This scroll was created for the East Kingdom Rapier Tournament held at Pennsic XXXI and was given to the victor of that tourney, Don Antonio Patriquin. (Congratulations!) This was the first time I've ever created a scroll at an event; I did the illumination first, in daylight, and then the calligraphy I had to do by the light of an oil lamp in our camp. Don Antonio's lady was kind enough to send me scans of the scroll so I could add it to my scriptorium -- many thanks to her for that!
The illumination was entirely from my own head, since I didn't
have any source materials to plagiarize research this time; the paint
is my usual Winsor and Newton gouache with the Holbein Pearl Gold. The ink is
some wonderful oak gall ink that I picked up from the Monastery of St. Gabriel
at War -- it's very neat because it goes on grey and then oxidizes on the page
to turn a lovely opaque black. I went back to buy another couple of bottles
but they were all out, so I bought a sack of galls and some oxidant so I can
try making my own period ink.
I was a little rushed in putting Don Antonio's name on the scroll and so it wasn't as neatly done as I would have liked -- I didn't space it correctly and had to abbreviate the last bit of his name to fit it in, and the gouache was misbehaving and thin, so it wasn't as opaque as it should have been. Other than that, though, I'm very pleased with this scroll!
