The Sheraton specified copperplate writing in keeping with the period.
The lettering was with a Gillott 303 nib in an oblique holder with Walker’s copperplate ink.
The drawing was with a Rotring rapidograph with a .18 point with a light grey wash added later.

A couple of years ago, I was commissioned by a museum to produce a handwritten dowry for permanent display in a waxwork tableau. It was to be held, as if being read, by one of the characters. I was given the text required and some examples of Scottish writing of the period for style.

My first two attempts were rejected as being “too good”. Apparently it would have being written by a clerk and not by a calligrapher.
By the time of my third attempt, I was quite familiar with the style and wrote it quickly straight through. Calligraphy it most definitely is not, but the clients were happy, which is all that really mattered.

It was written with a Rotring ArtPen on parchment paper.

I kept a copy as a curiosity and as an example of how not to write!

When I was first starting out in business for myself, I was given the following advice if I were ever offered to quote for a job which I didn’t want to do, for whatever reason - work out the price and then double it and submit this figure as your firm quotation. If you don’t get the job, that’s fine, because you didn’t want to do it anyway. However, if the client is prepared to pay a high price, then at least you’ll know that the rewards will be worth it, in the end.

This was one such job. My instructions were simple - produce by hand, labels for whisky decanters in an old style which was obviously handwritten (in other words, not too neat). The writing was to be in black with the heading in gold paint or ink. Obviously, it would have been much cheaper to have had them printed, but they wanted to say, on the back label, “to reflect the quality of this very rare, single grain whisky, every front label has been handwritten”. The whisky was produced by Independent Distillers & Vintners and were on sale in Harrods, London.

Over a six month period, I produced, by hand, 2,500 decanter labels as below. Even although I wrote them over a long period, they were still mind-numbingly boring to write. Fortunately, I was very well paid for the job and I suppose that it was very good practice.

Some time ago, I was commissioned by BBC TV to produce some pages of writing for use in a rather gruesome drama called “Witchcraze”. Based on fact, it was set in Scotland in 1589. I was given lettering examples of the period and several pages of text to be written in the same style. I was instructed that they being written, not by a calligrapher but by a clerk and that authenticity of appearance was more important than quality.

In the scene where they were used, several pages were scattered on a desk and a clerk was “writing” a testimony by a witness to the behaviour and actions of an accused witch. After the testimony, she was seen signing with an X above “Bessie Brown”.