolu pieces.
Size counts. 'Large' turns up in 54 titles and rises in current stock, and the upper end reaches for words like monumental and floor-standing. Weight is quoted only by the Asian bronze bowls, where the heaviest figure stated is seven kilograms. Pairs are scarce, appearing in twelve titles, and they sit consistently in the upper half.
Beyond that, specificity pays. A stated Meiji, Edo or Qing attribution puts a piece above a bronze simply called oriental, and cast ornament separates the good from the ordinary: lion-mask handles, paw and dolphin feet, temple lions, shields, crests and armorials against a plain body. North African, Persian, Indian, Siamese and Sino-Tibetan origins appear only once or twice each.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for metal jardinieres, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
19th Century is the period label used most on Sellingantiques for metal jardinieres, with Victorian next and the 1900s third.
The Antique Metal Jardinieres Glossary
- Planter
- Used interchangeably with jardinière in these listings, and in fact the commoner of the two words in titles.
- Cachepot
- An ornamental outer pot that hides a plain flowerpot inside it.
- Liner
- A separate inner vessel, often zinc, holding the soil or water. Listings mention one only rarely.
- Embossed or repoussé
- Decoration raised from the reverse of thin sheet metal, common on the brass and copper bowls.
- Planished
- Surface worked over with a hammer, the hallmark finish of Arts & Crafts copper and brass.
- Suiban
- A shallow Japanese bronze basin made for ikebana or bonsai, offered here as a jardinière.
Frequently Asked Questions
What metal are most of these made from?
Brass dominates, appearing in 119 of 251 titles. Copper follows, then bronze.
Everything else is thin on the ground. Cast iron reaches only twelve titles, and lead, tin, zinc, wirework and tole ware turn up once or twice each.
Why do listings say planter instead of jardiniere?
Dealers use the two words for the same object. Planter appears in 94 titles, more than any spelling of jardinière.
The practical effect is that the category splits in two under search. Both words return different halves of the same stock.
How old are metal jardinieres on Sellingantiques?
The dealer-supplied dates run from 1800 to 1930. About 101 listings carry a clean year.
The rest sit in broad buckets: '19th Century' is the largest at 66 listings, Victorian next at 44. Where decades are stated they cluster on the 1900s, 1880s and 1890s.
Are Japanese bronze examples different from English ones?
They are a separate population. Thirty-one titles say Japanese and fifteen say Meiji, and the group takes in cloisonné, champlevé and gilt or silvered bronze.
Some were never plant pots. Suiban are shallow basins made for ikebana and bonsai, and they are sold here as jardinières.
Do pairs come up often?
No. Pair appears in just twelve titles.
When they do appear they sit in the upper half of the range: cast iron garden planters, Regency lead pots and Chinese brass jardinières among them.
What unusual things get sold as jardinieres?
The heading takes in a good deal of dual-purpose metalware. Wine coolers and cisterns, log bins and buckets, cauldrons and jam pans all appear.
The outliers go further still. A painted milk churn, a pair of hip baths, a mortar and pestle and a copper Gladstone bag have all been offered under it.