Minerals - Charoite - English Italian Hand

"Charoite is a very rare form of silicate found only in one location of Siberian Russian. Charoite is named for the Chara River in that area. Claimed to have been discovered in the 1940s while digging railway tunnels, it was unknown to the rest of the world until 1978. Charoite's translucent lavender to intense purple color with fibrous swirling grain produces dramatic specimens highly sought by collectors. Charoite is so beautiful and intensely colored, many people often assume it has to be artificial. The specimen in my collection is just a small tumbled scrap, but as rare as it is I consider myself lucky to have any at all.

The style of Italian Hand I picked to compose this example is in the early English form, such as that used by John Ayres. I chose to keep the flourishing to a minimum and let the elegant letterforms themselves carry the work. The most foreign character to our modern eye in this composition is the sinuous "h," which has its roots in renaissance Italy, and refinement in 15th century France, before being adopted by English penmen who soon discarded it in the first decade of the 1700s for the "h" we still use today."

~2017, Don Marsh~
©2017 Don Marsh