Lot 508: David Kindersley (British, 1915-1995) The Letters

David Kindersley (British, 1915-1995) The Letters of the Alphabet slate 30 x 38cm Provenance: Private collection, Cambridge David Kindersley worked with Eric Gill. The arrival of a new apprentice, David Kindersley, in December 1934 is marked by the laconic entry in Eric Gill's diary 'Mr. Kindersley and son came in night'. Kindersley's stockbroker father paid Gill his small apprentice's indemnity, and Kindersley became Gill's trusted assistant, working alongside him on such important commissions as St. John's College, Oxford, and Dorset House, and then burgeoned into a prolific and distinguished lettercutter on his own account. From Gill's earliest inscription of 1903 up to Kindersley's death in 1995, the two artists straddle the history of 20th century British crafts, resurrecting the neglected craft of lettercutting.