Fowler the redecorator
Sir: With reference to Gavin Stamp's review of John Cornforth's Inspiration of The Past (9 August) I would just like to correct some of the criticism aimed at John Fowler. Having worked with him on many houses including those belonging to the National Trust, I can vouch for the fact that he was most painstaking in trying to discover what the original intentions had been for a house. At the same time, he was never so purist as to discard, without thought, later additions.
If he had to rely on his own knowledge and judgment as how best to carry out a redecoration, he always endeavoured to make as sympathetic and uncomplicated an interpretation as possible. Evidence was always available.
He never used 16 shades of off-white! Very occasionally, he allowed his own taste to predominate but that was always backed by his considerable knowledge. On the matter of the staircase at Sudbury we in fact discovered that it had been painted in off-white originally.
Whoever decides upon the redecoration of a particular house uses their interpreta- tion of the past. The use of modern paints in itself is an interpretation.
John was the least snobbish of people. Maybe there is confusion in Mr Stamp's mind to do with the many imitators of John Fowler.
George Oakes
Libbets Cottages, Mereworth, Kent
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