In the style of George Shelley

[Ken Fraser]

This is written in the style of the 18th century writing master, George Shelley.
This style from 1709 pre-dates the production of the Copperplate "bible " The Universal Penman by about 34 years.

George Shelley wrote in the usual English Roundhand style but he also wrote in this style and   there are a couple of major differences which are worth noting.
The lettering which is wider in aspect than English Roundhand, is written more upright at an angle of around 62 degrees. Also, he uses under-linked ligatures from a to n and from u to n as opposed to the usual over-linking with a loop. In the whole of the later Universal Penman I can find no other example of this practice. I, personally,  like this effect as it produces more evenly balanced inter-letter spacing. The only other example I can find of this practice is in the Italic writing of Hermann Zapf.

I really like the austere cleanliness of this style.

This was written with an Esterbook 357 nib with Walker's Copperplate Ink.

The quote is by E A Lupfer.

[sybillevz]

Shelley was one of the fathers of the Round Hand, with (John) Clark and Snell... Even though they were all constantly disagreeing with each other.
Do you have a copy of Shelley's Natural Writing ?
There's another of his books, Alphabets in all the hands, engraved by Bickham on Google Books, with some samples of this script. https://books.google.be/books?id=T0JfAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22George+Shelley%22&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj5gfHE8MHUAhXHzRQKHdEUBJoQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

The Round Hand was developped around 1710-1712, then perfected by the writing masters. The forms we see in the Universal Penman were perfected before 1720 but they kept evolving during the 18th century. The UP shows the best of the "classical" Round Hand, executed by the best masters of the time.

[Ken Fraser]

Thanks for the information sybillevz. I know very little about Shelley and find this early form different and beautiful in its own way. I wasn't aware of this book and find the contents, fascinating.

[sybillevz]

Oh, yes, I also forgot to say that the RH was developped as a variation of the French Bātarde (which was itself a variation of an Italic Bastard). Shelley's style was very inspired by that hand.
You can find examples very similar to Shelley's in the 7th and 18th centuries French Master's books such as L'Art d'Ecrire by Alais de Beaulieu (google search, it's on Gallica), or the book I uploaded on Flickr some time ago : https://www.flickr.com/photos/124620334@N05/

[AnasaziWrites]

Oh, yes, I also forgot to say that the RH was developped as a variation of the French Bātarde (which was itself a variation of an Italic Bastard). Shelley's style was very inspired by that hand.
You can find examples very similar to Shelley's in the 7th and 18th centuries French Master's books such as L'Art d'Ecrire by Alais de Beaulieu (google search, it's on Gallica), or the book I uploaded on Flickr some time ago : https://www.flickr.com/photos/124620334@N05/

Later work from Alexandre Bourgoin (b. 1776, d. 1819)

[sybillevz]

Oh yes, that's a good one too ! Although his work was published later so it is more influenced by the Round Hand than earlier works.
 Great find