Via Letters of Note:
April 29th, 1865: Queen Victoria, still grieving and “utterly broken-hearted” following the death of Prince Albert four years previous, writes an empathetic letter of condolence to Mary Todd Lincoln following the recent assassination of her husband, Abraham Lincoln.
April 29, 1865
Dear Madam,
Though a Stranger to you I cannot remain silent when so terrible a calamity has fallen upon you & your Country & must personally express my deep & heartfelt sympathy with you under the shocking circumstances of your present dreadful misfortune —
No one can better appreciate than I can, who am myself utterly broken-hearted by the loss of my own beloved Husband, who was the Light of my Life, — my Stay — my all, — what your sufferings must be; and I earnestly pray that you may be supported by Him to whom Alone the sorely stricken can look for comfort, in this hour of heavy affliction.
With the renewed Expression of true sympathy, I remain,
dear Madam,
Your Sincere friend
Victoria Rg
This stitched loveletter is from the hand of British lettering artist Rosalind Wyatt. She stitched a Sanskrit / Indian love poem onto a lacy linen cloth and claims her work is about words. “The ‘sound’ of them, the ‘feel’ of them and the forming of letters.
via letterology.
Homework finished for my last copperplate class this spring.
From Amelie:
"Without you, today’s emotions would be the scurf of yesterday’s."- Hipolito, The Writer
Homework. Slants and mistakes—-I don’t mind. There’s something refreshing about a work in progress!
The sixth borough of New York City. Via TeachingLiteracy.
Should have been an Celtic monk! I’ve been thinking about The Book Of Kells ever since Harvest Crittenden’s Lyrical Lombardics class showed up on the Society of Scribes calendar. I wish I could take the class! Luckily, I will be at his lecture on "The Art of Engrossing" next Friday.
Eleanor Cross
1292
National Archives UK
This is one of several rolls of payments by the executors of the late queen Eleanor. It records the payments made for the crosses that King Edward I had erected commemorating his dead wife, Eleanor of Castille (they mark the nightly resting places along the route taken when her body was transported to London).
I had a great time this weekend with the lovely Ginger Oakes and Shannon Curry. Wedding envelopes can be be a drag EXCEPT among such lovely company. Sure, being in an upper east side brownstone with a fire, tea, and scones also helped!
I’ll send some pictures of the envelopes soon! They’re beautiful!
Back to the tumblr world! I’ve been busy with some home/life renovations. Still rectrixing though. Thanks to a drafting table, it’s been better than ever.
I’m working on a website for a friend. I thought it would be fun to post the before photos before it’s digitized. I love working after wine. The spelling goes out the window, but the ink sure does flow.
So here you are. The before shots. I’m curious which ones will be picked… Stay tuned.
Vintage Czech postage stamp, via We Love Typography.
‘Kalligraphische Schriftvorlagen’ (calligraphic writing styles) was produced in the 1620s in Germany by the scribe, Johann Hering.
Johann Hering (?1580-1647) compiled his album of elaborate calligraphic letterforms, innovative type arrangements and traditional alphabets over a ten year period in the 1620s and 1630s in the Kulmbach region of Bavaria. (Or it was produced sometime during this time frame: it’s not clear)
I tend to believe - and I may well be wrong - that Hering’s album is more along the lines of a practice manuscript for himself rather than being a true copybook or modelbook* for educational purposes. The majority of the writing is in German (with occasional Latin) and many of the written pages are obviously copied from the bible, particularly the Book of Psalms.via BibliOdyssey
If you are not following the blog, you are missing out.
Collage by Lindsay Whitehead of Unraveled Design.
Via teachingliteracy:
(by unraveleddesign)
It’s 2 of my co-workers birthdays today. I got down with wrapping again, and PIES.
As a practice of humility, here is a quote from my teacher, Elinor Holland.
Back to the practice sheets I go!
My first draft of homework. Alexis de Tocqueville love.
Source: National Character of Americans—first impressions (1831)
Born often under another sky, placed in the middle of an always moving scene, himself driven by the irresistible torrent which draws all about him, the American has no time to tie himself to anything, he grows accustomed only to change, and ends by regarding it as the natural state of man. He feels the need of it, more he loves it; for the instability; instead of meaning disaster to him, seems to give birth only to miracles all about him.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!!!!!
Photo and installation by Ruben Alterio. Via Deborah Beau.
AWESOME.
Typeverything.com
“Life is beautiful” by Farhad Moshiri. Made from hundreds of knives stabbing the walls.
I just ordered a homemade wooden penholder from the extraordinary Michael Sull! I can’t wait to get it in the mail. It will look something like the above, depending on what wood is available. Better than a wizard’s wand.
I’ve stopped hoarding my Le Petit Nicholas postcards from Paris! Veet petit postcards!