Floral Arrangement by Constance Spry for Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation Banquet, Lancaster House

A large arrangement by Constance Spry for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation banquet at Lancaster House, London. Spry writes in 'Party Flowers', " Sir David [Eccles] proposed to bring to Lancaster House from one of the museums an urn and pedestal, 9 feet in height, made of malachite, and told us that we might see if it proved possible suitably to fill this with flowers. So a day or two before the party this fabulous and brilliant treasure was set in place at the head of the first flight of the grand staircase. There were several anxious consultations as to how suitable material might be found for a vase of such proportions. Part of the problem was solved by the kindness of Sir Edward Salisbury who sent wonderful things from the palm house at Kew, and there were many surprised faces when one morning men unloaded from a van a consignment of leaves anything from 12 to 15 feet high. These were indeed fine for our purpose, but in addition we needed colour, and colour in proportion. From normal sources of supply nothing suitable could be found; but these were not normal days, they had magic in them. We could not have anticipated that the final touches for the malachite urn would come to us in so astonishing a fashion, from far distant and tropical countries....A few days prior to 2nd June there had arrived air case by case of flowers: gifts for the Queen from the countries of the Commonwealth."
Image from a Constance Spry photograph album, Ref: 2019.265.10