I started walking in a Farmers Branch neighborhood I have not seen before. All the houses are mansions with three-car garages and signs proclaiming the wonderful benefits of certain private schools. This sculpture of a man with golf clubs was in front of one of the mansions. I began to think about the history and variety of garden sculpture or lawn ornaments.
According to Wikipedia, some of the most popular lawn ornaments are below.
Bathtub Madonnas
Bathtub Marys in actual bathtubs are frequently found in the Upper Mississippi River valley, but were invented by the Azorean Portuguese of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Fall River, Massachusetts. They are also found in western Wisconsin, eastern Iowa and Minnesota and are an important part of the visual folk culture of Roman Catholics in that region. Noteworthy concentrations of bathtub Madonnas can be found inStearns County, Minnesota, an area heavily settled by German-American Catholics in the mid-19th century, the Holyland in eastern Wisconsin and rural Bay City, Michigan. In the northeastern United States, smaller shrines that do not make use of actual bathtubs are more common. Somerville, Massachusetts, a city which has traditionally had sizable Italian, Irish, Portuguese and — more recently — Brazilian populations, has over 350 Catholic yard shrines in a town of about four square miles, with more than 40 in actual bathtubs.
Bird Baths
The early bird baths were simple depressions in the ground. The first purpose built bird bath was developed by UK garden design company, Abrahm Pulman & Sons in the 1830s. Two inches of water in the center is sufficient for most backyard birds, because they do not submerge their bodies, only dipping their wings to splash water on their backs. Deeper or wide basins can have "perch islands" in the water, which can also help discourage feline predators. Elevation on a pedestal is a common safety measure, providing a clear area around the bird bath that is free of hiding locations for predators. Birds cannot fly well when their feathers are wet; two feet of open space on all sides of the bird bath allows birds to see danger coming with enough time to escape. To prevent mosquito larvae, change the bird bath water weekly to interrupt their 7-10 day breeding cycle, or use a water aerator to break up the still water surface that mosquitoes require to lay eggs.
Concrete Geese
According to Alicia Rudnicki’s article “The History of Goose Lawn Ornaments” in eHow, concrete lawn geese began their migration into the mainstream of American culture around 1980. Their popularity began in the Upper Ohio River Valley, which begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and extends southward toward northern Kentucky. While the Chicago Sun Times said that the fad of dressing the geese likely began in Indiana or Illinois, a 1998 Chicago Tribune article suggested Ohio. By the 1990s, the sale of goose fashions was booming in the Midwest, according to the Chicago Sun Times. Reporter Judy Markey interviewed owners of concrete geese who purchased entire wardrobes for their statues, including negligees and curlers as well as leopard-spotted bikinis and sunglasses.
Found Object Art
Items such as bowling balls, toilet planters and antique farm equipment may be repurposed as lawn ornaments. Using a toilet as a planter in your yard is one way to recycle the old bathroom fixture when it needs to be replaced. The durable porcelain can withstand wind and rain for years, but once you pick a spot, it needs to stay there permanently because the filled planter will be too heavy to move. Just be sure to check with your neighborhood homeowner's association to determine if having a toilet planter does not violate any rules.
Garden Gnomes
In ancient Rome, small stone statues depicting the Greco-Roman fertility god Priapus, also the protector of floors, were frequently placed in Roman gardens. Gnomes as magical creatures were first described during the Renaissance period by Swiss alchemist Paracelsus as "diminutive figures two spans in height who did not like to mix with humans." By the late 1700s, gnome-like statues made of wood or porcelain called "gnomes" became popular household decorations. The area surrounding the town of Brienz in Switzerland was known for its production of wooden house dwarfs. In Germany, these garden figurines became conflated with their traditional stories and superstitions about the "little folk" or dwarfs that they believed helped around the mines and on the farm.
in 1847, Sir Charles Isham brought 21 terracotta gnomes manufactured in Germany by Philip Griebel back to Britain where they were called "gnomes" in English and placed in the gardens of Isham's home, Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire. Nicknamed "Lampy" — the only gnome of the original batch to survive — is on display at Lamport Hall and insured for GB£1 million.
Sir Frank Crisp, the owner of the second largest collection of garden gnomes in the UK opened his Friar Park, Henley-on-Thames estate to the public at least once a week from 1910-1919. It was here where garden enthusiasts and visitors from around the world perhaps saw garden gnomes for the first time. Gnomes became popular again in the 1930s following Disney's animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, when more working-class people were able to purchase them. As of 2008, there were an estimated 25 million garden gnomes in Germany.
Gazing Ball/Yard Globe
According to Wikipedia, gazing balls originated in 13th century Venice, Italy, where they were hand-blown by skilled craftsmen. King Ludwig II of Bavaria — sometimes referred to as Mad King Ludwig — is said to have adorned his Herrenchiemsee palace with lawn balls. However, the palace and gardens were never finished after Ludwig died in 1885. Gazing balls’ popularity in the 1930s was probably influenced by the illuminated glass globe which was the central focal point of the modernist garden shown at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris. The "Jardin d’Eau et de Lumière" was triangular in shape, largely consisting of tiered triangular reflecting pools and planting beds. At the center of the ensemble was an electrically propelled and internally illuminated sphere of stained glass. "The mirror globe turning slowly to reflect lights is rather a night-club trick than a serious attempt at garden decoration. But it is completely successful in focusing the interest and relieving — by its unexpected location — what would otherwise be an altogether stiff pattern."
Lawn Jockey
According to the River Road African American Museum the figure originated in commemoration of heroic dedication to duty: "It is said that the 'lawn jockey' has its roots in the tale of one Jocko Graves, an African-American youth who served with General George Washington at the time that he crossed the Delaware to carry out his surprise attack on Hessian forces at Trenton, New Jersey. The general thought him too young to take along on such a dangerous attack, so left him on the Pennsylvania side to tend to the horses and to keep a light on the bank for their return. So the story goes, the boy, faithful to his post and his orders, froze to death on the river bank during the night, the lantern still in his hand. The general was so much moved by the boy's devotion to his duty that he had a statue sculpted and cast of him holding the lantern and had it installed at his Mount Vernon estate. He called the sculpture "The Faithful Groomsman."
According to the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University, the African American lawn jockey is a decorative yard ornament that caricatures black people and promotes the idea of their servitude. Typically, a cast replica about half-scale, it depicts a black man dressed in jockey's clothing carrying a lantern or a metal ring suitable for hitching a horse. The black lawn jockeys often have exaggerated features, such as bulging eyes, large red lips, a flat nose and curly hair. Many Americans feel that lawn jockeys are racially offensive.
Lighthouses
Small-scale representations of local lighthouses are popular in coastal areas.
Pink Flamingos
The pink lawn flamingo was designed in 1957 by Don Featherstone. The first pink flamingo's name was Diego and has become an icon of pop culture that won him theIg Nobel Prize for Art in 1996. It has even spawned a lawn greeting industry where flocks of pink flamingos are installed on a victims’ lawns in the dark of night. After the release of John Waters's 1972 movie Pink Flamingos, plastic flamingos came to be the stereotypical example of lawn kitsch.
Genuine pink flamingos made by Union Products from 1987 — the 30th anniversary of the plastic flamingo — until 2001 can be identified by the signature of Don Featherstone located on the rear underside. These official flamingos were sold in pairs, with one standing upright and the other with its head low to the ground, "feeding." Union Products, of Leominster, Massachusetts, stopped production of pink flamingos on November 1, 2006. In 2009, the city of Madison, Wisconsin Common Council designated the plastic flamingo as the city's official bird. The city's soccer club — Forward Madison FC — uses the plastic flamingo on its logo.
Saint Francis of Assisi
According to Carrie Lamont’s article “Saint Francis of Assisi beyond the garden statue” in Dave’s Garden, Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone was born in approximately 1181 in Assisi, Italy. He was apparently a wealthy young man bent on enjoying life. But in 1204, he reported a vision directing him to return to Assisi and become a monk. He became known as Francis of Assisi and founded an order of friars. In statues he often has his arms stretched out to hold bird seed or is depicted with birds alighting on his arms. There is a story about him preaching to "Sister Sparrow" and another about him making peace with "Brother Wolf." In his writing "Canticle of the Sun" from 1224 he speaks of "Brother Sun" and "Sister Moon," "Sister Water" and "Brothers Wind and Air." Without benefit of sophisticated biology, geology, seismology, weather satellites or carbon dating, he understood that the sun, moon, water, earth, fire and air are all interrelated and have to do with the health of the creatures and plants on Mother Earth.
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