Dennis Endean Ivall was born in Essex in 1921. He went from grammar school to work at ICI for a short while before going off to war where he saw service in India, Burma, Ceylon and the Cocos Islands. After demobilisation he attended South-west Essex Art School and later London University gaining a National Design Diploma and a Art Teaching Diploma. He went to Devon were he spent the next twenty years teaching art at Barnstaple Boys School until he retired and became a professional Artist. He moved to his mother's county of Cornwall and established his studio and home near Truro.

His life long interest in heraldry and symbolism, coupled with his Cornish background lead to his instantly recognisable Celtic Art style so evident in his bookplate design. He has written and illustrated two books, Cornish Heraldry and Symbolism and Cornish Military Insignia and still designs heraldic illustrations and bookplates for clients throughout the world. It seem quite strange that Dennis was not commissioned to design his first bookplate until 1981, his sixtieth year. Since then his designs have become most sought after by bookplate collectors and commissioning book owners alike.