Talk

Reynolds Stone: Life and Work

28 April 2022, 7:00pm - 8:00pm

To coincide with the exhibition Scene through Wood: A century of Modern Wood Engraving, Humphrey Stone discusses the life and work of his father, Reynolds Stone, in this evening’s lecture.

Reynolds Stone CBE RDI (1909-1979) was a distinguished wood engraver. He helped champion the renaissance in good printing and type design and was an accomplished watercolour painter and letter cutter in stone. His legacy endures in much that remains familiar, including the coat of arms on a British passport. After an apprenticeship with Cambridge University Press, Stone’s career quickly blossomed. Commissions poured in for bookplates, designs and illustrations. In 1953 Reynolds and his wife Janet bought a house in Litton Cheney in the Bride Valley. The Old Rectory’s ponds and wild garden provided Reynolds with the inspiration and seclusion he needed. His work over the years that followed bore an individuality and style uniquely his own: the masthead for The Times, Winston Churchill’s Memorial in Westminster Abbey, postage stamps, the £5 and £10 notes, as well as private commissions, watercolours, two typefaces, and numerous bookplates.

Humphrey Stone is the author of Reynolds Stone: A Memoir (Dovecote Press, 2019). He is a freelance designer mainly of books, but also logos and calligraphy. Married to paper marbler Solveig, they have four daughters and live on the Wiltshire/Dorset border.