1905 Pittsburg Team Cabinet completed

[Runscott]

I finally finished this project - just need to put the pieces together.

I ended up finding a ca. 1900-10 frame that I liked, but couldn't decide between a dark or light mat, so I did both. Which one should I have the framers use?

The cabinet and original mock-up are shown as well, but I couldn't do gold leaf letter-press, so ended up sort of learning calligraphy and doing it myself, black ink on one, gold leaf marker on the other (looks much better in real life). The original scans I used were too red - actual image is more of an olive color, so the brown mat didn't work.

[JMEnglish27]

#2 is the best one...very nice.

One tiny thing...you're missing the 'h' on the end of Pittsburgh. That said, in the old-style calligraphy, it looks intentional, and I know there was more variation in the spelling back then.

[bat_master]

Originally Posted by bigj7489

#2 is the best one...very nice.

One tiny thing...you're missing the 'h' on the end of Pittsburgh. That said, in the old-style calligraphy, it looks intentional, and I know there was more variation in the spelling back then.

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh,_Pennsylvania

"Pittsburgh is one of the few American cities to be spelled with an h at the end of a burg suffix.[23] From 1890 to 1911 the city's "h" was removed but after a public campaign it was officially restored by the United States Board on Geographic Names.[22]"

[JMEnglish27]

Originally Posted by bat_master

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh,_Pennsylvania

"Pittsburgh is one of the few American cities to be spelled with an h at the end of a burg suffix.[23] From 1890 to 1911 the city's "h" was removed but after a public campaign it was officially restored by the United States Board on Geographic Names.[22]"

Oh that's awesome. You guys are very thorough, nice!

[JeremyW]

For what it's worth, I like #1 & think your calligraphy looks great.

[Runscott]

Thanks, Jeremy. Here's more detail than you need: I did the black ink on the light mat first, then adjusted based on those results, for the gold on dark mat - changed spacing, position, etc. Unfortunately, the pen I used for the header was a very thick-point pen with a chisel tip - I just couldn't get that part right. But I made some nice improvements with the smaller gold lettering - changed the 'G' and 'H', etc. Probably should have done one more mat, but I'm worn out with this project and need to move on.

In short, this is something that anyone can do - just a matter of figuring out the letters and getting them mapped in your head so that they come somewhat naturally.

[David Atkatz]

Although originally named "Pittsburgh," from 1890 through 1911 the final "h" was not used.

[39special]

Very nice Scott!

[Leon]

answered the wrong question ......I like the second one better too.

[sporteq]

I like the ornate frame but it's a little to bold. IMO it dominates the photo to much. The black frame is to settle.

Albert

[Michael B]

I like either of the first two. May I make a suggestion? I would probably find a professional calligrapher to do the mat. They do it all of the time so there will be consistency in spacing and letter size and all of the names will look like they are written on lines without there being any. You did a great job and I know how tough it is. I did freehand calligraphy on about 100 wedding invitations for my first wedding. If I had a piece like that and I did the lettering I would look at it every day and say to myself: 'Those letters are slanting.' or 'These capital letters are not the same size'.

I love photographs. That is what I collect and what I do on the side. The few original large photos I have on my wall are in their original mats with hand lettering and that just enhances the photo.