Art book publisher Diana Steel dies, aged 82

Diana Steel, publisher of books on antiques and the decorative arts, has died aged 82. ACC Art Books, the company Steel and her husband John Steel initially founded in 1966 as the Antique Collectors’ Club in 1966 and which Steel sold in 2016, announced she died in Woodbridge on 3rd August.

The Antique Collectors’ Club began with the pair printing pamphlets on a kitchen table, however the company grew to commission and publish books including Jackson’s Hallmarks, British Antique Furniture and Understanding Jewellery.

In a statement, ACC Art Books said: “Diana had a true entrepreneurial spirit and was not easily overawed by any opportunity. It was these qualities that led her to purchase her own printing presses, which were housed at the publisher’s HQ in Woodbridge in Suffolk.

“Diana continued to print her own books on-site well into the 1990s. Those same qualities led her to the US where she would travel the major cities regularly selling her books to the key booksellers.

"On those foundations she set up a US sales and distribution service, the company says, partnering with NBN for the logistics. From there she didn’t stop, setting up sales arrangements for her books all around the world."

Steel ran the Antique Collectors’ Club for five decades. Today, ACC Art Books publishes around 50 new titles a year as well as selling and distributing the books of numerous other publishers in the field of the arts.