David Peace

David Peace MBE FSA FGE (13 March 1915 - 15 February 2003) was a British glass engraver and a town planner. Peace, along with William Wilson and Laurence Whistler are accredited as simultaneously reviving the craft of glass engraving during the 1930s. Several pieces of his work are situated in Westminster Abbey including an engraved glass screen at St George's Chapel. Early years Peace was born to Herbert W. F. Peace and Mabel Peace (née Hammond) in Sheffield. His father was a Sheffield file maker. While at Mill Hill School, his teacher Clarence White introduced him to wood engraving. Peace sent one of his more accomplished pieces to Eric Gill, the sculptor and typeface designer, and received a postcard of commendation in return. Upon leaving school he attended the Sheffield School of Architecture, but did not pass his final exams owing to him not developing his own style. After leaving university, he worked as an assistant architect for several practices before World War II broke out. During the war he worked for the RAF, helping to construct new airfields. Glass engraving Peace started experimenting with glass engraving, a long forgotten art form, during the 1930s by providing gifts to his family and friends. In the early 1950s he moved his hobby on by buying an elderly £11 foot operated dentist drill, after trying a diamond drill he had borrowed from his dentist. His first commissioned work came from an advertisement in The Times requesting suggestions for a golden wedding present, to which he engraved a goblet in italic with the motto, "With the ever- circling years comes round the age of gold". Peace would go onto collect a large repertory of sayings, mottos and poetic fragments to use in his works. His first window engraving commission came in 1953, located at a house in Nottingham. His commissions gradually increased as screens and draught lobbies were introduced at churches, as well as goblets, bowls and decanters. A bowl engraved by Peace is used by the Society of Antiquaries of London for counting votes cast at ballots. During the 1960s he started to display at exhibitions providing illustrated catalogues of his work. His first one man exhibition came in 1972 at the Kettle's Yard Gallery in Cambridge, to which the gallery's creator Jim Ede said