As I have become familiar with Design Toscano products, with spring coming around, I have been interested in sculptures to put in our front garden and possibly another to be kept indoors.
For those not familiar with Design Toscano, the company is a popular mail order company in America. According to their profile, “Michael and Marilyn Stopka visited Paris and were awestruck by the Notre Dame Cathedral with its detailed carvings of gargoyles and water spouts. They decided to bring these inspiring and mysterious pieces to the American consumer, and founded Design Toscano in 1990.”
And their Art Nouveau Poppy Princess caught my attention, because of the “Art Noveau” in the title which automatically made me think of one of my favorite Art Nouveau painters, Alphonse Mucha.
And when I saw in the description that it was a sculpture inspired by Mucha’s work, I was immediately wanting this planter. It reminded me a mix of Mucha’s “Moët & Chandon Crémant Impérial” (1899) and Josephine Bradley, an artwork based on her for the 1920 Republic of Czechoslovakia 100 korun note.
The sculpture came well packed with dense foam covering the front and back of the sculpture, but taking it out, I was impressed of how light it was. Made of resin, with an antique stone finish, the sculpting was very well-done.
You get instructions on how to car for statues and fountains and a screw with plastic screw thread.
The only thing about the planter is that one should expect that leaves or flowers growing will eventually cover the Poppy Princess’ face.
I decided from reading reviews of other Design Toscano sculptures and even instructions state “that extreme and rapid changes of temperatures in humidity can affect the statue as resin and cast stone have an inherent tendency to expand and contract with climactic conditions”. So, its best to store statuary or fountains away from direct exposure to the inter elements and kept in a basement, garage or gardener’s shed.
Because my part of California has high heat (over 110F) during the summer and very cold winters, I decided that for my area, this piece is best kept indoors. So, I decided to plant a Primrose in the planter.
But overall, this is a well-sculpted resin sculpture from Design Toscano and for those who are searching for a wall pocket planter, Design Toscano’s Art Noveau Poppy Princess is recommended.
