The History of the Kingdom of The West
Scrolls

And Now For My Next Magical Trick ...

Photo and Contribution
by Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

And Now For My Next Magical Trick ...
Now I need to repair the date. If you go back two photos images, you'll see the date to the left of the Arms, written as XXVIII, which is 28 in roman numerals. This needs to be changed to 29, which is XXIX in roman numerals. The ever helpful Garth suggests that I just add another "I" but that would not be the proper notation and is rejected with scorn. Besides, there's no place to put another "I" -- the laurel wreath is in the way. No, this will have to be a real calligraphy fix, and heaven knows I've got enough practice doing that, as I always seem to mess up the calligraphy (see my notes on Andrew of the Vine's Leaf of Merit/AA).

The first step is to write over the top of what you're repairing; the second step is to remove anything that isn't part of the correction. I'm usually doing this will in the act of lettering the text -- you know, you start to letter a word and part way through it you realize you've just dropped a letter. As in writing the word "and" and you've written "A", then "D", then -- oops! In cases like that, you go over the "D" with an "N", then do "D" again and continue on with the rest of the text, come back and finish the correction afterwards.

I study the area, take out a pencil and sketch in what I want. I can salvage part of the upright of the "V" by overlaying it with the new "I". The "X" needs to be a bit spread out to occupy the space taken up by "III" so I make sure the right leg of the X has a long swash. Also by having something dark cutting through the repaired area, the eye will be less likely to notice the scraped paper. That decided, I pull out pen and ink and quickly letter in the two new numbers. This is left to dry overnight.

The following day I pull out a disposable surgical scalpel (size 10), which has an extremely sharp, curved blade. I carefully cut around the inked areas that aren't part of the two new numbers, then use the tip to peel up the top layer of paper within the delineated areas. The sharp cuts always throw a tiny sliver of shadow, so the last step is to try to shave down those sharp edges. Holding the blade almost parallel to the surface, I lightly scrape/file down those edges. I also slice my finger without hardly noticing it -- my, those surgical blades are sharp, aren't they? I suppress the urge to smear blood on the back of the scroll -- just as well, the iron content would probably damage the paper.

-- Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

The West Kingdom History Website was created by and is maintained by Hirsch von Henford (mka Ken Mayer).