In times of ugly memes shared on Twitter by Eon Musk, I need more than ever before, the authentic look of handwriting and the feel of a used textured paper.
Among online collections curated by The British Library, you can find a wonderful example of the personality transferred to the paper. It’s Jane Austen’s letter to her sister Cassandra, written in April 1811.
At that time, Jane was staying in London with her brother Henry. She was replying to Cassandra, sharing family news.
💬 Austen tells her sister of the birth of a new nephew, Henry Edgar Austen, the third child of their brother Frank.
Austen uses every bit of the paper, including the margins, to fit in as much news as possible. The letter is packed with detail.
This is that makes this piece truly exceptional. There is nothing more austenish than her own handwritten letter!
Do you want to read the letter in its entirety? It’s one of Jane Austen’s publications available for free from Project Gutenberg.
The answer to Cassandra is included in The Letters of Jane Austen – personal writings selected by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey from a collection of Austen’s nephew, Lord Edward Bradbourne.
The book was published in 1908 by Little, Brown, and Company. The letter to Cassandra, from Thursday, April 25, 1811, has the number XXXVI.
In my ongoing pursuit for an authentic vintage feel, I decided to “remaster” and fine-tune this beautiful letter so that I could reuse it on numerous products, from notebooks, to mugs, tote bags, stickers, and leggings.
Examples are shown below, and you can check out the entire Jane Austen Collection on Zazzle.
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