I got interested in lettering back in the mid-1950s. I was in the Royal Navy at the time, and a group of us went to Dublin for a Rugby match. We were told that there were two world-class things in Dublin, Guinness and the Book of Kells. We tried both. I developed a lifelong admiration for both. Ended up here.
In between then and now (I'll omit the Guinness bit, stick to the lettering bit) I bought a copy of Johnston's "Writing & Illuminating & Lettering" and cut a few goose quills and tried some lettering and decided I had a way to go before I could go professional. Stuck to my last instead (electronics). Bought a Swan Calligraph with italic nib and decided cursive italic was more my scene - with a bit of help from Tom Gourdie. That pen lasted many a year before it vanished down the back of somewhere and was not replaced until the next millenium.
Fast forward to a bit less than a decade or so ago and I discovered ACPP. Am I allowed to mention it here?
I mainly lurked there, but came across some wonderful characters; Satrap of orange delight; the late, much missed, always opinionated (but what marvelous opinions!), Frank Da Book; Karen Traviss and Ada Ma; Tony Stanford just down the road at Bedford; and many more. Without Frank it never seemed to recover. Recently, while Googling, I found this board. Onwards and upwards!
My pens? Well, I'm back with some nice italic jobs to replace the Swan. To start with I managed to get my hands on a couple of Parker 51s with italic nibs, one of them ground by Tony Stanford. Very nice it is, too, and in regular use. Marvelous it was, too, to remind myself how much more I enjoy writing with an italic nib again. I'm also fascinated by Sheaffer Touchdowns and Snorkels. They always seem to have wonderfully smooth nibs, even after 40 to 50 years. Sadly, italic nibbed versions seem to be be rarer than hens' teeth. My few Sheaffers have stock ball tips, so they don't get used nearly as much as they deserve. They are handy, though, if someone else wants to borrow a pen and they're not comfortable with an italic.
Then, following a post on ACPP, I ordered a Mottishaw cursive italic M800. Not cheap but worth every penny. It writes like silk! It certainly flatters my hand. Since then I've added a couple more Pelikans from him, a Grand Place M620 City Series with a relatively fine italic nib which I use for editing, and a Chicago M620 with medium italic nib which rotates with the M800 and P51. Now, if only I could find a City Series San Francisco (dreams...) And why on earth am I knocking this out on a keyboard, for heavens' sake?
