Vere Foster Civil Service Script

[caliken]

At school in the UK in the 1940s, I was taught Vere Foster Civil Service Script which was a simplified form of Copperplate (Roundhand). It was written with a straight pen fitted with a moderately flexible dip nib.

 

As it is written upright or at a slight slope with only a moderate degree of flex, it can written easily with a fountain pen. It was intended as an everyday handwriting style, with as few pen lifts as possible and, as ascenders, descenders and the x height are all the same, especially lined paper is unnecessary - any normal, lined paper will do. The 45 degree hairline ligatures give the lettering a nice sense of open space making it extremely easy to read.

 

It was designed specifically to be written easily at a reasonable speed and, as such, is just as useful today, as personal handwriting. This is a page from the manual showing some basic minuscules.

 

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd289/caliken_2007/VFCSS700.jpg

 

The entire book was kindly found and downloaded by hardyb in April last year.

 

IMO this is an attractive script which lends itself to modern usage with a fountain pen when fitted with a moderately flexible nib.

 

Any comments are welcome.

 

caliken

Edited December 4, 2011 by caliken

[Pickwick]

Hi Caliken,

 

Thank you for posting that. I was taught the same script at school in England during the 1940s, and had been trying to find the developers name. I've been trying to improve my handwriting which had deteriorated over the past years and had reverted back to that script I remembered.

 

Kind regards,

 

 

Pickwick

Edited December 4, 2011 by Pickwick

[StyloBug33]

That is really interesting. Thank you for posting it. In looking at the book, there is something called Bold Writing, which is just a touch different from the sample you posted and is exactly what I learned in school. I am working on improving my penmanship, but it sure takes practice.

[The Good Captain]

This looks very similar to the sort of thing that was presented to me as a small boy at school at the end of the 50s. I don't mean the book, as a 'prize' but style of letters to try to emulate.

Looking at my writing only a decade later and even now, I would have to say that it made little impression on me at the time.

I think I'll have another 'go' at it now!

Thanks.

[Mickey]

The things I find especially nice about this hand are that it's attractive as is and wonderfully adaptable to nearly any sort of nib. For example, I'd increase the slant a bit for an italic nib or steepen the join angle for an L oblique, in both case to provide the slender, more compact joins I prefer. As your example shows, it also looks to be a good hand for moderately flexible nibs. I think it's a great first style to learn.

[subbes]

Caliken;

 

 

Thanks for the posting, especially the link! I've been interested in vere foster for a while but couldn't find a complete source.

[caliken]

Thanks for the posting, especially the link! I've been interested in vere foster for a while but couldn't find a complete source.

The thanks should go to hardyb!

I'd been searching on and off for many years with no success, and was delighted when he found and posted it.

 

Ken

Edited December 4, 2011 by caliken

[shadowsforbars]

I learned this style in the 1950's and I agree with Ken's comments. The advantage over other styles for me as a lefthander is that there is little if any forward slope.

[The Royal Pen]

There is a variation of this being taught here too, though the original is much more lovelier

[John the Monkey]

Just to add to the "I remember this!" line, it looks just like the script I was taught at primary school (late '70s, early '80s).

 

I remember getting into trouble for objecting that the capital "Q" looked like the digit "2"

[fsnow55]

I learned this font (or something similar) as a schoolboy from the examples printed at the back of exercise books.

It served me well until high school when I started to compare my handwriting with others who write well. I noticed that my words were not as legible, i.e. my loops and busy letters, while aesthetically pleasing (to myself), were harder to read. I then consciously force myself to simplify letters and reduce the number of loops whenever I write. (Much later, I found the words for what I did i.e. converting my cursive from loopy cursive to italic cursive)

 

Earlier this year, I came across a newspaper article citing the same. I guess it's common enough to support a cottage industry: http://handwritingsuccess.com/

 

Still, thanks for the bit of nostalgia (Ken and hardyb)

 

Frank

[Columba Livia]

At the end of the 19th century, "vertical writing" (a looped upright cursive) was briefly popular in America as part of a push for simplified writing, although it was commercially out competed by the Palmer method & similar. While it was called "vertical writing" it was actually intended that people could write it with a blackslant, a forward slant or no slant: it was meant to be flexible and versatile.

 

This example is from the "Penman and Artist" in the year 1899 and features a great choice of different capitals:

 

http://i.imgur.com/iZoVG.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/8sQvi.jpg

 

http://www.archive.org/stream/penmanartist05zane#page/n15/mode/1up

 

Some lessons on vertical writing:

 

http://www.archive.org/stream/penmanartist05zane#page/n71/mode/1up

 

Some more stuff from the "Penman and Artist":

 

http://i.imgur.com/NVyFG.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/7MczY.jpg

 

http://www.archive.org/stream/penmanartist05zane#page/n32/mode/1up

 

http://i.imgur.com/vWVoT.jpg

 

http://www.archive.org/stream/penmanartist05zane#page/n92/mode/1up

Edited December 6, 2011 by Columba Livia

[calhoun tubbs]

Thank you for the links. I've come across some examples of vertical cursive and I find it particularly interesting. I'm surprised that it doesn't get mentioned often on FPN.

[caliken]

Great examples, Columba Livia.

 

I find the lineage fascinating.

 

Roman script was the ancestor of 16th century Italic.

 

Italic influenced the development of Roundhand (copperplate) which was initially written with a narrow edged pen before being copied onto a copper plate with a burin for subsequent printing. These printed sheets were used as models for handwriting but the images, having been modified by the engraver's burin, were impossible to replicate with an edged nib, and so the pointed, flexible nib was introduced. For obvious reasons, this style became known, eventually, as Copperplate.

 

In America, after a period of transition from Roundhand, as exemplified in Columba Livia's post, Spencerian script and it's many derivitives (Palmer, D'Nealian etc.) emerged as entirely different scripts from those used anywhere else at that time.

 

At the same time as this development, in Britain, the script style known as Civil Service script was introduced by Irishman Vere Foster. This was also a derivitive of Roundhand, being a simplified form for everyday handwriting. This was the style of writing which I learned at school in the 1940s. Needless to say, we knew nothing about the emergence of Spencerian or Palmer or the American "Golden Age of Penmanship". Equally, I doubt very much if many across the great divide had even heard of Vere Foster and his influience on writing in Britain.

 

And so from the same source, two distinctly different, isolated styles of pointed pen script evolved.

 

At the beginning of the 20th century, Italic script made a comeback and is now widely taught throughout Britain having largely replaced the Vere Foster style with its looped lettering.

I believe that Italic is now also widely regarded in America.

 

I know that this is very simplistic and that there are many byroads, but I believe that this is the general picture of influences and development - please correct me if you know otherwise!

 

caliken

Edited December 7, 2011 by caliken

[subbes]

Interesting! Being a transplant from the UK to the USA with no education in the American hand (especially not cursive), the first day I encountered something written in D'Nealian was rather like

.

[Mickey]

Cursive italic became popular as a desirable alternative in American progressive and private schools back in the 70s. Though well past elementary school age, it was then that I decided to do something about my deplorable penmanship and commenced to relearn in the italic style.

 

In recent years, Spencerian has made a bit of a come back through the home school movement (copies of the original Spencer copybooks are available on Amazon) and Michael and Debra Sull's recently penned "American Cursive" (method book) is generating a fair amount of buzz, both for home and private schooling. Having recently received letters in this style, I can testify that the hand is highly legible, clean, attractive, and free from unnecessary ornament. It also appears to be a very quick hand, as suitable for a note taking as formal correspondence. I see a real kinship between the Vere Foster CSS and this form of Spencerian, both as to their shared round hand ancestry and their objectives.

[Chevalier]

Ken, do you know if the pictures of the book are under any copyright? I'd like to do a pdf for us, but I don't know about the legal side.

[caliken]

Ken, do you know if the pictures of the book are under any copyright? I'd like to do a pdf for us, but I don't know about the legal side.

Chevalier,

I don't know the answer to that. hardyb who posted it originally, might have the answer. He hasn't been around for a couple of weeks - why not send him a pm?

 

Ken

[Chevalier]

Oh, never mind. I already tried to work on the letter forms yesterday, but I noticed that the space between letters is imbalanced, like in the words containing "m" and "n" on the page you posted. I think I'll rework the script to fit my needs early next year. I'll post the resulting pages after I've finished it.

[caliken]

Oh, never mind. I already tried to work on the letter forms yesterday, but I noticed that the space between letters is imbalanced, like in the words containing "m" and "n" on the page you posted. I think I'll rework the script to fit my needs early next year. I'll post the resulting pages after I've finished it.

I look forward to seeing the results.

 

Ken