George Bickham the Elder

In 1733 Bickham collected penmanship samples from twenty-five London writing masters, engraved and published them in The Universal Penman, issued in fifty-two parts between 1733 and 1741. The collection became one of the most important and popular copy texts used by writing masters to instruct their pupils. It is still used by calligraphers interested in the English Round Hand or Copperplate script and was reprinted as recently as 2014. Father and son collaborated in a number of publications, including the Universal Penman and The British Monarchy, a collection of 188 plates of historical notes with 43 plates of views of English and Welsh counties. They are called views, rather than maps, though they are presented as map-like perspectives with major towns marked.

• Round Text, a new coppy-book…, Hammersmith: Chas. Price, 1712. • Youth’s Instructor in the Art of Numbers. A new cyphering book…, 1730. • Anon. The Young Clerk’s Assistant; Or Penmanship Made Easy… Pub. Richard Ware. Engraved by George Bickham. 1733. • The Universal Penman, 1733-1741. • The British Monarchy, or a chorographical description…, 1748. • The Drawing and Writing Tutor, 1748. • The Pensylvania and Philadelphia writing-master. A new county copy-book. 1750. • The surrey and Southwark writing-master. A new county copy-book. 1750. • The British youth’s instructor: or, The useful penman. 1754. • The English monarchical writing-master. 1754.