The two standard texts on Brangwyn are:
Libby Horner, Frank Brangwyn. A Mission to Decorate Life, The Fine Art Society/Liss Fine Art, 2006
The Brangwyn Handbook as it is known is the perfect reference book, a 200 page illustrated book and catalogue, nominated for the William MB Berger Prize for British Art History in 2006. Unfortunately this is now out of print. You can find expensive 2nd hand books on abebooks and so forth but the easiest thing is to visit http://www.lissfineart.com/catalogues and you'll find a downloadable PDF file.
Libby Horner and Gillian Naylor (Eds), Frank Brangwyn 1867-1956, Leeds Museums and Galleries, Groeningemuseum/Arents House, 2006 (ISBN 978-0-901981-73-8)
A seminal, lavishly illustrated book, with a comprehensive Bibliography and excellent footnotes and with erudite essays by Gillian Naylor, Libby Horner, David Boswell, Corinne Miller, Alan Powers and Timothy Wilcox published to coincide with the 2006 Brangwyn exhibition. All 1500 copies sold within months, but the book has now been reprinted. Nominated for the William MB Berger Prize for British Art History in 2007.
Available from Libby Horner, £38 including post and packing (UK), PayPal and cheques accepted.
OTHER RECOMMENDED READING AND VIEWING:
Libby Horner, BRANGWYN at WAR!, published by Goldmark, 2014
Code BK-FB-LH, ISBN 978-1-909167-11-7. Edition size 500. Book size 27x21cm. Soft cover, 182 pages, foreword by Sir Donald Sinden. 126 works (almost all of which are illustrated) ranging from pre Great War illustrations for The Graphic, through all his war work to the murals in Winnipeg and the initial designs for the House of Lords memorial. The book discusses Brangwyn's attitude to war, his war art compared to contemporaries and his use of photographs. His posters are 'illustrated' by excerpts from Great War diaries. There's a chapter about propaganda and multifarious gobbets including the medical corps, gas attacks, army slang, smoking soldiers, Wipers Times, the photographer William Rider-Rider plus explanations about lithography, wood engraving and linocuts, plus an index of titles, index of catalogue numbers, museums list, exhibitions list and the usual extensive bibliography. Available from Goldmark: http://www.goldmarkart.com/brangwyn-at-war.html
Libby Horner, Frank Brangwyn: Stained Glass, A Catalogue Raisonne, DVD, published by Libby Horner, 2010
This is the first time a catalogue Raisonne has been produced as a DVD - a unique concept and destined to become a collector's item. The DVD includes all the standard academic information - each commission has its own PDF file which can be printed out from a Mac or PC. There are also 11 films of the windows, and interviews with Brian Clarke, Peter Cormack, Martin Eidelberg, Martin Harrison and Patrick Reyntiens, specially commissioned music by the jazz composer Mike Westbrook and a fascinating film showing how stained glass is made.
Available from Libby Horner, £25 including post and packing (UK), Paypal and cheques accepted.
Libby Horner, Frank Brangwyn: Stained Glass, A Catalogue Raisonne, Stanford: Libby Horner, 2011(ISBN 978-0-9560884-3-7)
For those of you who do not have colour printers, DVDs or computers the academic stuff has also been published in book form, A4 size, 112 pages, copiously illustrated in full colour with loads of details of the windows. £25 including post and packing (UK) OR, if you'd prefer a bumper bundle the book and DVD together can be purchased for £40 including post and packing (UK).
The Way of the Cross. An Interpretation by Frank Brangwyn RA with a commentary by Libby Horner, San Francisco, Auad Publishing, 2009
A beautiful reprint of Brangwyn's 1935 Stations of the Cross which originally contained a commentary by G K Chesterton. This edition is limited to 700. The plates measure 35.5x28cm, are printed by letterpress on Teton 80lb stock and are presented in a portfolio-box.
Available from Auad Publishing, $64.95 plus S&H: $10.00 via USPS Priority Mail. Overseas prices will vary depending on the country.
Libby Horner, Christ's Hospital Murals, Stanford: Libby Horner, 2008 (ISBN 978-0-9560884-1-3 for Limited Edition and 978-0-9560884-2-0 for A5 trade version)
108 page, beautifully illustrated book which includes a Brangwyn biography, notes about the architects of the school Sir Aston Webb and Edward Ingress Bell, a brief history of the school, the chronology of the mural panels, detailed descriptions of each panel, a bibliography and index. Appendices give details of Brangwyn's other mural commissions and works mentioned in the text. The 250 Limited Edition version printed on Forest Stewardship Council certified paper contains six illuminated letters designed by the author (one of which is hand tinted), a hand printed letterpress sheet, a bookmark and an illustrated Brangwyn family tree. It is bound by hand with a hand-made Nepalese Lokta paper cover.
Available from Libby Horner, £60 including post and packing (UK) for Limited Edition version and £20 including post and packing for A5 trade version, PayPal and cheques accepted.
Libby Horner, 'A Humble Offering to the People of Walthamstow'. Being a short history of the formation of the William Morris Gallery and Brangwyn Gift, Stanford: Libby Horner, 2008 (ISBN 978-0-9560884-0-6)
Available from Libby Horner, £15 including post and packing (UK), PayPal and cheques accepted
Roger Alford and Libby Horner (Eds), Brangwyn in His Studio. The Diary of Frank Alford, Guildford: Roger Alford, 2004 (ISBN 0-9547290-0-5)
A fascinating diary written by one of Brangwyn's assistants in the 1920s, illustrated.
Available from Libby Horner, £25 including post and packing (UK), PayPal and cheques accepted
Paul Cava (Ed), Frank Brangwyn: Photographs/Nude and Figure Studies, Paul Cava Fine Art, 2001
Includes essays by John Wood and Libby Horner. Limited edition of 1500, 18 full page tritones.
Available from Paul Cava, $39 postaid
Libby Horner, 'Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956): The Japanese Connection', Biographical Portraits Volume VII, The Japan Society, 2010
Libby Horner, 'Urushibara Mokuchu (1889-1953): Japanese Print Artist in Britain', Biographical Portraits Volume VII, The Japan Society, 2010
Libby Horner, 'Frank Brangwyn and Glass', Glass Circle News, Issue 123, July 2010
Tim Barringer, Libby Horner, Sachiko Oguma, Mina Oya, Frank Brangwyn, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, February 2010
Libby Horner and Gareth Morgan, 'Brangwyn and Tiffany: a 21st-Century Interpretation of a 19th-Century Design', The Journal of Stained Glass, Volume XXXIII, 2009
Peter Duffy, 'Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956) and the curious incident of the art in the Tate', The British Art Journal, Volume VIII, No 1, 2007
Jeremy Yates, Brangwyn. Frank Brangwyn RA 1867-1956. The Bangor Collection, Gwynedd Museum and Art Gallery, Bangor, 2006 (ISBN 184-220-092-5)
Libby Horner, 'The Influence of Japanese Art on the Work of Frank Brangwyn', Japan Society Proceedings, 2006
Libby Horner, 'Brangwyn and the Horton House Mystery', The British Art Journal, Volume VI No 2, Autumn 2005
Libby Horner, 'Brangwyn and the Japanese Connection', The Decorative Arts Society, Journal 26, 2002
Libby Horner, 'Pea Pods, Banana Skins and Brangwyn', Ecclesiology Today, Issue 25, April 2001
Libby Horner, 'A Masterpiece in Leeds: Brangwyn and St Aidan's Mosaics', Ecclesiology Today, Issue 21, January 2000
OLDER PUBLICATIONS:
Unfortunately none of the following books are in print, and some of them are extremely diffcult to locate, even in the best libraries - abebooks may be your best bet. An asterisk denotes recommended.
Rodney Brangwyn, Brangwyn, London: William Kimber & Co Ltd., 1978
Cyril Bunt, Sir Frank Brangwyn RA, Leigh-on-Sea: F Lewis, 1949
William De Belleroche, Brangwyn Talks, London: Chapman & Hall Ltd., 1946 (1944)
William De Belleroche, Brangwyn’s Pilgrimage, London: Chapman & Hall, 1948
Herbert Furst, The Decorative Art of Frank Brangwyn, London: The Bodley Head, 1924*
Illustration for the Selfridge dome (M2157) from Furst's book
William Gaunt, The Etchings of Frank Brangwyn R A, 1926
Norah Gillow, Catalogue of the Works of Sir Frank Brangwyn RA 1867-1956, William Morris Gallery, 1974
Amelia Levetus, The Graphic Art of Frank Brangwyn, Vienna, 1921
Phillip Macer-Wright, Brangwyn: A Study of Genius at Close Quarters, Hutchinson & Co., 1940
Dominique Marechal, Collectie Frank Brangwyn, Bruges General Bank & Stedelijke Musea, 1987*
Malcolm Salaman, Modern Masters of Etching: Frank Brangwyn RA, London: The Studio, 1924, 1925, 1932, 1930
G S Sandilands, Famous Watercolour painters – Brangwyn R A, 1928
Sir Frank Brangwyn R.A. Studies for the British Empire Panels, Swansea Museums Service, The Glynn Vivian Art Gallery & Museum, Swansea City Council, 1987
Walter Shaw Sparrow, The Spirit of the Age, 1907
Walter Shaw Sparrow, Frank Brangwyn and his Work, 1910
Walter Shaw Sparrow, Prints and Drawings by Frank Brangwyn, 1919
Most copies of The Studio have some reference to Brangwyn, from the first issue onwards.*
DVD:
ART? IT'S JUST A JOB!
A DVD documentary about Brangwyn by the award winning filmmaker Charles Mapleston, written by and presented by Libby Horner, starring Sir Donald Sinden and Sam Beazley and featuring interviews with Norman Ackroyd, Andrew Dalton, Rigby Graham, Corinne Miller, Gillian Naylor, Rabbi Akiva Padwa, Alan Powers, Nancy Thomas and Timothy Wilcox. Produced by the Goldmark Gallery.
Available from the Goldmark Gallery, £15 plus £2.50 post and packing (UK)