This fancy penmanship was produced by Joseph R. Messervy ... it is on the back of the title page of a book that I recently acquired ... Vol . 6 of the works of Flavius Josephus ... printed in English in 1828.I did a little research and found that this may be the only example of his penmanship still in existance. Examples of his previous penmanship exercises had been stored in the house of his son, Oliver, and were destroyed when the Teton Dam broke and flooded parts of southern Idaho.
My handwriting will never look this good ... but then I come from a father whose journals will require a "rosetta stone" or some such item to translate them into readable writings.
