I had arrived at the preview a bit late and immediately headed to the outside space in back of the auction house. It was open ground where boxes were always set up on tables and sundry other items on the ground – much too much to fit on the cement ramp among the beautiful furniture.
I always stumble upon something interesting and unusual in the big field, so I wandered along a wooden plank ramp that straddled it on the left side and peered outward. Before me lay four long rows of items I recognized and some I didn’t. Soon, I noticed a pattern of items that kept cropping up.
Wheels. Most were single wagon wheels of all sizes and widths. The wagon wheels weren’t the only things that caught my eye. There seemed to be a bevy of small wheels attached to industrial bodies. I had no idea what much of this stuff was once used for. Didn’t’ matter, because I saw them as decorations in someone’s yard. With a little imagination, a homeowner with a big yard – or a decorator with a creative eye – could turn these pieces into landscape treasures.
These wheels were the real thing, and most still had the rust, dirt and grease from use and wear. Propped against a wall was a series of small to large wooden wagon wheels with spokes. On the naked springs of a bed was a group of smaller wheels with spokes. On the ground was a greasy and grimy metal gizmo with gears and a wheel. On a table was a metal contraption with wheels containing S-shaped spokes.
Elsewhere were metal objects that included several old hand pumps for outdoor wells, along with some other items that befuddled me.
Auctions like these are a gold mine for decorations that are far outside the usual. All you need is an artistic mind and a big back yard – not the pinch of a front, side and back yard that I have. I see so many neat items for the yard and garden at auction that if I had a big yard and bought them all, my space would be a hodgepodge. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; it would only show that I was eclectic in my tastes.
You don’t have to use the wagon wheels only in the garden. They can be reconstituted for use in the home, as in this wagon wheel chandelier (this wheel is a replica, not real). Or as a porch railing (steel wheels, as in this photo). Here are some other ideas for using them inside and outside, and surrounded by plants in a garden. These old photos in the digital files at Utah State University showed the use of wagon wheels as simple landscape decorating in the 1960s and 1970s, including as fences and bases for mailboxes.
Here are some of the wheels and other metal items I saw that day at auction. How would you use them?
Small wagon wheels set up on metal springs of an old bed.
Metal wheels propped against a wall.
I’m not sure how this metal roller was used.
Another metal contraption that was unfamiliar to me.
And another I haven’t a clue about.
I suppose these could be used as a table top or a trellis for a flowering vine.
Hand pumps from outdoor wells.
