Stagecrafter's Guild Charter

This particular assignment was definitely a challenge, but I absolutely loved it.

I was asked, with about three days notice, to do some quick calligraphy for a Charter that was to go out at Coronation. Now, three days isn't a lot of time, but I still wanted something that was going to make the recipient happy; which, to me, meant more than just calligraphy, which isn't my biggest strong suit.

This was actually the perfect opportunity to do something I had been wanting to give a shot to for a little while, now. A giant, decorative cadel!

A picture of the cadel, angled so the gold paint could catch reflection

The first step was to get the words from Don Malcolm Bowman, because without the words, how would I know what letter to search for as a cadel reference? So, he sent those over to me right way.

"Let it be known that We, Ivan and Matilde, Tsar and Tsaritsa of the East Kingdom, do hereby grant Our permission and approval for the formation of a Royal Stagecrafters’ Guild, the purpose of said Guild being to encourage the construction of set pieces to aid in the theatre of our and future courts.

The Guild members shall work to research and construct staging for period-appropriate recreations, in order to further advance the look and feel of the Royal Courts. The skills and talents of the Stagecrafter’s Guild members shall be at the service of the Crown, working with them on appropriate court scenery.

Further, the Royal Stagecrafters’ Guild will encourage the creation of local stagecraft guilds, in order to perform the same service for the Baronies of the Kingdom. This will help to develop a network of support and information, as well as a resource of helping hands to expand this work, and make all level of courts in the Kingdom of the East even more opulent than they already are.

Therefore, to the purpose of establishing this Stagecrafter’s Guild as an official Royal Guild of the East Kingdom of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. we herein set our signs manual."

Once I got those, I went to work searching for the perfect cadel to reference for the letter L. This particular reference, pictured below, was from Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, late 1500s/early 1600s.

Cadel from Shakespeare's Sonnet 116

While the original source material is completely done in ink, I've always loved the look of ink and gold-work together. So, once I found my source, I got to thinking about the best way I'd want to incorporate some gold-work into the letter itself. While I thought that over, I did up a quick draft of the cadel to get the sizing correct.

Drafted cadel placed on the piece of 14x17 inch Bristol for sizing.

For a size reference, at the widest point, this cadel is just over 7 inches wide and just over 6 inches tall. Once I got the positioning and figured out how I wanted to incorporate the gold-work, I set to work getting the piece finished.

The full letter itself I decided to paint with a liquid metallic finish, interior antique gold paint by Brush 'N Leaf; the painting itself took about 4 hours of painstaking care. For the accents, I used Higgins Black Magic ink and a crow quill pen; this ink was also used for the calligraphy as well.

Finished piece

Calligraphy and Illumination: Me
Words: Don Malcolm Bowman