George Bickham

George Bickham, the Elder, established himself in London as a writer of copy books and business texts and became the most celebrated ‘penman’ of his time. From 1733 until 1741 Bickham published The Universal Penman in collaboration with his son George the younger with contributions from some of London’s finest writing masters with each broadsheet focusing on a different art, profession, emotion or human moral.

 

Broadsides were single sheets of printed paper often posted up in public places as a form of disseminating official notices and royal proclamations but later served a variety of purposes from advertising to political agitation. Historically they only used text but Bickham added vignettes to highlight the quality of engraving.

 

Since the Renaissance, handwriting styles were increasingly moving towards a more open and lighter style as heavy handedness or too many flourishes made the letters difficult to decipher. In France by the mid seventeenth century legal documents were restricted to three ‘hands’, one of which, the Rhonde, was then picked up in England. This style was further refined until it developed into the English round hand, a script which grew in popularity in the 18th century through masters like Bickham and John Ayers and Charles Snell who also contributed to The Penman. English round hand soon became the preferred script being used throughout Europe and further abroad with a specific typeface based on that script.

 

Bickham’s main purpose was to teach legible and confident penmanship to young men so to equip them for professional life. London’s increasing commerce required teams of copyists for the production of legal documents but without the specialist skills of notary scriveners or solicitors. By the end of the eighteenth century letter copying machines would slowly begin replacing the need for copyists although good penmanship would always be required.