The Victorian garden describes the style of garden design and ornament fashionable in Britain during the reign of Queen Victoria, from 1837 to 1901. It was characterised by formal bedding schemes of brightly coloured annuals, terraces, gravel walks, specimen trees and conifers, rockeries, ferneries and glasshouses, and by an abundance of manufactured ornament.
Industrial production transformed garden ornament in this period. Foundries such as Coalbrookdale cast iron benches, urns, fountains and plant stands in great numbers, while firms such as Doulton produced terracotta and stoneware urns, edging tiles and statuary, and artificial stone makers supplied balustrades and vases. Plant hunters introduced exotic species, encouraging the building of conservatories and ferneries, and the growing middle class laid out villa gardens in imitation of grander estates. Typical antiques from Victorian gardens include cast iron seats with fern, nasturtium or lily-of-the-valley patterns, terracotta pots, wirework jardinières, rope-twist edging tiles, sundials, and lead or stone figures. Buyers should look for original castings rather than modern copies, genuinely weathered surfaces and makers' marks or registration lozenges. Pieces like these give a garden an instant sense of age and period character.
