Lynton Lamb

Wood engraver, painter, designer and illustrator, Lamb was born in India, and educated at the Kingswood School in Bath. He worked in an estate office for a year, studying life drawing in the evenings at Camberwell School of Art under Randolph Schwabe. In 1927 he became a full-time student at the Central School under Noel Rooke, Bernard Meninsky, J. H. Mason and A. S. Hartrick. He produced a wood-engraved tailpiece for a Students Union pamphlet, Central Papers 1930, which he edited. He exhibited four prints with the Society of Wood Engravers (SWE) between 1929 and 1939. His first exhibition of paintings was held at the Storran Gallery, and in 1936 he became a Member of London Group.

He joined the Oxford University Press as a Production Advisor with the job of redesigning Bible and Prayer book bindings, studying bookbinding at evening classes under Douglas Cockerell at the Central School before taking over from him as teacher. He later designed the binding of the Coronation Bible (1953).

During World War II he served with the Royal Engineers, working in camouflage. He became Head of Lithography at the Slade School (1950-71) and part-time lecturer at the Painting School of the Royal College of Art (1956-70).

An important and influential book illustrator, his early illustration consisted of wood engravings for the Shakespeare Head, Fulcrum, and Golden Cockerel Presses, but after the war he used pen and ink drawings or lithography for illustrative work. Wood engravings for Religio Medici & Urne Burial for Penguin Classics (1939) were not used as the series foundered. Apart from illustration for books and magazines, including the Radio Times, he designed many book jackets, notably for the World's Classics, as well as bookplates and postage stamps (he won the International Philatelic Art Society Award for stamp design in 1960).His work for advertising included some for the Orient Liners (1935-50). Lamb contributed to Contemporary Lithographs and became a member of the Society of London Painter-Printers, showing four prints in their first exhibition in 1948. His work was also published by Lyons in the Festival of Britain portfolio (1951).

In 1949 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Industrial Artists and Designers (President 1951-2). He became a member of the art panel of the Arts Council (1951-55), a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and was appointed a Royal Designer for Industry in 1974.
Author: JS