Flowery Penmanship USA 1750

Hi all,
For all of you who are interested in American history, we have just loaded up a letter onto our website written in 1750 from London to Newport Rhode Island, Via New York…. Addressed to Samuel and William Vernon, Merchants. There is a fair amount of information on the internet about this Vernon family, particularly William and their home is now a National Landmark site.

The penmanship of the writer Elias Bland is amazing, and the letter shows what cargoes are being traded at that time.



Here are a couple of Images and a transcription of the complete letter and background can be found on this link

-/letters/Previctorian/bland.html

Regards to all,
Ron and Eunice

That is absolutely beautiful. A real piece of history.
If you google both Samuel and William Vernon of Newport R.I. and Elias Bland of London, you'll come up with lots of sites with info and references on these gents. But note, Elias appears to be a common name in the Bland family, there's lots of different generations.
This is a business letter. But remember it's not just a piece of paper, it's history in your hand. These were real people and this is how they communicated and did business. Pretty awesome!

Gorgeous. But those days are gone forever - penmanship is a lost art.

Here's a cover which fits right into this discussion.

I don't know. Some of that first item just gives me a headache. There's fancy and then there's too fancy. About 80% of the loops in that item are just there to show off and have no other function -- like ruffles on a shirt. Reading among all those loops and whirls is not easier, but harder. Maybe these people just had too much time on their hands? I'd much rather see a clear, legible style of handwriting, and I don't mind a few nice loops, than swirls and loops and frilly nonsense no one needs. But I was a teacher for nearly 50 years so I'm a bit sick of awful handwriting.