THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY

JOHN FOWLER TWO TIER FLOWER HOLDER

 

 

This year, Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler turns 90. To celebrate, we are launching a limited edition of our popular two tier flower holder, a faithful reproduction of John Fowler’s original, which he left to the V&A Museum. In the post-war era of make do and mend, Fowler was celebrated for his unexpected adaptions. His idea of turning a test tube into a vase was ingenious, as not only do the flowers arrange themselves perfectly, but plywood and lab test tubes were not under ration at the time. Elevating a practical object such as a laboratory test tube rack to become a decorative vase amused him greatly, and he enjoyed creating informal arrangements of blooms from The Hunting Lodge’s gardens in the glass-tubed stands.

 

Original vase seen here – image courtesy of the V&A Museum London

 

Described by the Duchess of Devonshire as ‘the Prince of Decorators’, Fowler changed tastes and set fashions like no other, evolving a look of relaxed elegance that continues to inspire to this day. His preference for natural arrangements that mixed the humble with the grand is shared by Colefax decorators past and present. As wrote Roger Banks Pye, flowers must be “selected and matched to the right container so that they become inseparable contributors to the decoration.” The John Fowler replica joins Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler’s existing collection of flower holders and will be available throughout 2024, the anniversary year.