Pair of Concrete Swan Planters by the Concrete Machinery Company. Cast shapes painted to look like swans, with copyright information written on the side near bottom. 

Condition: Commensurate with use and the elements. 

Size (each): 26 x 10 x 18 in. 

#7003 . 

In 1954 twenty-four year old Vernon Sherrill Flowers returned to his hometown of Hickory, North Carolina after completing his service with the Air Force in the Korean War. A graduate of Columbia University, he had fought as a pilot but became fascinated by construction and concrete casting after observing the work of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. After studying and researching techniques he convinced his father, a World War II veteran and dentist named Dr. Ralph Conrad Flowers (1900-1988), to join him in creating the Concrete Machinery Company, Inc. The two acted as co-presidents of the company until Ralph’s death, and they specialized in supplying construction companies with materials as well as crafting cast concrete statues, garden ornaments, and other home furnishings. Their high-quality urns, finials, and especially animal figures (particularly swans, deer, hedgehogs, and other wild animals) were very popular, and were crafted both as solid pieces and in a hollow form to be used as planters and lawn decorations. The company and their designs were part of a landmark copyright infringement case in the 1980s that was settled by the North Carolina Supreme Court, determining that no company could claim copyright of all possible designs based on a handful of forms, and that the court “cannot recognize copyright as a game of chess in which the public can be checkmated.” After both of Vernon’s brothers passed away in the 1990s and his son (also named Vernon) declined to join the company as the new president, the stress of running it by himself began to take its toll, and Concrete Machinery Company was closed down in 2011. Vernon passed away in 2022, and his original designs can be seen in a book he published in 1959, “How to Turn Concrete Into Gold,” with many variants of them made by companies throughout North Carolina since the turn of the century.

Commensurate with use and the elements.