Beautiful handwriting that uses a flexible steel pointed nib dipped in an inkwell. French Style
Beautiful handwriting that uses a flexible steel pointed nib dipped in an inkwell. Palace Style
Beautiful handwriting that uses a flexible steel pointed nib dipped in an inkwell. Mistral Style
Beautiful handwriting that uses a flexible steel pointed nib dipped in an inkwell. Kunstler Style
Brief History of Copperplate Handwriting
According to a web article published by Sherwood Carter1 on the subject of copperplate handwriting, “Copperplate evolved in the earliest part of the 18th century due to a need for an efficient commercial hand in England,” at that time the leading industrial economy of the world. “The secretary hand (a cursive variety of Gothic minuscule), the 'mixed hand,' and the more elegant Italian, cancellaresca testeggiata, had given way to something plainer and more practical. Two varieties of a new 'copperplate' style became common: 'round hand,' the bolder of the two, was considered appropriate for business use, and 'Italian,' a lighter and narrower form, was considered the ladies' hand.”
This innovation was followed by an explosive adoption of copperplate handwriting in England, Italy, France and Spain. In those European countries it was known as the English Hand, or bella calligrafia (beautiful handwriting ) in Italy. Sherwood Carter goes on to mention that “John Seally's manual of about 1770, The Running Hand, recommends a sloping Italian with loops (not in regular use before), in which all the letters are linked. The Running influenced English handwriting in the last years of the 18th century, and loops and links have been the general rule ever since.”
“Until the middle of the 18th century, the American colonies relied on handwriting models from England. The colonists wrote secretary, humanist, or mixed hands which were indistinguishable from those of their contemporaries at home. Benjamin Franklin, who himself wrote an attractive copperplate hand, executed the first colonial models of the Italian, round, and secretary hands and published them in The American Instructor (Philadelphia, 1748). Franklin's popular school book, plagiarized from an equally popular London work of the period, stressed the English round hand; so did the first U.S. writing manual of any consequence, John Jenkins' The Art of Writing (1791). Round hand influenced the American 'Spencerian ' script taught in business schools throughout the United States in the 1840s and thereafter." See the end of this article for an example of Spencerian loops.
In the course of time, the name Copperplate became a popular synonym for English Round Hand. Its name -Copperplate- was derived from the use of inscribed sheets of copper used in printing. The process required engraving, or etching, on sheets of copper, specific writing in the English Round Hand. Subsequently, these copper sheets were inked and used as a template; by rolling paper over these copper templates, printed copies were produced. In the USA, as well as, in most European countries, the term used to refer to copperplate handwriting is Cursive handwriting. This short article is being written in Cursive using a digital font called Edwardian Style.
Example of Spencerian Loops:
1- Sherwood Carter - 18th Century Copperplate Handwriting - http://www.6nc.org/about6nc/copperplate.html
Next section: The Secretary Hand
(Copperplate Section authored by Al Grasso)