Thursday, June 16, 2011

Rough Cut & Wrinkled: Antique Handwriting in French

Isn't this fun? I dearly love all things French, including our funny little jotting for this afternoon's post.
Letter writing itself is vanishing. A fine art once, those who wrote a "fine hand," or cursive, were often sought after to redraft their friends' correspondence. Nowadays, it is no longer in the curriculum of many of our schools here in the U.S. Pretty soon, nobody but those over 40 will be able to decipher the scribblings of the past unless taught for the purposes of, say, research.
For now, let us ponder our quickly scrawled brief epistle to find clues as to its history.
For one thing, we don't have enough French between us to fully comprehend what this was all about. :)
On the other hand, the free translators online are there for anyone to use--if, let us say, there are no mystery words left over. With a dictionary, we had been able to determine only a brief sketchy outline for you, while the online free translating service we chose took parts of what we gave it and made it sound a bit weird. "Eles" became eels. Go figure.
Ultimately, it was decided there were too many variations within speech to complete our free translation. However, there were some decisive victories over this mystery, one being how the person writing our note wanted news of his or her tobacco or a camera (free translations can be tricky!). Had these items arrived as planned? Apparently somebody was soon marrying and all were invited. An apology was given for the poor quality of the writing paper chosen. Nothing historic, for certain. But fun? We think it could be.


With our refining process, though, the image began to lose some of its potential for fun. It began to look middle aged, not 4 years shy of its 100th birthday. [Note: It is now over 100 years of age as of 6/12/16] A decision had to be made: to post as is or delete it from our archives altogether.
Well, you know the rest. :)
Happy Creativity en Français!
Rose


French Handwriting (Rough Cut)

Downloadable Version HERE



Scanned Imagery courtesy PPS Archives
Free for Public Domain Use




9 comments:

Ann said...

love this!! I think I'm going to use it as a background for a frame...awesome!!
you are so right about the fine art of the handwritten letter. My son and his girlfriend text all the time..don't even use phone to talk. his friends who move away text all the time. I told my son he needs to write his girlfriend notes,letters..how else can she save them with a ribbon loving tied around it?

Plush Possum Studio said...

It wasn't a super duper French script letter, just a fun mystery for solving. But we are glad you like it and can use it, Ann.

BTW, Amy had a comment here, but it's gone with the wind. Did I hit a wrong button I wonder?????

:(

DeeDee said...

Love your downloads.. thanks for visiting me today.. please watch back ans see this book transform.. we go to class once a month... I have so many fun things in mind for it....

Have a great day,

Plush Possum Studio said...

DeeDee: Oh, cool! You mean there's more to explore coming up next month too? I'll be sure to hop on by around this time in July, then! ;)
Rose

Beansieleigh said...

Oh, I love this! Merci beaucoup!.. And have a great weekend! ~tina

Scott Niven said...

I agree with the first poster. This would look great as a background, whether it was a framed photo or perhaps the background to a website or blog.

Plush Possum Studio said...

Beansie: De rien! You have a great weekend too!
;)



Scott: Wow! We had no idea anyone would view it from either yours or Ann's perspective. We just saw it as a fun bit of ephemera.
But thanks! That is encouraging.
Rose

pchickki said...

This would make a fantastic background.
Thanks for the download.
My son always says he would rather write a letter than text or email and he does. :)

Plush Possum Studio said...

pchickki: So glad you found it useful!
How old is your son? He must be the rare exception!
;)

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