Jimmy Cox asked:


Before the beginning of the 20th Century little had been written about calligraphy except The Story of the Alphabet by Edward Clodd and Maude Thompson’s fine work on Greek ana Latin Paleography together with his volume on English Illuminated Manuscripts, published in 1895 and out of print before 1906. But since the time that Edward Johnston published his book on Writing, Lettering and Illuminating a steady stream of works upon all aspects of the subject have been written; probably it was because of the interest aroused by the pioneers in the practical side of the craft that this flow of literature occurred, both here and in the United States.

The following are among the most important. The British Museum published a guide to the collection of manuscripts they had in 1906. About the same time John W. Bradley was publishing illustrated books on illuminating, its history and development. During 1907 the British Museum published Reproductions of Illuminated MSS., a series of fifty collotype plates. In 1920 W. A. Mason published in New York a work of considerable scholarship dealing with the subject of picture writing in the Americas together with the growth of letter-form in Egypt, Phoenicia, Babylon, Assyria, Crete, Greece and Rome, a book of great interest to all who wish to study the formation of alphabets.

With the development of photography and process reproduction the range of examples showing epigraphy and paleography has increased to a degree unthought of during the early days of the century. During 1932 B. L. Ullnan of the University of Chicago published Ancient Writing and Its Influence, which brings the history of the alphabet more up to date and includes some observations on the Sinai stones, which may eventually help to solve the riddle of the alphabet. Professor E. A. Lowe of Oxford wrote in The Legacy of the Middle Ages a chapter on “Handwriting” which deals with its growth before the time of Charlemagne. This is an excellent essay, which should be known by all serious students of calligraphy. James Wardrop of the Victoria and Albert Museum has also written on “Palatino and His Circle” in Signature, No. 14, 1952.

World origins and development of alphabets are also dealt with in great profusion by D. Diringer, a scholar in these matters. The French just before the war of 1939-1945 issued some newly discovered material in plates dealing with early specimens of the written small letter under the title of L’ Eicriture Latine by J. Mallon, which takes history back earlier than Maude Thompson’s great work.

Finally among the smaller and more recent publications comes the “King Penguin” on the subject of writing by Alfred Fairbank, which makes a rapid survey from the fourth to the twentieth centuries; and some beautiful photographic reproductions of the detailed work of twelfth-century artists taken from the Winchester Bible by Walter Oakshott.

From about the year 1930 writing and lettering had made such progress that it had become a subject in the training of Art Teachers and was taught by the immediate followers of the two who had given their lives to its cause. Lettering of Today, first volume, published in 1937, showed the work of some of these who had taken up the craft and were in their turn passing it on to the new generation.

As the art itself has progressed, so has the literature representing calligraphy. The aforementioned books are great historical references, but technical books that will walk you through the art of calligraphy are also available.



Leroy

Arthur Mavericck asked:


It’s been a long time since you initially used the cheapest pen while learning to write at school and now what to buy a better writing instrument. From what you have heard and read you have decided on the Conway Stewart Fountain Pen. But then there are so many models in Conway Stewart Fountain Pens, Which one do you choose for yourself?

To begin with you have to decide what it is you will be using the Conway Stewart Fountain Pen for. Will it be for daily use like for taking down notes in college, for artistic writing like calligraphy or just a wee bit of writing every day? Accordingly, or may need to select from the calligraphy pens or the broad nib or fine nib pens from the collection of Conway Stewart Fountain Pens.

The next thing you should look at is your budget. You can get fountain pens for as cheap as $5 and you will even get a Conway Stewart Fountain Pen in the range of $400 and more. A more expensive pen does not mean that it is better to write with. A $50 pen may write as well as the $400 Conway Stewart Fountain Pens but the more expensive pens will be made from better materials like precious metals such as silver, gold and platinum.

The nub of the Conway Stewart Fountain Pen that you choose should suit your usage. Conway Stewart Fountain Pens have nibs coming in varying thicknesses ranging from the very fine nibs to the pretty thick nibs. A flexible nib gives you a lot of advantages like being able to get different effects from it. You just have to press lightly for writing that is thinner and press a little harder for thicker writing. But if it is only fine writing that you are after, then a hard and thin nib should suit your requirements.

The aesthetics of the Conway Stewart Fountain Pen too are extremely importance. Time and again we make selections based on the appearance rather than how practical an item is so if we find one of the Conway Stewart Fountain Pens that lies somewhere in the middle of the scale where both these aspects are concerned, we should be happy. What is of utmost importance it that whatever fountain pen you choose you should be comfortable using or else it will get left behind in your drawer along with the rest of your unused fountain pens.

It is not recommended that you buy one of the expensive Conway Stewart Fountain Pens with gold or platinum for your school or college-going kids. It will be not only a distraction but an object of envy and it might even get stolen or borrowed and never returned. It is alright if they use it at home but a Conway Stewart Fountain Pen in the lower price range should do for taking down notes daily at college.



Jane

Jimmy asked:


It implies with sure knowledge in the correct form of letters that it is, the conventional signs through that language could be communicated, so the skill is inscribed with such ordering in various parts or harmony of proportions with the cultivation and knowing eye will recognize the compositions as a work of art by Calligraphy Experts.

In Eastern part of Asia, Calligraphy with exacting and long tradition is considered as significant art, with equal priority of painting. In Western culture the simpler Greek or Latin-derived Alphabets with the spread of literacy tend to make ‘Handwriting’ theoretically although by few instances, especially since either aspired to or attained the status of Calligraphy Art.

In the Ming Period, Calligraphy continued to thrive, especially in the time of 16 and 17 th centuries, and with new art-developments likes of the appearance calligraphic hanging scrolls and testified with increasing popularity of writing as a decorative art form. “Tung Chi Chang”, in calligraphy painting came to be regarded as master for its time paired with painting and moved in the direction of greater linear expressiveness; in calligraphy the change came increasingly under the sway of developments, not just in technique but with style in aesthetic theory. In the nortern are the Sanitization of the ruler by Turkic in ‘Wei’ for the late Fifth century and the Chinese reunification paved under the ‘Sui’ and Tang.

Calligraphy, the fine art of writing has often been occupied the grater place among all he visual arts in country of China. For the direct ancestor of modern envelope address writing, the script used on Oracle shells or bones of the middle; it gradually evolved with the large seal script or late dynasty, it had already developed that into a complex and semi-pictorial system.Since the 2 nd or 3 rd AD with the Koreans have used Chinese characters that emerged as art of writing. In 1447 even after the invention of the Korean alphabet, Chinese was used as the official script till now in 19th century. A few inscribed stone monuments remain from the Ancient Koreans, eager to adopt Chinese culture, developed a Calligraphy reflecting China’s styles.

For more info: Art by Calligraphy Experts



Marilyn