Everyday Things

GARDEN

TOOLS

By Suzanne Slesin, Guillaume Pellerin,

Stafford Cliff, Daniel Rozensztroch, and Alix De Dives

Photographs by Bernard Touillon

The second volume in Abbeville’s critically acclaimed

series EVERYDAY THINGS unearths the fascinating

story behind the basic yet inventively crafted implements

that have enabled the human race to cultivate nature’s

bounty and beauty. Garden tools are inseparable from

gardens, and yet, while the history of gardens has been

exhaustively explored, the story of garden tools has been

 virtually ignored—until now. As authors Susanne Slesin

and Guillaume Pellerin reveal in this lushly designed and

nostalgia-filled volume, embedded in these familiar, every-

day tools is a rich history that documents the tastes and

passions of gardeners through the ages.

Iiiustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs of gar-

den tools, as well as with vintage lithographs,engravings,

posters, ads, and even decorative plates depicting garden

implements, the bok follows the gardening cycle, from

“Preparing the Earth” to “Harvesting,” and each chapter

features the traditional tools used in that phase of garden-

ing. The “Sowing’ chapter offers a host of knives, grafters,

pincers, saws, scythes, hatchets, billhooks, and a mind-

boggling variety of prunners.

Today, vintage garden tools are being rediscovered and

appreciated anew as much for their ingeniousness as for

their sculptural and timeless form. GARDEN TOOLS

casts these humble objects in a whole new light, and any-

one who loves to dig a spade into the earth or prune a

rosebush will find the book irresistibly compelling.