Garden Ornaments of Pottery 
ITALIAN DECORATED OIL JAR 
From the H. D. Gardiner Gallery 
Not many of these jars are on sale in this 
country. The next-best modern Italian jars are 
those made at large potteries—there are some 
near Naples and more in other districts — in 
which much of the finishing, at least, is done by 
hand. Representative jars of this sort are im¬ 
ported by the Rosary Flower Company, in New 
York, among others, and are quoted at upwards 
of twenty dollars. 
A step farther away from the simple ideal is 
taken in decorated jars, whose surface has been 
painted in strong colors to show foliage, flowers, 
truit or fanciful figures, the paint being glazed 
over to secure permanence. Sometimes these 
vases have pottery standards, upon which they 
are set. If the man with the paint brush has 
exercised due restraint (and self-denial is not easy 
for him) the effect of such a jar may be highly 
decorative. Such are the two pictured here, one 
from the Glaenzer Garden in New York, the 
other from the art rooms of H. D. Gardiner, 
of the same city. The decorative pot is less 
easily fitted into the scheme of a garden than the 
unadorned terra cotta vessel. In any but a place 
more or less protected, as a veranda or court, 
such a jar gives the hint of being too precious, 
apiece, in any quantity, a large price for fac¬ 
similes of simple originals. Since few American 
potters work wholly by hand, even in carrying 
out their own designs, home products have too 
often the look of being machine-made. 
In the hill districts of Italy peasant farmers 
and vineyard owners produce in some com¬ 
munal kiln ten or a dozen big jars apiece every 
season, before the olives or grapes are ripe. 
Clays are abundant and wood suitable for barrels 
or kegs is scarce. The kilns are fired with trim¬ 
mings from the vines and other small fuel, and 
the jars are usually left unglazed. They show, 
moreover, in contour and texture, the dexterous 
but not too sophisticated handling they have re¬ 
ceived. Every one, in fact, has an individuality, 
which in the large commercial potteries of this 
country is the last thing to be sought. After 
their contents have been sold these vessels find 
their way to dealers in Florence and elsewhere, 
from whom they are bought with avidity by 
American and English landscape gardeners. 
They are unpretentious in form and usually both 
unglazed and undecorated, the color being that 
of dull red earth. 
AN OLD GARDEN VASE FROM ROME 
From the FI. D. Gardiner Gallery 
