A Testimonial

This weekend Castle in the Air is welcoming back master calligrapher Bill Kemp, who flies in from Albuquerque a few times a year to teach classes in the studio. Bill will be teaching copperplate script this time, and when he returns the weekend of July into August he'll teach Spencerian script and flourishes.

Spencerian script was developed by the American calligrapher Platt Rogers Spencer in 1840 as a writing hand appropriate for business and social correspondence. It was the standard into the 20th century, when it was edged out by the Palmer Method (which most of us remember from school days) and the rise of the typewriter.

As we were preparing the summer class mailer (which is on press as I write this), we came across a fun old "testimonial" from a Spencerian student back in the script's heyday. You can click on the picture to get a closer look. Mr. Morgan's had quite good success with just five weeks of practice!