Diana Steel, cofounder of the U.K.-based art book publisher Antique Collectors Club, died August 3 in Woodbridge, England. She was 82.
Diana Steel, along with her husband John Steel, cofounded the Antique Collectors Club in 1966. The house began by publishing pamphlets, growing over the years to become a major publisher of books on antiques and the decorative arts. ACC authors included a wide range of experts on the decorative arts as well as personalities from such topic-related TV shows as the Antiques Roadshow. Among ACC’s bestselling titles are Jackson’s Hallmarks, British Antique Furniture and Understanding Jewellery.
Noted for her ingenuity as well as for her entrepreneurial drive, Steel purchased and oversaw her own printing presses, which were operated out of the publisher’s main offices in Woodbridge. ACC continued to print its own books well into the 1990s. Steel also traveled widely in the U..S (and throughout the globe) to promote and sell her books to key book retailers, building a U.S. sales and distribution network in partnership with the distributor NBN.
Steel directed the company—now known as ACC Art Books—for five decades before selling it in 2016 to Australia's Images Publishing Group. Today ACC Art Books publishes about 50 books a year, in addition to distributing the books of a variety of decorative arts publishers.
