MASTERS & APPRENTICES
THE TRANSFER OF PASSION
The Lettering & Commemorative Arts Trust
ISBN 978-0-9515711-7-0
Designed by Charlie Behrens
© The Lettering & Commemorative Arts Trust, 2014 © The authors and the artists, 2014
All photographs by Charlie Behrens, except:
Foreword © Alan Powers, 2014 Introduction © Gary Breeze, 2014 Edited by Gary Breeze & Harriet Frazer All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without first seeking permission from the copyright owners and the publisher: The Lettering & Commemorative Arts Trust (LCAT) Lettering Arts Centre Snape Maltings Suffolk IP17 1SP +44 (0) 1728 688 393 advice@letteringartstrust.org.uk letteringartstrust.org.uk memorialsbyartists.co.uk
Cover photograph of Joseph Cribb and his apprentice Noel Tabbernor, taken in his workshop at the Guild of St Joseph & Dominic, Ditchling Common, Sussex circa 1955 by fellow Guild member Edgar Holloway (reproduced with kind permission of Jennifer Holloway). Page 8: John Neilson carving an inscription commemorating Bishop George Bell into the floor of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, 2000 by John Neilson; pages 6 & 11 by John Neilson; Pages 20-21: David Kindersley carving appears courtesy of the Cardozo Kindersley Workshop with thanks; Pages 34-35: Stuart Buckle and Gary Breeze carving at Gary's workshop by Joshua Larkum. Set in Twin by Mark El-Khatib and Gill Sans Printed on Dutch greyboard 308GSM and Premier Essential Offset 140GSM by: Tuddenham Press Ltd, Ipswich, Suffolk
MASTERS & APPRENTICES T H E T R A N S F E R O F PA S S I O N
Foreword by Alan Powers Introduction by Gary Breeze
The Lettering & Commemorative Arts Trust
‘I’ve come to the conclusion that there are three main ingredients to becoming a good lettercarver, or indeed any good craftsman: Natural ability, Good luck, Hard work.’ K E VI N CR I B B (1928 –2013) ‘My father's method of instruction inspired me never to resort to handing out to students sample sheets to be copied. It is the teacher's direct manifestation of a letter through pencil and paper that gives the inspiration and thrill of creating.’ R ICHAR D K I N DER SLE Y ‘No amount of carving will save a poorly formed letter or design. It can take rather a while for that to become apparent to newcomers to the craft.’ TOM PER K I N S ‘The most valuable and sustaining gift I take from working with Tom is the sense he imparted, through example, of lettercarving being simply worthwhile, with deep connections to certain basic human preoccupations – language, design, making – and a capacity to enrich other people's lives.’
JOH N N EI L SON
‘I am beginning to see just how much of the work is completed on paper, with the most important tool in the workshop being the pencil. I draw letters every day and each day I understand them a little more.’ TOM SARG E ANT
(current apprentice, 2014)
WHAT IS A LETTERCARVER?
Most lettercarvers1 are both designers and carvers. Typefaces designed for printing (such as Times Roman) are rarely satisfactory carved in stone, so most letter carvers design their own letterforms. Some have a 'signature' style they always use, others never make quite the same letters twice. The design, spacing and layout of the lettering are the most important factors in any inscription. The range of work lettercarvers do is varied. As well as memorials, plaques and signs their work may include architectural lettering and public or private commissions of a more sculptural nature, and more 'personal' work for exhibition. Some are proficient in stonemasonry and general carving, others have skills in related areas of lettering such as calligraphy, painted lettering, glass engraving, type design and design for print.
The terms lettercarver, letter carver, lettercutter and letter cutter are generally used to mean the same thing.
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CONTENTS Foreword...........................................................................................................................10 Introduc tion......................................................................................................................12 EDWARD JOHNSTON. . ................................................................................................14 ERIC GILL..........................................................................................................................16 I: THE FIRST MASTERS DAVID KINDERSLE Y. . ................................................................................................... 23 R ALPH BE YER. . ............................................................................................................... 25 KE VIN CRIBB. . ................................................................................................................. 27 DAVID HOLGATE.......................................................................................................... 29 RICHARD KINDERSLE Y................................................................................................31 LIDA LOPES C ARDOZO KINDERSLE Y................................................................... 33 II: THE LCAT APPRENTICES & THEIR MASTERS GARY BREE ZE.. ............................................................................................................... 37 STUART BUCKLE........................................................................................................... 39 CHARLOT TE HOWARTH............................................................................................41 LOUISE TIPL ADY............................................................................................................43 JOHN NEILSON............................................................................................................. 45 SHEENA DE VIT T........................................................................................................... 47 ERIC MARL AND............................................................................................................ 49 PE TER HAMPSON..........................................................................................................51 TOM PERKINS . . ............................................................................................................... 53 FIONA FL ACK. . ............................................................................................................... 55 PIP HALL.......................................................................................................................... 57 WAYNE HART.................................................................................................................59 CHRISTOPHER ELSE Y...................................................................................................61 GEOFFRE Y ALDRED..................................................................................................... 63 TOM SARGE ANT. . ......................................................................................................... 65 A Lettering Tree. . ................................................................................................................ 66 The Lettering & Commemorative Arts Trust: A Brief History.......................................... 68 Lettering Courses.. .............................................................................................................. 70 Suggested Further Reading.................................................................................................. 71 Acknowledgements..............................................................................................................72
The master s and apprentices appear in the order in which their apprenticeships took place
FOREWORD
During the quarter-century since Harriet Frazer’s creation of Memorials by Artists and its later offspring, the Lettering and Commemorative Arts Trust, these closely allied organizations have addressed the activity of lettering from several aspects. The main concern at the beginning could be described as somewhere towards the mouth of a river, where people needing memorials of a more considered quality than those commonly available from the monumental masonry trade were matched to artist craftsmen already involved in this work. Out of an altruistic business there emerged a charitable trust, which started to look both down the stream and higher up. The Art and Memory Collection commissioned examples of fine lettering and sculpture for permanent display in publicly accessible spots around the country, as if nets had been staked out in a broad tidal estuary to catch the attention of passing shoals of all kinds, acting as pointers for inspiration. The apprenticeship scheme, by contrast, is a cultivation of the sources of flow.
other crafts, masonry and the hand painting of lettered signs were challenged by industrialism, and lettering fell by the wayside, with letterforms no longer generated by the skilled combination of hand and eye but more commonly copied from printers’ type, which had been designed for different purposes. Some of these signs, where they survive, are wonderfully vigorous if vulgar, but the signwriter’s skills are now as rarely used as the lettercutter’s. The public at large, including artists and architects, simply lost the ability to see the difference between good and bad lettering by the end of the 19th century. This situation might well have continued, had it not been for a meeting of two men in London in 1898. Edward Johnston, a 26-year-old medical student with a self-taught hobby of copying old lettering, arrived in London from Edinburgh on the fourth of April that year, and the same day was taken to meet William Lethaby, co-principal of the newly-founded Central School of Arts and Crafts. Priscilla Johnston tells the tale in the biography of her father: ‘As principal of a school Lethaby realized that comparatively few of his students would ever be able to make their livings by painting pictures and he urged them to specialize in particular lines of their own and to decide in advance what they wanted to do. “That a student should wish to learn ‘Art’, in general,” he said, “is much as if a seedling putting its nose out of the earth wanted to be a tree in general, when no such thing as a ‘tree’ other than the varieties, oak, beech, palm etc. exists.”’
We know that interruption of the feeder streams soon produces drought lower down, so a sustainable river must look to its watershed to prevent this. In practical terms, this means not merely spreading awareness and brokering between the artist and client, but considering how future practitioners will be able to experience the level of teaching needed in order to make an artistically and financially successful life’s work. While short courses play an important role, the kind of holistic formation implied by apprenticeship is a deeper commitment on all sides. The Lettering and Commemorative Arts Trust (LCAT) began to support apprenticeships in 2002 and has now demonstrated that for lettering this one-to-one method involving all manner of practical knowledge can be depended on to launch new entrants in the field. The Masters and Apprentices exhibition gives the public an understanding of the historical tradition behind workshop learning in this particular craft, in tandem with a campaign to raise funding to provide for its future.
Johnston, vaguely seeking some artistic pathway, told Lethaby that he thought he should ‘learn to draw’, but Lethaby urged him to do something more definite. Johnston admitted that he had dabbled in lettering and at Lethaby’s request, took his samples round the next day. At this second meeting, ‘Lethaby looked at these amateur efforts and uttered a prophecy: “You will do very beautiful work, if you stick to it.” Without doubt, he said, this was the work for him. He praised the manuscripts warmly and, to show his confidence, commissioned one for himself.’
Traditionally, the cutting of letters in stone was part of the mason’s craft, the most skilled of the building trades. Like
Lethaby probably said similar things to many students, but in no other case can the results have been so trans10
formative and rapid. Most of the letterers in the Englishspeaking world can trace their ancestry back to Johnston, and the remainder to a parallel German tradition. At a time when lettering as an artistic craft had ceased to exist in Britain, Johnston began to reinvent it on principles that got to the root of the thing. He combined the study of historical examples with an understanding of the relationship between forms and the tools that made them, plus the formation of the right attitude to learning and practice in the person doing the job. Apprenticeship not only involves a master and pupil, but the intangible presence of lettering as a discipline, a master to whom both must defer, a standard to be understood in terms of right and wrong. In A Potter’s Book (1946), Bernard Leach explained why his own craft should not be left to the industrial designer. His opening chapter is called ‘Towards a standard’. For him, this was represented by Chinese Sung Dynasty pottery, as a benchmark for physical engagement with materials and processes, making work that would be individual but not irritatingly individualistic. Johnston’s profound insight into the meaning of a standard was transmitted to one of Johnston’s first students, Eric Gill, and in his turn to his pupils. It is not something that can be explained briefly, but if the work you see here inspires you, follow it up by reading Johnston’s words1. A standard implies a refusal of relativism, but it is not illiberal dogma, rather the internalization of centuries of practice, which, in the case of lettering, has solid foundations in the legibility and integrity of form. Examples in the exhibition show that a standard need not be limited to a
single chant, but becomes a much more supple agent of control, stemming from the artist’s own sense of order, but never lifeless or rigid. The other intangible presence in the workshop is a sense of responsibility. Most lettering is placed before the public, often in architectural settings of the highest quality, and it is expected to remain there for a long time. On both these counts, the responsibility to do it well is a serious one and, in the absence of such general awareness that in music, for example, ensures agreement about harmony and tuning, we need to defer to those who have eyes accustomed to judging such things. Experts are needed, and they in turn need an informed public to support them, and nobody has done more than the Lettering and Commemorative Arts Trust to make this subject live and urgent in our time. Will neurology one day explain where this standard is to be found in the activity of the brain? Can we then find the way back to a primal innocence in which nothing ugly could be made, or could computers be programmed to achieve the same effect? Personally, I hope that patient work of the skilled lettering artist doing the simple but eternally elusive job of putting words into shapes will continue to be the way through which this corner of the mystery of the universe is unlocked. Alan Powers, March 2014 Dr Alan Powers writes on British visual arts and culture of the past 100 years. His latest book is Eric Ravilious: Artist and Designer (2013).
Edward Johnston, Writing and Illuminating and Lettering, 1906 and later editions; Edward Johnston, Formal Penmanship and other papers, 1971. Edited by Heather Child; Edward Johnston, Lessons in Formal Writing, 1986. Edited by Heather Child and Justin Howes.
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INTRODUCTION
The drawing and carving of letters onto stone and wood is an exacting craft whose principles go back to the Classical world. The skills required to do the best work are hard won. The design, drawing and layout of letters themselves can take years to master and are rarely understood without the guidance of a knowledgeable tutor. Even those few artists who might describe themselves as self-taught will always acknowledge the importance of studying the work of the masters of the past.
to take up lettering as an important element of design and drawing training. But as with so many of the fundamental skills once taught in art schools, since the 1960s we have seen the gradual demise of good college teaching in lettering and calligraphy, perhaps precisely because they are too difficult to be taught quickly. As a result the need for apprenticeships and personal tuition is more important than ever. When Eric Gill, who attended Johnston’s evening classes at the Central School, set up his first workshop in 1905, he did so within a culture that took formal apprenticeships for granted. His first assistant was Joseph Cribb who was indentured to Gill in 1907. He continued to train apprentices and pupils until his early death in 1940, teaching a host of people including David Jones, Anthony Foster, David Kindersley, Ralph Beyer and John Skelton.
Today Britain has a strong international reputation in the lettering arts and lettercarving in particular, and this is largely due to the dedicated way the knowledge and practice of fine lettering and carving has been passed down from one craftsperson to another. Surveying the relatively high number of craft workshops in Britain dedicated to good lettercarving today, we begin to notice a web of interconnectivity between them; a network which is based on teaching.
For Gill and his followers, the design of letters was a rational and unquestionable discipline which should not be subject to the vagaries of personal style or fashion. A prolific writer and polemicist, his ideas could be summed up by his advice: ‘Look after goodness and truth, and beauty will take care of itself.’ Although one could argue that Gill denied the extent to which his own whims fashioned the letters and sculptures he made, his enthusiasm for fine craftsmanship was inspiring.
Masters and Apprentices takes just one small part of that web: seven apprentices funded by the Lettering and Commemorative Arts Trust (LCAT) since 2002 are shown alongside their teachers. The exhibition goes further and shows work by the masters who taught and influenced those teachers in a continuous line of lettercarvers1 who trace their roots in the craft to Edward Johnston himself, the ‘father of modern calligraphy’.
David Kindersley, in the opening pages of a book about his work and workshop, said of his master,
Lettercarvers see the drawing and carving of letters as a particular craft in itself, allied to, but distinct from masonry and carving in general. Most of them recognize that the apprenticeship system, or at least a long period of dedicated study, is still the best way to achieve good results. Such discipline may be seen as out of step with our consumer-led culture. College courses increasingly pander to the wishes of the students who are paying for them, rather than teaching what they ought to learn.
‘Views on almost any subject were always reasoned if not reasonable, and they influenced me for life.’ Kindersley goes on to describe the young apprentice’s experience of learning with Gill, ‘Eric Gill’s way of teaching was to invite the learner to draw an alphabet, and then, when he wanted a letterform changed, instead of pedagogic correction, he would quietly say, “Here we do it like this.” After the alphabet had been redrawn, perhaps once or twice more, the beginner would be allowed to cut his first alphabet. This would be
Edward Johnston was largely responsible for reviving the art of penmanship, teaching and influencing a generation of typographers and calligraphers in the early years of the twentieth century. His ideas paved the way for art schools 12
in Hopton Wood stone, which, with proper skills, would yield a beautiful letter. However, it is a difficult medium to work and Gill would say that if you could carve letters in Hopton Wood stone, you would be able to carve letters in anything.’1 When he employed apprentices himself, Kindersley naturally took up Gill’s baton of rigorous training and adherence to strict discipline in the workshop. On display in this exhibition is Kindersley’s Do Not All Charms Fly?, designed by him in 1969 and carved in 1976 by Lida Lopes Cardozo. It is entirely different from his simple alphabet in slate, but creative experimentation was strictly a post-apprenticeship activity. Not until certain skills were mastered would the true craftsman be allowed such freedom. In this exhibition we also see three alphabets by apprentices of Kindersley’s: David Holgate, Richard Kindersley and Lida Lopes Cardozo, separated by twenty-one years overall and yet all adhering to forms and principles entirely related to those of their teacher’s. All Kindersley’s apprentices went on to use his ideas as a foundation for the development of their own mature styles. After seven years with Kindersley, David Holgate left lettering for a time to pursue a career as a musician and on returning to lettering in the mid-1970s sought more personal sources of inspiration. New ideas about the use of the brush in Roman inscriptional design resonated with the techniques he had seen being used by his father, who was a skilled signwriter, and Holgate took up the brush himself, developing a style distinctly his own. We Are Here Already, designed in the 1980s, brings all of his influences together. David Kindersley’s son Richard has been experimenting with letterform, developing a dialogue between materials and shapes, since the 1960s. He is best known for collaborations with architects and for using materials such as concrete and steel, from which most craftspeople would shy away. Artword is a good example; a maquette for a larger project which demonstrates his continued interest in new ways of making words. Perhaps no less impressive is the list of successful craftspeople who have trained under Richard, which reads like a Who’s Who of the lettercarving community. Two other important lettercarvers are featured among the patriarchal masters of this exhibition: Ralph Beyer and Kevin Cribb. Beyer worked with Gill for a few months in 1937-8 as a young refugee from Nazism. Born in Germany, he was familiar with the lettering of his father’s friend the calligrapher Rudolf Koch, and with the early Christian carvings which interested his father. These early influences 1 2
resurfaced in the 1950s when he saw the lettering work of the artist and poet David Jones who had also been apprenticed to Gill in 1921. The Chi-Rho Alpha-Omega stone shown in this exhibition is a good example of Beyer’s freer approach to the concept of the inscription. His influence has been profound in recent years. Kevin Cribb (19282013), was one of the last of that generation whose work is straightforwardly in the Gill tradition. His father, Lawrence, was Gill’s principal assistant from 1924 until Gill’s death in 1940, so Kevin grew up immersed in the life of the stone workshop. For over thirty years, before leaving to work on his own, Kevin was a mainstay of David Kindersley’s workshop in Cambridge. His youngest son Noel, an apprentice of the Cardozo Kindersley Workshop, continues the Cribb dynasty of lettercarvers. And so this brings us to the later generation of lettercarvers whose work is shown in this exhibition. In the order in which the apprenticeships took place, the masters are: Gary Breeze, John Neilson, Eric Marland, Charlotte Howarth, Pip Hall, Tom Perkins, Christopher Elsey and Geoffrey Aldred2, alongside their seven apprentices: Stuart Buckle, Sheena Devitt, Peter Hampson, Louise Tiplady, Wayne Hart, Fiona Flack and Thomas Sargeant. By seeing the work of these Masters and Apprentices together we can gain an insight into their individual approaches to training and teaching practice. But above all we can experience the breadth and variety of the work; a testimony to the patient way these precious and in some ways fragile skills have been passed on. Masters and Apprentices examines that process. But what we are also seeing here is a starting point. It is clear that a period of training can only establish certain fundamental principles, and it is not until one is cast adrift from the overseeing eye of the master that true learning begins. It is only when the safety net is removed that the individual artist can evolve and develop his or her own personal style of working. In this exhibition we see this process in action too. Each tutor has passed on what they can to their respective pupils; the essence of a tradition going back four generations or beyond. And yet we can observe in these works an intriguing freedom in the interpretation of the twenty-six letterforms of the alphabet. We see the masterly hand of the experienced craftsperson, and we see the developing eye. Masters and Apprentices is as much a celebration of the individual artist as it is an affirmation of the importance of the sound and scholarly transfer of skills and principles; techniques which have their roots in mankind’s most ancient civilizations. Gary Breeze, March 2014
David Kindersley: His Work & Workshop, 1989. Montague Shaw, Cardozo Kindersley, Cambridge Christopher Elsey and Geoffrey Aldred share the Stone Carving and Lettering Studio in Sussex
EDWARD JOHNSTON (1872–1944) Edward Johnston is widely regarded as the father of modern British calligraphy. He was largely responsible for reviving the art of broad-edged penmanship, teaching and influencing a generation of typographers and calligraphers at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and the Royal College of Art in the early years of the twentieth century. His seminal book Writing and Illuminating, and Lettering published in 1906 included a chapter on lettercarving by his former pupil Eric Gill. In 1915 Johnston was commissioned to design the typeface and roundel for London Transport, revised versions of
which are still used today.
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ERIC GILL
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ERIC GILL (1882–1940) A prolific engraver, sculptor, typographer and writer, Gill was a prominent figure in the development of modern British art. From 1900 he attended evening classes in masonry at the Westminster Technical Institute and in lettering at the Central School of Arts and Crafts under the guidance of Edward Johnston. Gill began working as a letter cutter in 1903. He took on his first assistant Joseph Cribb three years later and continued to train numerous apprentice-assistants for more than thirty years, including David Jones, Anthony Foster, David Kindersley, Ralph Beyer and his own nephew John Skelton.
left: Eric Gill guiding the hand of W. R. Burch, then director of the Monotype Corporation, 1929
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A B C by DAV I D K I N D E R S L E Y
206 x 444 x 20mm Delabole slate, 1947
A P P R E N T I C E A L P H A B E T b y D AV I D H O L G AT E
230 x 445 x 40mm Hopton Wood limestone, 1955
TH E EXH I BI T IO N Lettering Arts Centre, Snape Maltings, Suffolk 4th April – 29th June 2014
A NOTE ON AL PHAB E TS A S APPR ENTICESH I P PI ECES There are a number of alphabets on show in Masters and Apprentices. A good alphabet has the appearance of a large family where each member displays certain features and characteristics so that they resemble one another. Most apprentices in the lettering arts, be they signwriters or lettercarvers, are invariably required to produce an alphabet at some point in their training in order to demonstrate that they understand these relationships and can create a full range of letters which are perfectly in tune with each other. Alphabets often remain in the workshop as samplers, giving visiting clients an indication of the lettercarver’s approach. For lettering craftspeople themselves, the creation of an alphabet can be an exciting and challenging exercise, and remains the simplest way of trying out new ideas within a coherent design.
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I : TH E F I R S T M A S TE R S
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CHI RO / ALPHA OMEGA
Portland limestone, date unknown 205 x 205 x 35mm
RALPH BEYER
Ralph was born in Berlin. His father Oskar was a leading writer on art and culture and knew the pioneering calligrapher Rudolf Koch. Both had a profound influence on Beyer. In 1937, as a refugee from Nazism, he worked for Eric Gill for a few months. Later he also worked for David Kindersley.
Beyer taught at a number of art colleges from the late 1950s, most notably at Reading University and at the City and Guilds of London Art School. His distinctly European approach to carved lettering has had a profound influence on a generation of lettercarvers.
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THE FIRST MASTERS
In the 1950s Beyer was inspired by the painted inscriptions of Gill’s friend David Jones and developed a freer approach to lettercarving. He is best known for his work on the new Coventry Cathedral where, in 1961, he carved a series of large inscriptions known as The Tablets of the Word.
W E A R E H ER E A L R E A DY
340 x 235 x 20mm Welsh slate, 2013
D AV I D H O L G AT E
David was apprenticed to David Kindersley in 1955. ‘I was born in Romford in 1939 and raised in Trumpington where I would rest on the Eric Gill war memorial to and from school. Musical scholarship to St. John’s College Choir School aged nine. Moved to a state school to avoid bullying, then Cambridge Central Grammar until a five-year apprenticeship with David Kindersley and two years as his personal assistant before moving to Norfolk.
‘Eventually DK asked me to draw an alphabet. It took a morning. He then spent a day going over what I had drawn. “Now draw another alphabet.” It took three days! I realised just how much there was to learn. Again DK spent several hours going over my work. “OK, now draw another alphabet.” This one took a week of drawing and rubbing out and re-drawing. I became determined to draw some letters that DK didn’t need to change. What a lucky young man! What a privilege!’
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THE FIRST MASTERS
‘A transcendent moment occurred to me that could only be expressed by the phrase “We are already here!”. I tried carving it into a piece of slate but it didn't work so I changed the phrase to read “We are here already”. It acts as a kind of “sampler” of letterforms. The colours are important: Red for our being (We): Blue for our consciousness (are): Silver for our sense of presence (here): gold for the miraculous realisation (already)!’
‘My father was an excellent signwriter so I was brought up surrounded by beautifully formed letters. It was my father who took me to see David Kindersley’s workshop. I loved it! Initially I spent some time just making tea, sweeping the floor, learning how to sharpen chisels properly and rubbing down stone by hand. At this point I wondered if I had done the right thing as I was aching to be more creative!
APPRENTICE ALPHABET
230 x 585 x 20 mm Hopton Wood limestone, 1961
ART WORD MAQUE T TE
200 x 800 x 20mm balsa wood, 2013
R ICH A R D K I N D ERS LEY
Richard was apprenticed to his father David in 1957. Since the 1960s Richard has trained countless assistants at his workshops in London.
‘I remember the high-mindedness my father tried to instil about honesty. That is honesty in one’s approach to work. Particularly being honest about mistakes and how there should be a link between one’s moral attitude to one's work and one’s general moral attitude to life and its conduct. In short he believed as Gill, that one's work had a special penetration into one's philosophical beliefs’
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THE FIRST MASTERS
‘I have always been interested in materials and in particular the way they influence letterforms. To construct letters from simple planks of timber is very constraining, imposing exciting and challenging possibilities in designing letterforms. The consequent stripping back to essentials produces a strangely satisfactory aesthetic.’
‘I remember my first day. My father and I sat together where he drew letters for me. It was a wonderful and eye-opening experience because, as my father drew, he kept a running commentary, often producing physical analogies of why letters were the shape they were. An example was when he drew a letter “c”, first quickly sketching in the letter “o”, then mimicking in his left hand, between index finger and thumb, the letter “o”, and with his right hand an imaginary pair of scissors to snip the letter in two places to form the letter “c”. The teaching insight happened when, after cutting the “o”, my father allowed his finger and thumb to spring apart. In a flash one saw the physical dynamics behind the shape with unforgettable clarity. This method of instruction inspired me never to resort to handing out to students sample sheets to be copied. It is the teacher’s direct manifestation of a letter, through pencil and paper, that gives the inspiration and thrill of creating.
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I I : TH E LC AT A P PR E NTI C E S & TH E I R M A S TE R S
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ALPHABET III
310 x 300 x 30mm Portland limestone, 2014
g a ry b r e e z e
Gary trained with David Holgate in Norwich, assisting him for four years before working with Richard Kindersley in London in 1992. He set up his own workshop a year later. He exhibits widely and has won numerous public art commissions, assisted for the past eleven years by Stuart Buckle. Gary has recently started teaching lettercarving in wood at West Dean College.
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MASTERS & APPRENTICES
‘Carved lettering seems to have a meaning for us beyond what it says in words. The Latin alphabet consists of at least 63 separate elements: verticals, diagonals, round strokes, horizontals, and various other ligatures and marks. Alphabet III takes those same elements and rearranges them into new forms, unreadable as shapes but retaining something of the power of the inscribed letter.’
‘I was at art school when I first visited David Holgate’s place in 1988. I knew instantly that I wanted to be in a workshop, just making things. It was only much later that I learned that David could trace his knowledge of letterform back to the teaching of Eric Gill through his own training with David Kindersley in Cambridge. After working for a couple of years part-time, David took me on full-time in 1990. I was taught masonry, carving in stone, slate and wood, and of course drawing; always lots of drawing! But mostly I learned about craftsmanship. It wasn’t just his know-how that I benefited from, but his incredible generosity. David PAID me to learn and got very little in return because after a couple of years I left to work for Richard Kindersley. I learnt a great deal from Richard as well. We owe our teachers everything, and the only way we can really repay them is by passing the baton on to the next generation.’
A L PH A B E T F O R R U DY
360 x 340 x 25mm Aberllefenni slate, 2014
s t u a rt b u c k l e
Stuart was apprenticed to Gary Breeze in 2002. He applied for the LCAT Apprenticeship Scheme after leaving school, having seen it advertised in the local newspaper.
‘As the alphabet is intended for Rudy’s nursery I used the “friendlier” hand-written italic letters, arranged them in a spherical design and chose a playful colour scheme, blending from yellow to blue.’
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MASTERS & APPRENTICES
‘One of my first tasks as a lettering apprentice was to carve an alphabet, so it seemed only fitting to carve another for this exhibition, but with a twist; I have incorporated the name of my new born son, Rudy.
‘I had never done any lettering before, but I instantly loved the atmosphere of the workshop, the quality of the things being made and the ability to create finished things of beauty with my own hands. Learning while working was the best thing for me; the training I’ve had is like going to the best university. I trained with Gary for three years, and worked as his assistant full-time for a further three years. I continue to work with Gary on a part-time basis whilst designing and making memorials and plaques to commission at my own workshop near Eye in Suffolk.’
WA L K I N G W E S T
475 x 395 x 28mm Kilkenny limestone, 2014
C H A R L O T T E H O WA RT H
Charlotte was introduced to lettercarving at fifteen by her step-father David Baker, who had learnt from David Dewey, one of David Kindersley’s students. She spent three years studying lettering at the City and Guilds of London Art School. After finishing there Charlotte worked as an apprentice to Richard Kindersley and then in Ireland with Ken Thompson.
‘I wanted to reflect some of this in my carving, for the stone to be strong and bold and full of texture and colour.’
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MASTERS & APPRENTICES
‘I live in the Nar Valley and there are lots of walks for my husband and me to enjoy. This walk we typically do on a Sunday afternoon. I have walked this way for almost 25 years and know it intimately – each field and tree, how the track raises and falls, how it changes through the seasons, the smells and way the light falls at different times of the year. It is always a rich and colourful experience.
‘I always loved learning and have been lucky enough to have benefited from fantastic teachers. I have had a broad range of input – from my step-father David Baker, Richard Kindersley, Brenda Berman, Annet Stirling and Ralph Beyer. I especially remember working with Ralph. We always got on well and had lots of laughs together. He would always find time to sit down with some books and talk me through what we were looking at, what he saw, and what he wanted me to understand. I realised then how important this was, for Ralph to help me learn, and how privileged I was to be there. All my tutors took time to invest in me and now it’s my turn to pay back this generosity and invest in the next generation of letterers.’
T WO F O R J OY
230 x 570 x 17mm Cumbrian slate, 2014
L O U I S E T I P L A DY
Louise first trained as a stonemason/carver at Weymouth College, working on projects that included the restoration of Hereford Cathedral and Keble College, Oxford. She was apprenticed to Charlotte Howarth in 2005, finishing her initial training with Charlotte two years later.
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MASTERS & APPRENTICES
‘I didn’t think that the lettering should be too formal, as the saying seemingly holds no logic stemming from folklore. I wanted the words to seem forceful and spat out with slightly manic lettering and menacing birds. I envisage the plaques hung up with the wall colour behind disjointing them. I wanted the colouring of the magpie to be shown purely through how I textured the stone. I felt that two birds had to be carved, as who would want one for sorrow?’
‘Charlotte was very open throughout the apprenticeship about how she runs her business, which has helped me by setting a good example. Her guidance was extremely important, particularly in the making of memorials as it is such a sensitive thing to undertake. Not only do you have to be skilled with the creation of such an object but you also have to be confident with design and working with clients, who may be very emotional at the time. You have to be able to interpret sometimes slightly vague descriptions into a piece of work that is beautiful and approved of by both the client and the church authorities. Personally I feel that my apprenticeship was crucial in developing these skills. Throughout my apprenticeship the understanding of lettering and experimenting with its forms was encouraged, and I feel that this has set me in good stead for my current practice. I feel confident about my future as a lettercarver and I feel that it will continue to be my lifetime’s occupation.’
LETTERING COURSES & APPRENTICESHIPS The Lettering & Commemorative Arts Trust is one of the main providers of training in lettercarving. We run an Apprenticeship Scheme, short courses in letter drawing and lettercarving, also short courses in calligraphy.
LET TERCARVING Lettering tuition is an integral part of the Stone and Wood Carving Diplomas at City & Guilds of London Art School (cityandguildsartschool.ac.uk) Studio XII, Bruges, Belgium (studioxii.com) offers full-time courses in lettering (in all its aspects), and a summer school which includes lettercarving. Short lettercarving courses are organised by The Lettering & Commemorative Arts Trust at various places across the country.
Lettering Arts Centre, Suffolk (letteringartstrust.org.uk) West Dean College, Sussex (westdean.org.uk) The Edward Johnston Foundation, Sussex (ejf.org) and by local calligraphy groups. Learning programmes and/ or correspondence courses are offered by: Calligraphy & Lettering Arts Society (clas.co.uk)
Some lettering is taught on stonemasonry courses at Weymouth College, Dorchester (weymouth.ac.uk) and elsewhere. There are no full-time courses in the UK.
Society of Scribes & Illuminators (calligraphyonline.org)
Short and part-time courses are also run at:
Gillian Hazeldine (gillianhazeldine.co.uk)
West Dean College, Sussex (westdean.org.uk)
T YPE DESIGN & T YPOGR APHY
East Surrey College (esc.ac.uk)
Full-time type design and typography courses at:
Orton Trust, Northants (ortontrust.org.uk)
University of Reading (reading.ac.uk)
Cromarty Arts Trust, Cromarty (cromartyartstrust.org.uk)
Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, Netherlands (kabk.nl)
Haysom's Quarry, Dorset (01929 439205) Burngate Centre, Dorset (burngatestonecentre.co.uk) National Stone Centre, Derbyshire (nationalstonecentre.org.uk) Helen Mary Skelton's workshop, Sussex (helenmaryskelton.co.uk) and by other individuals in their workshops. CALLIGR APHY There is no longer a full-time course in the UK. Short courses are run at several places, including:
Gaynor Goffe (gaynorgoffe-calligraphy.co.uk)
Typography (often as part of graphic design) on several BA and some postgraduate courses including Central Saint Martins, London College of Communication and Camberwell (all part of University of the Arts London (arts.ac.uk)), Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge (anglia. ac.uk) and elsewhere. APPRENTICESHIPS The Lettering & Commemorative Arts Trust (letteringartstrust.org.uk) Please also apply to us for information on independent workshops/studios that may be happy to consider taking on an apprentice. Careful research is important: the best ‘masters’ are likely to have had a thorough training themselves, especially in letterform design.
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING Titles with an asterisk* are available from the Lettering Arts Centre
BOOKS Tom Perkins, The Art of Lettercarving in Stone*, Crowood Press 2007. Richard Grasby, Lettercutting in Stone, (1989), Sacketts 2011.
Baines & Dixon, Signs: Lettering in the Environment, Laurence King 2003. The following titles are published by us and are currently available:
Michael Harvey, Creative Lettering Today, A&C Black 1996
Memorials by Artists Guide*, 4th edn, Memorials by Artists 2008
David Kindersley & Lida Lopes Cardozo, Letters Slate Cut* (1990), Cardozo Kindersley 2004
Memorials by Artists for Young People, Children and Babies*, Memorials by Artists 2005
Michael Harvey, Adventures with Letters*, 47 Editions 2012
Art & Memory – New Perspectives on Memorial Art*, Memorial Arts Charity 2009.
Martin Gayford, David Kindersley & Lida Lopes Cardozo, Apprenticeship*, Cardozo Kindersley 2003
Art & Memory in the Churchyard*, Memorial Arts Charity 2010.
Nicolete Gray, A History of Lettering, Phaidon 1986
JOURNALS/MAGA ZINES/RESOURCES
Jakob & Leicher, Schrift und Symbol, Callwey 1995
Letter Arts Review US magazine mostly on calligraphy.
Alan Bartram, The English Lettering Tradition from 1700 to the Present Day, Lund Humphries 1986
Codex, Occasional US journal (codexmag.com)
E. Catich, The Origin of the Serif (1968), Catich Gallery 1991
Forum*, Twice-yearly journal of Letter Exchange, available to non-members. Often contains articles on lettercarving/ lettercarvers.
Edward Johnston, Writing and Illuminating, and Lettering (1906), A&C Black 1994.
The Edge (CLAS), The Scribe (SSI), and the EJF Journal also sometimes have articles related to lettercarving.
Fiona MacCarthy, Eric Gill, Faber 1989.
Natural Stone Directory Lists UK stones, quarries & suppliers. Updated every two years (qmj.co.uk)
Ewan Clayton, The Golden Thread: The Story of Writing*, Atlantic Books 2013.
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