Project description
We are putting together a gift for my grandparents' sixtieth wedding anniversary, and we want it written by hand, the old way — not printed, not simulated in a design program. The piece is a single sheet of handmade cotton rag paper, close to A3, deckled on all four edges, with a congratulatory text of about twenty-eight lines that our family has been drafting together for a month. The hand should be a legible book hand: a rounded uncial, a Carolingian minuscule or a humanist bookhand, whichever you truly write with confidence. Readability comes first, because an eighty-year-old will read it aloud across a room, so keep the x-height at five millimetres or more and the leading generous. We are not after a medieval pastiche nobody can decipher.
The first letter is the centrepiece: an initial four or five lines deep, gilded. We lean towards loose leaf gold laid on gesso, so the letter stands proud of the sheet and catches the light; if you argue for shell gold instead, say why and show us both on a small sample. Around the text block we would like a marginal ornament — vine scroll, small flowers, perhaps two birds in the lower margin — drawn freehand rather than traced from a clip sheet, with two or three restrained colours.
Please be clear about what this is not. It is a keepsake, a family chronicle and a thank-you. It must not imitate an official document: no seals, no coats of arms, no diploma or certificate layout, nothing that could be taken for a real record.
The order of work we expect:
— a pencil layout with ruling, line count and the initial in place, sent for approval;
— the final wording agreed in writing before a single letter goes on the good sheet — ink cannot be corrected, and a typo means starting again;
— writing first, gilding second, marginal ornament last;
— a window mount and a simple cloth-covered box for storage.
We need it finished a week before the date. Quote for the sheet plus one spare, and tell us how many days you actually need.
The first letter is the centrepiece: an initial four or five lines deep, gilded. We lean towards loose leaf gold laid on gesso, so the letter stands proud of the sheet and catches the light; if you argue for shell gold instead, say why and show us both on a small sample. Around the text block we would like a marginal ornament — vine scroll, small flowers, perhaps two birds in the lower margin — drawn freehand rather than traced from a clip sheet, with two or three restrained colours.
Please be clear about what this is not. It is a keepsake, a family chronicle and a thank-you. It must not imitate an official document: no seals, no coats of arms, no diploma or certificate layout, nothing that could be taken for a real record.
The order of work we expect:
— a pencil layout with ruling, line count and the initial in place, sent for approval;
— the final wording agreed in writing before a single letter goes on the good sheet — ink cannot be corrected, and a typo means starting again;
— writing first, gilding second, marginal ornament last;
— a window mount and a simple cloth-covered box for storage.
We need it finished a week before the date. Quote for the sheet plus one spare, and tell us how many days you actually need.
Other / Miscellaneous Cash, Bank transfer
