I was requested to make Catriona Gordon's (Known as Katya) Pelican Scroll. In her ICOP, she had requested a Black Hours scroll. As there are only a few Black Hours manuscripts, I asked her lord, Sir Sterlig De La Rosa, what Katya's preference for style would be. He let me know that she would like a more colorful style, which would be the book known as the Morgan Black Hours. This is the final piece.
The Black Hours were so named because the vellum was dyed black with iron gall ink. Since the ink is highly corrosive, the surviving pieces were severely damaged. However, the manuscript held by the Morgan Library survived better than others due to its thick vellum pages. The Morgan Black Hours were completed in Bruges, Belgium. between 1460 and 1475.
These are three of the pages in the Morgan Black Hours:
Gold and silver leaf was used for the lettering. The book's borders are predominately dark blue with gold foliage, birds, animals, and grotesques. The initial letters are gold leaf on a green ground.
My first step was to layout the design for the scroll. I knew that Sir Sterling planned on writing the words like a menu, using names of Katya's recipes with the "instructions" being characteristics of the four peerages, and royal peerage. I knew I would require more space than a single page would allow, so I decided to do two pages on one piece of paper - as if the book was opened to see two pages.
I also wanted to place a large Pelican in its piety on the left side along with a text block. Once I saw this stained-glass Pelican from St John the Baptist Church, Campsea Ash, Suffolk, I fell in love with it and knew it had to be on the scroll.
I went through many of the pages I could locate online for the Morgan Black Hours and selected elements that I liked from the pages, ranging from the acanthus leaves and different types of flowers.
Katya loves elephants and I wanted to put one on her scroll. It was difficult to locate a period style elephant, and the reason made sense. Imagine you never saw an elephant but were told what it looks like and then told to draw it. Many of the elephants had bizarre trunks, or had castles built on them. I finally found one that was close to realistic.
After the sketch was completed, it was time to transfer the sketch onto the gold paper. Last year, I had done a scroll based on the Morgan Black Hours and you can see that post here - Sagittarius for Ciaran Ua Meic Thire. During that process, I learned that I could use a wax-free transfer paper which, when I traced my design, would leave a yellow outline on the black paper.
The next step was the calligraphy. Although the original was gold leaf, that step would be extremely time consuming, and expensive as a large quantity of gold leaf would be required. Instead, I used Kuretake gold and silver ink.
Once this was done it was time to start painting the blue background. Although I had used a Holbein blue gouache for the last black hours scroll I did, I did not feel it was quite the right color. The basic Wiki article discussed the blue border "Ultramarine pigment was extremely rare and worth more by weight than gold;[11] thus its prevalence in this work is an indicator of the commissioner's wealth.[15][16]." The cited Art historian Ingo Walther, Codices Illustres. Berlin: Taschen Verlag, 2014.
However, the ultramarine paint that I had (Windsor & Newton) still didn't look quite right. So, I asked my question on the Aspiring Scribes Facebook page. One of the members had actually asked that question of Frank Trujillo, the Drue Heinz Boo Conservator at the Morgan. It turns out that the blue is actually azurite. Mr. Trujillo also provided the link to a video where he and Melvin R. Seiden Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, discussed some of the pigments used. The video is located here:
Unfortunately, I did not have azurite, and did not have time to wait to order it. Instead, I researched what was used as a replacement. I located an article that stated Prussian Blue replaced azurite in the 18th Century. Bingo! I had a tube of W&N Prussian Blue! I lightened it a little with white and it was the perfect color. (For future reference, Cennini says that you can use indigo and chalk white as a substitute for azurite).
Once the blue background was done, I began adding in the gold into the flowers, leaves, and elephant. The gold is faux gold watercolor from Greenleaf and Blueberry, a small company that makes hand-made paints. It has been my favorite gold so far.
This is generally the phase I call the "teenager". You know if you just keep going, it will grow up and be fine. But in this stage, I tend to just want to cry. Luckily, as usual, I kept going.
After the gold was done, I painted the pelican. I made the nest look like it was part of the stained glass. The red and white were from Greenleaf and Blueberry. The malachite on the outside border was from Archangel Arts.
The final touches were done, such as adding Katya's device, and adding the gold borders around the outside of the two pages.
The final scroll - left and right side photos:
It should be noted that I changed brands of paper since the last time I made a Black Hours scroll. This is Strathmore 400 Series Mixed Media Paper. The Strathmore paper allowed the paint to absorb into the paper. The Cannon paper I had used previously caused the paint to almost just barely absorb, and more like it laid on top of the paper. I was much happier with the Strathmore paper.
What I would do differently. I would like to test using actual gold leaf on the initial letters instead of gold paint. I want to see how the Stratmore paper will stand up to the gilding process.
Overall, I was very happy with this scroll. Most importantly, Katya loved it.
Thank you for posting this! I know making scrolls, especially of this caliber, is a lot of work and I enjoyed reading about the process. As you said I love this scroll and can't thank you enough for all of your effort and art. Hugs!