Florence worked for a 6 month period in the National Trust owned Stately home, Nostell.

Florence’s brief was in response to the story of the ‘Lost Etruscan Vases’

John Winn collected around fifty Greek and Etruscan vases on a Grand Tour of Europe in the early nineteenth century. Sadly John died of a mystery illness and never made it home, leaving his collection stranded on the continent. As a labour of love, his brother Charles rescued the vases, bringing them back to Nostell to be admired by contemporaries, many of whom thought the collection rivalled that in the British Museum.

The collection survived until 1975, when it was sold at auction. The National Trust acquired a few for Nostell but the rest were bought by different collectors and scattered. Today all that exists in the collection are six vases, a small selection of miniatures and the description from a Christie’s sale catalogue to help us imagine these lost, personal treasures.

Florence explored the themes of love, loss and remembrance and produced a collection of work which was housed in Nostell for over a year. The collection was a challenging and creative response and was created to provoke curiosity.