Minerals - Blue Lace Agate - English Italian Hand

"Another installment in my mineral series: A favorite with many people, Blue Lace Agate is a microcrystaline quartz in the chalcedony family, like all agates. It has become very popular in jewelry in modern times. Its soft blue color results from containing copper salts.

The lettering here is, once again, in an earlier and more fine-lined variant of the Early English style of Italian Hand. (I've been on an early Italian Hand kick lately.) The drama of this design is exclusively in the knot-work of the caps & underscore; the patterns of which are inspired by the preceding French penmen. "

~2014, Don Marsh~
©2014 Don Marsh