Making Your Mark: When Ink was Made at Home, pt 1
Today’s pens combine pen and ink into a convenient vessel, ready for instant use. In Austen’s day, pen and ink were separate entities, and is was often home made.
Continue reading →Tag Archives: accomplishments
When Paper was a Luxury
Today, paper is quite literally something that grows on trees. It is abundant, disposable, and cheap, quite the opposite of the situation during Jane Austen’s day when paper was something of a luxury good This, and the cost of postage, explains why letters of Austen’s era were cross-written, sometimes three different times. A writer would write a page full, turn the page 90 degrees and write again, and then if quite long-winded, turn it 45 … Continue reading →
The ‘Long S’
In my many tumbles down the research rabbit hole, I have ended up in a number of manuscripts published in the 1700s and 1800s with which I have a love-hate relationship. No small part of the hate in that love-hate relationship rests squarely upon the vexing character known as the ‘long s’.
Continue reading →Paying Calls and Visits
Once an acquaintance was established and calling cards exchanged, formal visits could be exchanged. What were the rules that governed those visists in Austen’s day?
Continue reading →The Pianoforte of Jane Austen’s day
What was the pianoforte and how did it feature in Austen’s works? The pianoforte so often featured in Jane Austen’s works was essentially the same instrument we know today as the piano. The instrument first came into being about 1700, by Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua who cared for the harpsichords of the Florentine court. He developed an instrument similar to a harpsichord that allowed the instrument to be played both soft and loud (the meaning … Continue reading →