Spencerian 5-book Reprint Is Worth the Price

[ajoe]

I just received my order from Amazon for the "Spencerian Penmanship (Theory Book plus five copybooks) Package Edition". These are a full professional reprints of the books, not a scanned copy.

 

Amazon Link Here

 

The cost is just $23.39 U.S. new, and they are really worth it compared to trying to work from the very poor downloadable versions found on the web. The paper is white, the printing and illustrations are crystal clear -- quality that is virtually identical to currently published books.

 

If you plan to buy this, and knowing that there may be other suppliers on Amazon, scroll down to the details and make sure you are getting the set published by Mott Media.

 

No affiliation, just wanted to pass this along. As someone who has struggled with the downloaded copy, this published set is a breath of fresh air and so worth the money.

 

Enjoy.

[bunnspecial]

As a question on this-

 

I bought what I believe was this exact set a few years ago, and worked part of the way through it but kind of lost track and am ready to buy another to start from the beginning.

 

Although the printing is crisp, I found the paper in the copy books to be very poor quality and essentially could not get it to not feather with any sort of fountain pen. I even tried a steel dip pen, given that the course was really written for use with one, with some proper Speedball-brand(I think) India ink, which was better but still not great. I never got as far as "shading" my letters, but I can't imagine the paper would have allowed effective practice of that...

 

Does the linked one have better paper than this?

[ajoe]

I do not use a fountain pen for penmanship practice because most instructors I have read recommend against them because of the lack of friction. Instead they suggest medium ballpoint or #2 pencil. I use a medium ballpoint.

[antarmukhee]

Thank you for this info.

Can you please confirm whether it is the 1985 edition?

[fireant]

On 1/20/2022 at 8:18 PM, bestillmysoul said:

Thank you for this info.

Can you please confirm whether it is the 1985 edition?

 

I bought this set in November 2021 and I just checked it. Mine says its published by Mott Media, this edition copyright is listed as 1985. This is the link to the ones I bought (from my order history).

[amberleadavis]

On 1/2/2022 at 4:56 PM, ajoe said:

I just received my order from Amazon for the "Spencerian Penmanship (Theory Book plus five copybooks) Package Edition". These are a full professional reprints of the books, not a scanned copy.

 

Amazon Link Here

 

The cost is just $23.39 U.S. new, and they are really worth it compared to trying to work from the very poor downloadable versions found on the web. The paper is white, the printing and illustrations are crystal clear -- quality that is virtually identical to currently published books.

 

If you plan to buy this, and knowing that there may be other suppliers on Amazon, scroll down to the details and make sure you are getting the set published by Mott Media.

 

No affiliation, just wanted to pass this along. As someone who has struggled with the downloaded copy, this published set is a breath of fresh air and so worth the money.

 

Enjoy.

 

Thank you!  BTW, the Sull book is up too!

[Anushka]

This set of books is still available via Amazon 🙂

They are in a smaller format than I expected, and thanks to the reviews here and Amazon, I might scan and print them slightly bigger and on better quality paper. 
now what pen should I use? I suck at controlling a dip pen (I have several) or I have a million fountain pens, does it make a difference? Or should I use a pencil?

[fireant]

On 2/27/2023 at 2:34 AM, Anushka said:

This set of books is still available via Amazon 🙂

They are in a smaller format than I expected, and thanks to the reviews here and Amazon, I might scan and print them slightly bigger and on better quality paper. 
now what pen should I use? I suck at controlling a dip pen (I have several) or I have a million fountain pens, does it make a difference? Or should I use a pencil?

 

 

If you're scanning them on cheap paper, pencil might be a great option.

[inkstainedruth]

On 1/31/2022 at 7:57 PM, fireant said:

 

I bought this set in November 2021 and I just checked it. Mine says its published by Mott Media, this edition copyright is listed as 1985. This is the link to the ones I bought (from my order history).

From your description I was expecting the book to be super expensive....   

Or is this one volume of a multi-volume set?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[fireant]

4 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Or is this one volume of a multi-volume set?

 

My set is multi volume they are about 8"wide x 6.5" tall.

[Bloosqr]

I did this Mott set twice as my intro to fountain pens, I will say the paper is terrible with Pilot ink. That said perhaps the advantage of practicing with cheap paper is one very consciously tries to use the lightest pressure possible to prevent feathering. 

 

There is a single book version of this called Spencerian Handwriting (which I also did twice)

https://www.amazon.com/Spencerian-Handwriting-Collection-Practical-Workbooks/dp/1612435289/ref=asc_df_1612435289/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312128284741&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18270878355421539757&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031953&hvtargid=pla-453800426070&psc=1

Its basically the same 5 book set merged into a single book (I think there were a few minor differences) the book is a bit bigger (so I think the lettering might be proportionally bigger) but the paper quality is way better than the Mott series.  I ended up going through this single version book in its entirety twice as well (e.g. two copies).

That said my favorite version of Spencerian writing is the Michael Sull book and worksheets.