Abstract

This thesis explores the practice of London-based florist Constance Spry (1886–1960), focusing on her interaction with the emerging field of interior decoration. I outline the historical context of flower arrangement in Britain to establish the cultural role of flowers in domestic spaces. Focusing on the 1930s, I put Spry’s popularization of all-white flower arrangements in conversation with white as a modernist cornerstone, in order to interrogate its associations in this period with newness, cleanliness and health. I follow scholars of Sapphic Modernity, queer history, and queer theory in my analysis, which foregrounds themes of nostalgia and temporal dissonance to suggest that Spry’s work has a multi-temporal quality which pertains to a queer experience of modernity. I contest the gendered divisions between art, design, decoration, and floristry in situating Spry as a unique individual in these histories.