Bloodstone with Italian Script

"Looking like blotches of blood on the green ground, Bloodstone's apt name needs no explanation. Bloodstone is the common folk name for the mineral also know as heliotrope, a green chalcedony (a mixture of quarts) with red jasper (iron oxide) inclusions. Used in jewelry since ancient times, bloodstone was also commonly employed as a good luck charm for self defense, and to guard against blood ailments.

This Italian Hand B, saved from doodling done weeks previously, provided me the starting point of this mineral subject. Variations on this B shape were popular with American penmen through the early to mid-1800s. This B is somewhat of a transitional form from the hand evolving from its European origins to what would become a new American style of script. All the small letters are common English-Italian Hand forms, with the exception of the "st" combo, which are traditional French shapes I chose to provide more graphic interest. Since the English-Italian Hand evolved from earlier French hands, such mixing of styles was common."

~2013, Don Marsh~

©Don Marsh