Reynolds Stone

Reynolds Stone studied at Eton College and Magdalene College. The recorded working language is English. Work by Reynolds Stone is recorded in the collections of Huis van het boek. Distinctions recorded are Royal Designer for Industry, Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Stone was born on 13 March 1909 at Eton College, where both his grandfather, E. D. Stone, and father, E. W. Stone, were assistant masters. He was educated there and at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he obtained a degree in history in 1930. He had no clear idea of his future, and, at the suggestion of Francis Scott, a young don at Magdalene, almost drifted into a two-year apprenticeship at the Cambridge University Press, where he came under the influence of Walter Lewis and, more importantly, F. G. Nobbs, the overseer of the composing department. Nobbs, to quote Stone, 'whisked me out of the hand-composing room into his office' where he taught him to appreciate letter design. A chance encounter with Eric Gill on the London to Cambridge train led to Stone spending a fortnight with Gill at Piggotts in Speen, Buckinghamshire engraving an alphabet on wood. In 1932 he moved to Taunton, where he spent two years working at the printing firm of Barnicott & Pearce, a very different experience from his time in Cambridge. His experience of printing convinced him that this was not what he wanted to do for rest of his life. At Taunton he came across some old wood blocks which Barnicott gave him, and, in a bookshop at Combwich, he started to buy the wood engraved books of the 1850s and 1860s. He had already come across the wood engravings of Thomas Bewick at Cambridge, and, in 1934, 'sacked himself' and became a freelance wood engraver, moving to Codicote near Hitchin. He married the photographer Janet Woods in 1938. They had four children – the painter Edward Stone (1940), the designer Humphrey Stone (1942), the illustrator Phillida Gili, and Emma Beck, wife of artist Ian Beck. His wife had a 30 year long relationship with Kenneth Clark. The family were friends of the poet Cecil Day-Lewis and his family. In 2017 his son, the actor Daniel Day-Lewis named his character in Phantom Thread "Reynolds Woodcock", as a reference to him, and his typeface designs were used for the titles of the film. He was elected a member of the Society of Wood Engravers in 1948. In 1953 he was appointed a CBE and moved to the Old Rectory in Litton Cheney near Dorchester, where he lived until his death.

Stone's output was considerable. Nearly all of his contemporaries would have seen his work, although few knew his name. A common sight in most high streets was the logo that he designed for Dolcis and which featured on the frontage of all their shoe shops. In 1949 he redesigned the famous clock logo of The Times. He engraved the Royal Arms for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953 and the official coat of arms for Her Majesty's Stationery Office in 1955, still reproduced today on the cover of the UK passport. He also designed the coat of arms for the British Council. He designed a number of Royal Mail postage stamps, starting with the 1946 Victory stamp. He designed the £5 and £10 bank notes respectively in 1963 and 1964 – including the Queen's portrait – for the Bank of England. Stone is perhaps best known for his lettering. Stanley Morison, the typographer, valued him above all for this ability and said to him: "anyone can draw trees". Stone's lettering was hugely admired and he worked in many media. In 1939 Stone started to teach himself to cut letters in stone. His expertise in lettering led to a number of prestigious commissions for memorials. In 1952 he carved the tablet in the Grand Entrance of the Victoria and Albert Museum memorializing employees of the museum who died in World War II. This memorial complements the Eric Gill memorial to employees who died in World War I. In 1965 he carved the memorial to Winston Churchill and the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Britain in Westminster Abbey. In 1966 he carved the memorial for T. S. Eliot in the abbey. One of his last works, in 1977, was the gravestone of composer Benjamin Britten. In 1954 he designed the Minerva typeface for Linotype, intended to complement Gill's Pilgrim in display sizes. He also designed a proprietary typeface named after his wife, Janet. In 1956 Stone was elected as a Royal Designer for Industry for his work in Lettering.

There was a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Dorset County Museum in 1981, followed by a major exhibition of his work in the library of the Victoria and Albert Museum between July and October 1982. Another, to honour the centenary of his birth, was held at The Red House, Aldeburgh, in April 2009. His skills were widely recognised and much in demand. Much of his work was for official bodies, so much so that Hans Schmoller wrote of him in his obituary:... "he might almost be described as the 'Engraver Royal'". His wood engravings showed a clarity of vision and an intensity that his preparatory sketches lacked. His wood engraved illustrations are distinguished by a formality and sureness of cutting, and his bookplates and coats of arms by a clarity and simplicity within the flourishes. Stone said of his work: "One bold flourish is usually better than a larger number of small twiddles, which are not worth doing anyway. But the final danger is to do too much because the eye, delighted by a small mouthful, is soon surfeited."

Reynolds Stone is recorded as having received Royal Designer for Industry, Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

There have been two collections of Stone's wood engravings, the first by Myfanwy Piper, the second, more definitive, with an introduction by Kenneth Clark. Michael Harvey has written about his wood engraved lettering. The catalogue of the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition reprints the Goodison text and two pieces by Stone, and gives a comprehensive list of the whole range of Stone's work. David Chambers has produced a checklist of his bookplates, and Jeremy Malin has produced a very full checklist of his published works. There is an official website dedicated to Stone. See also: • Alan Powers, 'Reynolds Stone - A centenary tribute' and Humphrey Stone, 'Reynolds Stone: lettering', both in Parenthesis; 16 (2009 February), p. 6–8 and 9–10.