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. Having bought Lady Colefax’s share of the business, Fowler and partner Nancy Lancaster would go on antiques buying trips in the 1940s and 50s. Most were sold at Brook Street, but choice pieces were kept for their own homes. One such was a pair of late 19th century painted two tier flower holders, which Fowler bequeathed to the V&A Museum.
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 of his generation, evolving a look of relaxed elegance that continues to inspire to this day. Known for his love of flowers, Fowler created informal arrangements of cottage garden blooms in simple glass-tubed stands. 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 limited edition flower holder joins Sibyl our existing collection of flower holders. It is handmade and painted in England and will be available throughout 2024, the anniversary year.
