The tiger and gator feigned ferocity, each looking much too real as one perched on an elegantly carved bench and the other on a wraparound soft leather sofa.
Neither was obviously real, but the auction house staff had placed them conspicuously so they would appear menacing in their life-size forms.
Spring tends to bring in the outdoors at auction houses. Around this time each year, the ones I frequent load up on patio and deck furniture in beautiful designs and colors, along with specimens like these stone animals to add some flair to an outdoor space. From tin animals to garden furniture to stone animals, I have found them all at auction – at springtime and beyond.
On a recent Sunday, this auction house had some stone animals inside and the usual metal garden tables and stone planters outside. Against an outside wall stood a tall knight and two half-size drummers made of rusty license plates (inside, a pig also had been created with license plates), and a few feet away, a Holstein cow bench. (The benches were selling for more than $1,000 at retail sites on the web.) Two stone pigs – people seem to love pigs – were posed inside the auction house.
Here’s a sampling of some of the unusual items for decorating a garden and interior of the home:
