A PAIR OF PAINTED FIBREGLASS VASES EMULATING DELFT FAIENCE, BEARING THE MONOGRAMS EB AND DB, SUPPLIED BY JOHN FOWLER OF COLEFAX & FOWLER TO DAVID AND EVANGELINE BRUCE AT THE ALBANY, LONDON, CIRCA 1970

David K.E. and Evangeline Bruce

Gerald Bland, New York, 19 October 2005

John Cornforth, The Inspiration of the Past (London 1985)

Martin Wood, John Fowler, Prince of Decorators (London 2007)

The vases were modelled by the set designer and decorative painter Christopher Hobbs, working with John Fowler of Colefax and Fowler, for the Drawing Room of the London flat of David and Evangeline Bruce (Cornforth, p.225-226). They demonstrate his ingenuity for finding creative solutions, as Fowler required something lightweight and unbreakable to place on giltwood Georgian brackets flanking the fireplace and ionic pilasters on the main wall. For the space Fowler chose a warm yellow in a nod to the celebrated Yellow Room at 22 Avery Row, with paintings hung on blue sashes headed by bows, an idea that would later be introduced on the other side of the Atlantic by Mario Buatta. The room was published in Architectural Digest in 1991 and remains one of Fowler's best-known interiors, perfectly epitomizing his mature style.

David K.E. Bruce (1898-1977) was a career diplomat who served as ambassador to France, Germany, Great Britain and NATO, the only American to have done so. He was married to Andrew Mellon's daughter Ailsa, but met his second wife Evangeline Bell (1914-1995), herself the daughter of a diplomat, whilst working in London for the OSS during the war. They married in 1945, and with her intelligence (she spoke over five languages), wit and beauty, Evangeline Bruce became a legendary political hostess and style icon both in Washington and abroad. After Bruce's tenure as Ambassador to the Court of St James's came to an end in 1969, the couple decided to retain a London address and secured a set at the Albany, the 18th century townhouse constructed in Piccadilly by Sir William Chambers for Viscount Melbourne that was divided into flats from 1802. David Bruce was from an old Virginia family and friends with Nancy Lancaster, who introduced him to Fowler to work with the Bruces at Wingfield House, the official London residence of the U.S. Ambassador in Regent's Park, and later for their Federal period townhouse in Georgetown