⏳ PRINTED ON DEMAND — Please allow 3–4 weeks for delivery

This book is printed one copy at a time when you order it. There is no warehouse shelf of these — your copy goes on the press after you check out. Hardcover binding takes longer than paperback. Please allow 3–4 weeks from order to delivery.

About this book

A Primer of the Art of Illumination for the Use of Beginners by F. Delamotte, 1874. The illuminated lettering primer — back in print.

Illumination — the medieval art of decorated letters and borders, revived by the Victorians — gets its beginner's manual here. Delamotte's 1874 primer teaches the illuminated lettering tradition from the ground up: the alphabets, the ornament, the colors, and the gilding of the page, in the plain teaching style of the South Kensington school.

The 132 pages are the foundation course in a beautiful art — the ancestor of the engrosser's flourished capitals and the calligrapher's decorated initials. For the lettering artist and the student of ornament, it is where the decorated letter begins: history, method, and practice in one slim volume.

The Victorian illumination primer, reproduced complete.

Back in print as a hardcover built to last on the shop shelf.

Details: 6×9" hardcover (case laminate), 132 pages, black and white interior, cream paper.

⚠️ Please read before ordering — about print quality

This is a print-on-demand reprint of a scanned historical document. The pages were scanned from an original 1874 printing, and the print quality of your book reflects the condition of that original scan.

What that means in plain terms: you may see faded text, uneven inking, age spots, show-through from the back of pages, and other imperfections that were in the 1874 original or introduced by the scanning process. These are preserved as-is — they are not printing defects, and they are not something we can fix.

We are not responsible for the condition of the original source material. If you want a pristine modern typeset book, this isn't it. If you want the actual 1874 manual with all its character intact, you're in the right place.

Printed on demand by IngramSpark. One copy at a time — no inventory, no waste.