Wartski case history NGS Design & Gild

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A Story of Roman Lettering Mastery

Introduction

Working on a range of prestige historic restoration projects in St. James’s and the City, which included the City of London Club, Cavalry and Guards Club, T Goode & Co, Hawkes Jewellers and Burlington Arcade projects paved the way for this project for Royal Jewellers Wartski.

The examples shown allowed us to showcase and build the reputation and understanding of exactly the right set of combinations for this special project at Wartski – going forward to complete their beautiful hallmark sign staging.

Gold Gold Signwriting 001

ANTIQUE VINTAGE FLORENTINE (MANETTI) DUO GOLD FOR WARTSKI OF ST. JAMES

https://wartski.com/

Wartski St. James’s Gilded Signwriting

St. James’s and the Royal Jewellers Wartski.

CHOOSING the HISTORICALLY CORRECT letters

The title was traced to remain faithful to the original brand with the subtitles married to the ‘Roman (Filetti) letter’ of our choice.

THE SHARPINGTON ROMAN LETTERING

We chose the crisp and calligraphic ‘William Sharpington Roman Alphabet’. The choise was made because I had seen his lettering as a child on the Dulwich Toll gate and around Dulwich Park. Coincidently I recently worked alongside his lettering in the House of Lords 2015 and they left a lasting impression.

This is always an important factor when we design even the simplest of projects – the power of the lettering in the viewer’s or client’s mind and memory.

All lettering was hand drawn by pencil and paper, with close reference to William Sharpington’s distinctive London Roman alphabet shown below.

Sharpington’s work is of course notably classical, yet each letter was made from his own passion for calligraphic rendering. The structures are strongly reminiscent of the original Trajan (Roman) and Jensen (Venetian) inspirational characters.

There was for us then, after some discussion in the design studio, no more suitable letter form for this fine commission.

WILL SHARPINGTON

Above: William and Below, Claire Sharpington at work on The Adelphi theatre stone carver’s layout pattern/transcript.

CLAIRE SHARPINGTON

TODAY

NGS ‘Restoration Foundry’ Gilded Lettering

The line art layout was designed for the Wartski main window display. The letter shapes wer refined by Seraina Baumgartner, in our NGS restoration ‘foundry hand’ version of Sharpington.

The letters were drawn directly from the original, archive examples. This mark out ‘pattern’ was then used as a guide for the hand painted lettering made on site.

Manetti Gold Leaf – Wartski case history NGS

After the lettering was completed the 24 carat, heavy gauge Manetti gold leaf was then laid in.

We used ‘3 Mani’ (coats/layers) and burnished to a mirror, inlaid ‘bevel’ finish.

Wartski St James', Roman Lettering by NGS

Detail above: Florentine inline of mirror gild alongside the softer contrast of matt gold leaf.

Wartski St James', Roman Lettering by NGS, Wartski case history NGS

Florentine 2 tone gold

Florentine gilding is a 2 tone inline gild of satin and mirrored gold finishes, similar to Chicago gild. The main reason for this particular gilding system is that the brilliance of Florentine light made single tone gold too reflective in the glare.

This system was devised allowing the satin gold to remain visible in any light condition, while the mirrored slice adding sharpness and contrast in fluctuating light conditions.

Done right it always looks amazing.

Romans 72 04

London: VINTAGE TYPE Treasure hunting

Wartski St.James's, Gilded Signwriting, Wartski case history NGS,
sharpington-romans-hampstead-london-ngs-signwriters

Recently we also stumbled upon this panel below which bears strong relation to Sharpington. We can reliably attribute to him.

Wartski case history NGS, Sharpington letters

OUR CREATIVE PROCESSES

Wartski was such an important commission and we decided to combine the four corners of our knowledge base: pencil drawing with technology for print-outs in order to form the final guides for the sable brush and gilded piece.