Minerals - Tourmaline - English Italian Hand

"Tourmaline is one of the most popular minerals of collectors. Classified as a gemstone, it is a complex crystal composed of aluminum boron silicate combined with a variety of other minerals that produces tourmaline in just about every color imaginable. In fact, specimens of tourmaline are often found multi-colored, another reason for its popularity with collectors. Tourmaline also possesses other interesting properties. When heated then allowed to cool, it takes on a positive charge at one end of the crystal and a negative charge at the other. This specimen from my collection is not particularly attractive as tourmalines go, but Tourmaline tends to be quite pricey and this is all I could afford. Still, I find it beautiful.

My accompanying Italian Hand composition is a fairly standard late-English (second half of 1700s) style Italian Hand minuscule. The capital, on the other hand, is an over-the-top majuscule following the principles of Italian Hand's French originators as popularized in England by Writing-Master John Ayres around the beginning of the 1700s. The hole in the shade of the T-cross would result from a pen-skip which occurs from spreading the nib (or quill) tines too far apart for the capillary action to allow the ink to flow to the tip if pressed down excessively; then the ink flow resuming as the tines come back together as the pressure is released. This playful contrivance became a motif Ayres enjoyed employing. The flourish style on this piece is essentially my own."

~2014, Don Marsh~
©2014 Don Marsh