BIO
Matt’s bookbinding career began in 2016 when he joined the Queen’s Bindery Apprenticeship Scheme at the Royal Bindery in Windsor. Building on a BA(Hons) in Illustration from Edinburgh College of Art, but with no prior experience of binding, Matt was fortunate to learn the craft onsite at Windsor Castle, as well as during placements at Shepherds, Sangorski & Sutcliffe and the V&A.
He now works as Conservator Bookbinder for the Royal Collection Trust, where care and conservation of the Collection is his primary role, alongside the production of fine bindings for State occasions.
Matt’s design bindings are done after work hours and once the children are put to bed. Usually by lamplight on the kitchen work top. He favours traditional fine binding methods, particularly gold tooling and leather onlay, and seeks to incorporate figurative and illustrative elements in his work.
In the 2025 DBUK competition, Matt won the Edgar Mansfield Medal for Best Book in Competition, as well as the Clothworkers’ First Prize for Open Choice Entry, and the Olive and Oak Prize for Craftsmanship for his binding of Beowulf. His binding of Charmed Life was awarded the Elizabeth Greenhill Prize for Gold Tooling.
Beowulf by Kevin Crossley-Holland
Illustrated by Virgil Burnett
The Folio Society, 1973, London
242 x 162 x 22mm
Bound in 2025
Private collection
Winner of The Edgar Mansfield Medal for Best Book in the Competition DBUK 2025; Olive & Oak Prize for Craftsmanship DBUK 2025; The Clothworkers’ Open Choice 1st Prize DBUK 2025
Sewn on three linen tapes. Full-bound in Harmatan black fine goatskin with onlays of red and hand-dyed green goatskin. Hand-tooled in 23.5ct gold leaf. Hand-sewn single colour headbands. Edges decorated with acrylic paint beneath scored black foil. Edge to edge paper doublures and gold tooled leather joints.
A sea of gold leads the protagonist from back board to front, terminating in Grendel’s severed limb. The ocean continues along the block’s edges and inner joints.
Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones
Illustrated by Alison Bryant
The Folio Society, 2023, London
248 x 162 x 30mm
Bound in 2025
Winner of the Elizabeth Greenhill Prize for Gold Tooling DBUK Competition 2025
Sewn on three linen tapes. Full bound in red goatskin with an onlay of black goatskin. Hand-tooled in 23.5ct gold leaf using hand-filed pallets to build up pictorial lines. Edges decorated with acrylic paint under distressed black foil, symbolising flaming match heads through smoke. Hand sewn single colour headbands. Edge to edge paper doublures decorated with black calligrapher’s ink.
Nine interdimensional felines spin across the strike strip of a red matchbook.
GET IN TOUCH
Contact email: mattstockl@hotmail.co.uk
Instagram: @mattstockl
Accepts commissions: Yes
