The Origins of Mantel Vases
- Wendy Moulton
- May 25
- 3 min read
Updated: May 30
Like with art and fashion, styles come and go, and come around again, due to world circumstances and the influencers of the time. This is the same for floral art, which has a rich history, spanning 5000 years. To find the origins of mantel vases, we need to jump to the Victorian era of floral art (1830 – 1901) and arguably one of the most notable influencers in this field of art at the time, Constance Spry.
Constance Spry (1886 – 1960)
The original domestic goddess is considered to be the woman who most influenced the floral art world in the 20th Century. Before Constance Spry, floral art in the Victorian era consisted mostly of formal centrepieces in round or oval shapes and single specimen flowers in bud vases. She added a completely new way of designing with flowers by ‘modernising’ and adding interesting materials like branches, lichen, grasses, wildflowers, and even weeds into wild, mixed arrangements. Inspired by 16th and 17th-century Dutch still life paintings, she added vegetables like kale, artichokes, and fruits into her arrangements and was known for doing only-foliage designs – something unheard of in its day.
Constance brought the art of flower design to life and made it more accessible to the ladies of the time. She was a pioneer, teaching people to think creatively when styling their flowers. She opened her first flower shop in 1929, bringing with it the idea that flower arrangements could be bought, rather than just done by the gardener or lady of the house.
One of her creative endeavours was using unconventional vases for flowers – jam jars and antique thrift store finds were among the favourites. She was also instrumental in creating the iconic boat-shaped mantel vase inspired by shells, and named the Spry vase in her honour.
In 1934, she published her first book, Flower Decoration and established the 'Constance Spry Flower School'. She was a florist to the Queen and other royalty, a chef, an author, a gardener, a teacher, and was awarded an OBE in 1953. This is really just a glimpse of the achievements of this amazing woman who influenced floral art for years beyond her lifespan.
This was how she tackled life: "Do what you please, follow your own star; be original if you want to be and don't if you don't want to be. Just be natural and light-hearted and pretty and simple and overflowing and general and baroque and bare and austere and stylized and wild and daring and conservative, and learn and learn and learn. Open your mind to every form of beauty." - Constance Spry
The Spry Vase
Not happy to be confined by traditional vases, Constance Spry designed her own vases to meet her requirements, making the space for flowers and foliage bigger. She tasked her assistant, Florence Standfast, to develop wide-mouthed vases she first made out of papier-mâché coated with plaster or varnish to make them waterproof.
Fulham Pottery was tasked with putting the vases into production to Constance’s exact requirements. It had to be glazed on the inside and matte unglazed in a cream colour on the outside so that it could be painted to complement the colour scheme of the flowers. The most iconic designs made during the early 1930s were Roman-inspired, with a bulbous, shell-like curved bowl and handles on the sides – the mantel vase. This art deco style became timeless and was copied by many other pottery companies of the day.
Fulham Pottery continued to make the Constance Spry designs until the 1950s. If you can find them, they will be stamped on the base with the Constance Spry signature and are sought after by collectors. The mantel vase remains a popular choice for floral artists to this day.
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