Panache for Robyn of Rye

I received the assignment 21 May, and very quickly chose my exemplar, Harley 2748 f. 3. It reminds me of fireworks! All fired up (hah) with inspiration, I drew out the margins/framing and some of the border that same evening. May 28 I finished sketching the framework of the illumination, and inked it. May 29 I really finished sketching the illumination, and painted all the red, green, and brown, and part of the blue. May 30 I completed painting the blue, and painted the gold, black, and grey, and did all the gilding. Shiny!! And then, since Gwen has having an epic nap, I did all the whitework too.

Other 20 Year preparation kept me busy for awhile, until Jun. 11 when I composed the text, which is based loosely on the creation of the Duchy of Austria and reads:

Et haec sunt verba Torualdi regis et Tove regine Drachenwaldenses. Although the awarding of arms may remain valid from the actual act of performing such award, and those things which are lawfully possessed can not be wrested away by any act of force: it is, however, the duty of our regnal authority to re- affirm such stature by the enrollment of nobles in our ancient and hon- orable companies so that there can be no doubt of the transaction. Be it known, therefore, to the present age and to future generations, that we have, in the general court of Frankmark which was held on the 20th anniversary of the founding of our kingdom, in the presence of our princes and barons have advanced the name and standard of Lady Robyn of Rye, and it has been done in this way: that she henceforth be admitted into the number and company of the Order of the Panache: for the rest, in order that this our regnal decree may, for all ages, remain valid and unshaken, we have ordered the present charter to be written and have signed it with the signs of our hands.

The plan for Jun. 12 had been to draw out the lines for the calligraphy and hopefully do all of it, but instead I spent most of the day nursing a wee sick poor little baby; I got about 1/3 of the calligraphy done. Jun. 13, Gwen took a long enough nap that I was able to complete the rest. Whee!

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© 2013, Sara L. Uckelman.

AoA for Aaron von Turmstadt

The text was written Mar. 20, and on Mar. 21, I settled on using Codex Claustroneoburgensis 7 as my inspiration (the first initial A; the initial D; the second initial A; the beastie at the end). Unfortunately, it had no T's, so I had to rejigger the text a bit.

The text reads:

Alle true and noble people thise pre sent lettres seing or hering know the will of Tofa and Thorvaldr quene and kinge of alle the land of Drachenwald. It is soo that many persons been moeved of noble and gentile courage to exercise virtuous condiciones by the whiche they shall come to the perfeccion of grete honour and be rewarded for their merits by renown and that they may be in all places of great honour perpetually shinyng before others by certeyn signes and shows of honour and gentility. That is to say of blazon, helmet and crest in order that by their ensaumple others may the more endea- vor perseveringly to spend their days in feats of arms and other uirtuous deeds so as to attain renown of auncient gentility in their name, line and posteri- ty. Of which persones oone in espe- cial whos name is Aaron, of the Canton of Turmstadt, who has long borne himself valiantly in all his af fairs and conducted himself honourably so that he has deserved well and is well worthy that henceforth perpetually and for ever more he and his post- erity may be in all places honour- ably admitted, renowned, counted, numbered and received among the number and in the company of other and diverse ancient gentle and noble lords. And for the remembrance of this his gentility we hereby charge the said Aaron to devise suit- able and unique signs and markings, that is to say blazon helmet and crest, the blazon of which he is to register with the College of Arms to have and to hold alone and solely hence- forth and forevermore. In witness whereof we the abovenamed quene and kyng have caused the present charter to be drawn up which we haue signed be- low with owre owne hands, and geven in the said Canton of Turmstadt, on the xx day of Aprille in the year of the society xlvij, more commonly reckoned as mmxiij.

This is basically the same text I used here.

On Mar. 21 I also screwed up my courage and did something I have never done before: gilded! The result is very shiny, and this far outweighs any infelicities in technique. Shiny, shiny, shiny.... I started the calligraphy next, and of course Titivillus struck with a really egregious word omission. I hope I can fix the formatting in the second column to accommodate. Mar. 23 I did more calligraphy. Mar. 24 I did more calligraphy. There's lots of calligraphy. I took break after awhile, and painted in the majiscules on the first column, and some of the base coats of the first capital. And then I did more calligraphy. Then Gwen woke up. Mar. 25 I did...more calligraphy! I finished it, and then treated myself to painting in the rest of the majiscules. Mar. 26 I got to gild some more! I sketched in the second two initials and the grotesque, painted in the base colors, and then gilded. (Unlike Ari, I didn't have any problem with the gold sticking to the paint.) I had to take a break for a few days to do a new assignment for Crown, but was able to finish it up on Mar. 29.

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© 2013, Sara L. Uckelman.

Panache for Mylla O'Reilly

It is always such a pleasure when you get an assignment not only for a friend, but for someone you recommended! (The "suggested scribe" section on the DW award recommendation certainly helps this.) I received the assignment 10 days before the event, but functionally only 5, since I'm headed to Lisbon the Tuesday before Crown. I wanted something really special, but didn't have time to do something big, so I decided -- simple initial with gold leaf (loving my new gilding skills), and do it on sheep vellum. Yum!

Mar. 27 I picked the exemplar, Codex S 1399, fol. 133v, influenced by fol. 105v, too. and chose the text, which reads:

By Torvaldr and Tofa, the king and queen right worthy and well-beloved, to all the dukes, counts, barons, lords, and gentles of Drachenwald, greetings and salutations. Let it be known that we have not only by the testi- mony of many worthy and credible gentles but also by our own witness been informed, adver- tised, and acquainted with many reports of the skills in diverse arts and sciences, most especi- ally sewing, displayed by our subject Lady Mylla O'Reilly, and by her generosity and gifts of larg- esse. In recognition of this and all her numerous and manifest virtues we the above-named king and queen make the said Mylla a mem- ber of our ancient and honourable Order of the Panache, with all the rights, responsibili- ties, and privileges appertaining thereto, in- cluding the right to bear the badge of the order. So that none may lawfully contest this our will we have signed our names below on the vith day of apr. xlvii.

On that day I also started sketching the layout. Mar. 28 I drew in the rest of the lines and pencilled in the border, and did half the calligraphy. I completed the calligraphy Mar. 29, did the painted capitals and details in the text. Then Gwen went down for her afternoon nap, and I started in the rest: ALL the gilding; the base colors in the initial; then the decision to do the rest of the bordure with pen and ink, since I don't think I could get the gold paint to look right; and then the whitework, and about 1 minute after I finished the whitework, and about two hours after she went to sleep, I heard little noises from the bedroom. Perfect timing!

I'm very happy with this one, thrilled that in two days I was able to do justice to my exemplar and do such a neat little scroll for a friend.

For fun, compare with the Queen's Order of Courtesy I did for Saraswati, from the same MS.

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© 2013, Sara L. Uckelman.

Hospitallers of Albion for Haldan Skjoldklifr

 

The exemplar is BL MS Harley 2621 f. 1. The text reads:

Hearken now how we, Thorvaldr and Tofa, send halsings (1) to the most Honourable Haldan, hewer of shields, most handy and helpful is he, for we have been happily housed within his homelike and habitable herbergerie (2) and hospitality. His horn of plenty hath made our sojourn neither half-holiday nor hardship, his hearth is always hot, he has in all happenings kept us neither hamed (3) nor harmed nor hamperned. A hearty haven has he provided handling all our health, habitually and hendly (4), and before we hie ourselves homeward, with high happiness we hallow him with the honor of the Hospitalers of Albion such that henceforth and hereafterwards he shall always be hight a high-standing member of their company. Here we mark the date: xv.iii.xlvii. Here we set our hands:

124 words, of which 52 begin with "H". Unfortunately, I chose both the wrong nib and the wrong line-spacing, and thus the calligraphy is nothing to write home about. However, I'm relatively happy with the overall result. The color of the scan is also rather wonky, but I haven't figured out how to correct for this yet.

Notes:

1. MED s.v. halsing(e): (2) 'greeting, salutation'.
2. MED s.v. herbergerie: (a) 'A temporary lodging place; also, the tents or camp of an army in the field'’.
3. MED s.v. hamed: 'restrained, hampered'.
4. MED s.v. hendeli: (2)(a) 'humbly, meekly'; (b) 'beautifully, pleasantly'; (c) 'quickly, sharply'

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© 2013, Sara L. Uckelman.