News and Events

SIMON BRETT (1943-2024)

To the great sadness of many members who were in contact with him, our longstanding member, marvellous wood engraver Simon Brett died on 29 December 2024. His funeral takes place on 21 January 2025 at 11am at St Thomas More Catholic Church, George Lane, Marlborough, Wiltshire SN8 4BT. The service will be live-streamed. Contact us for details of the live-streaming link if you wish to join in that way.
View photo and brief biography.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS 2025

February 2025 (date coming shortly) Auction 101.

June/July 2025 (date to be announced) Auction 102.

AGM and Zoom Meeting Talks by Zoom are well attended. Our Secretary is planning more.

Saturday, 7, 14, 21 or 28 September 2025, at 2pm (date to be confirmed) Joint meeting with the Suffolk Heraldry Society at its usual meeting venue The Quaker Meeting House, St John's Street, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 1SJ, for a presentation on Suffolk Heraldic Bookplates. All welcome, members and non-members.

October/November 2025 Auction 103.

Ever since 2021, when our meetings and publications programmes were badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, we have wished to get back to holding some meetings in person rather than always relying on virtual meetings on the internet. We are therefore glad to assemble in Bury St Edmunds in September. Perhaps we can at some point devise a compelling reason for members to gather in person at our London venue: Lower Meeting Room, Wesley's Chapel, 49 City Road, London EC1Y 1AU.
This is located in the City of London, between Old Street (Northern Line) and Moorgate tube stations. Click to see how to get there.

SPRING 2019 ISSUE OF THE BOOKPLATE JOURNAL
In his editorial to the March 1988 number of The Bookplate Journal Brian Lee gave details of where checklists of work by bookplate artists had been published, and he also noted the names of many other designers whose ex-libris output had not been catalogued. One of these was black-and-white artist Harold Nelson (1871-1948). The whole of the 80-page Spring 2019 journal is devoted to his life and work. Our printer will receive this in January 2025, for circulation soon after. Editorial work is under way on a succession of journals, with the aim of eventually catching up the backlog.

Simon Brett “THIRTY MORE YEARS” Bookplates 1990-2020
Published by The Reading Room Press, 190 copies set in Perpetua and printed on an Albion on Zerkall paper. Case-bound in quarter cloth with a patterned paper incorporating the plate deemed, by mutual accord, to be the best from these thirty more years. Of the sixty-eight bookplates cut by Simon Brett since 1990, thirty-four are reproduced, all but two printed from the wood. The trees and sailing ship pictorial for printer Miles Wigfield was an inevitable selection. The two previous books about Simon's ex-libris (Klaus Rodel, Frederikshavn, 1982 and Fleece Press 1989) were by the late Brian North Lee, that doyen of the genre. Here, at the instigation of the printer, the text is by the artist himself. Stop Press: A proof of plate no.150, Bryan Welch Et in Arcadia Ego, printed and signed by the artist, will be tipped in to the first 100 copies ordered. Orders to Dr Miles Wigfield, Coneygar Lodge, Quenington. Glos. GL7 5BZ (T: 01285 750662 E: miles.wigfield AT btopenworld.com ).

NEWS AND EVENTS ARCHIVE
Out of date reports and some obituary notices are now on a separate webpage.