The Crafts Study Centre is delighted to announce the imminent publication of two new peer reviewed books. John Neilson’s The Inscriptions of Ralph Beyer and Simon Olding’s Bernard Leach: Discovered Archives. Both books mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Crafts Study Centre in 1970.

Books can be ordered via our new Online Bookshop

John Neilson’s The Inscriptions of Ralph Beyer is the first extensive study of the life and works of one of the major figures of letter carving.

He was a carver of stone inscriptions, best know for his huge ‘Tablets of the Word’ in Basil Spence’s Coventry Cathedral.

The Crafts Study Centre acquired a substantial archive of Beyer’s with the support of a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Collecting Cultures scheme and commissioned John Neilson to write this new and authoritative study. We are delighted that the book is published in partnership with Lund Humphries. 

In his foreword, Edmund de Waal writes that ‘in this magnificent book John Neilson uncovers the life and legacy of Ralph Beyer with huge sensitivity. It is marvellous to be reminded of this strong-willed, passionate, cultured force who brought alive words and stone’.

Ralph Beyer (1921-2008), exiled at the age of sixteen from Nazi Germany, made his home and career in Britain. John Neilson is a letter carver and lettering designer a member of the Crafts Study Centre’s Acquisitions Committee.

A new study of the studio potter Bernard Leach as a special contribution to the centenary of the founding of the Leach Pottery in St Ives in 1920. The book Bernard Leach: Discovered Archives has been edited by Simon Olding, Director of the Crafts Study Centre.

The book contains chapters by Olding that consider the meanings of Leach’s personal collection of ceramics and then describe the remarkable and newly acquired archive of drawings, etching and paintings donated by Leach to his friend Alan Bell. These contain works that have been unseen in public. Two Japanese scholars contribute chapters: Yuko Matsuzaki, Curator of the Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art discusses the personal collection of the celebrated potter Shoji Hamada, Leach’s great friend ; and Dr Sadahiro Suzuki, Associate Professor of Ochanomizu University, Tokyo, analyses an extraordinary cache of letters that Leach wrote to Laurie Cookes (who was to become his second wife) during his prolific trip to Japan in 1934-35. These are unpublished research materials offering new insights into Leach practice in Japan.

This soft-back book is published by the Crafts Study Centre and features a Foreword by our very own Dame Magdalene Odundo, Chancellor of UCA. The book will be available to purchase from January 2021.

Both books can be ordered from our new online bookshop.