Arabia’s vintage flower pots are in huge demand – do you have these ceramic pots at home?

Designed by Richard Lindh, the timelessly beautiful ceramic flower pots by Arabia are sought-after vintage treasures, and also extremely good for your flowers.

Arabia Flowerpot, SN, brown
Flower pots designed by Richard Lindh for Arabia are popular vintage finds. The Aili glass bird is by Iittala, Cosy table lamp by Muuto.

IT IS NOT INSIGNIFICANT which kind of pots you use for your greenery. Stylish flower pots and other items for your house plants are sought not only in gardening shops but also in vintage shops and flea markets. In Finland, Arabia's flower pots, and 1950s flower tables and rattan hanging baskets are particularly popular at the moment.

The most coveted Arabia flower pots are those of the SN1 series designed by Richard Lindh (1929–2006). There are still plenty of them around, because they were manufactured for more than two decades (1964–1985), and were extremely popular already at the time.

Arabia Flowerpot, SN, white
Arabia's white SN pots were manufactured in several different sizes. Vitra's wooden doll was designed by Alexander Girard.
Arabia pot Richard Lindh
This pot by Arabia does not include a saucer, nor does it have a drainage hole in the bottom. The Ildhane candleholder is by Nedre Foss.

Richard Lindh worked for Arabia in Helsinki for more than 35 years in various design positions, designing his first flower pots in the late 1950s. You can recognize in them the organic forms typical of the era. Lindh went for a clearer and more timeless form in the tapering SL3 flower pot collection in 1959, and three years later in the rectangular LB2 collection.

The subsequent SN1 pots in cylindrical shape were manufactured mainly in white and black, but there are also some in blue and brown, and hand-decorated ones.

Arabia Flowerpot, SN, Kerä - brown
The black Kerä decoration brings an interesting addition to the flower pot. The saucer in the picture is not from the same collection.
Arabia Flowerpot, SN, blue
The SN pots were also manufactured in blue, green and brown. The deep shade of blue is especially beautiful.
Arabia Flowerpot, SN, brown
The green plants thrive in Arabia's pots. The brown Mini vase is from Marimekko.

The popularity of Lindh’s pots was never fully dependent on their appearance. Green thumbs know that they do their job extremely well: the fine earthenware pots keeps the soil suitably moist yet allowing the flower roots to breathe.

See also:

All designs by Richard Lindh at Franckly >

Text: Anna-Kaisa Huusko Images: Design Stories

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