Can anyone help with this handwriting? I'm in the middle of cataloguing a special collection, recording provenance as I go along. This signature has me scratching my head! I can read the first name "Thomas" but I'd appreciate help with the surname. The suggestions so far have been "Grengreys" or "Gringreys".
What do you think?
I'm guessing the age of the book is 19th century? A date would at least give a minimum start date for handwriting styles. I don't know the answer but it could be a S at the beginning rather than a G.
ReplyDeleteI'd suggest Gre(e)ngrass.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your help! The book is published in 1843 - it is part of a series called the Child's companion which was published in parts under the title 'Sunday scholar's reward'. I think it was meant to liven up Sundays (when no games were allowed) with suitably pious stories and pictures!!
ReplyDeleteI should perhaps have said that I think that there is one long s, followed by a short s at the end of the name. The different heights in double s words was common. The letters are clearly not very well closed - the a in Thomas is rather like what I think is the a in what I think is -grass. Variant spellings of names is also still not uncommon at that time, so the name might well be Greengrass now, not Grengrass. There were lots of Greengrasses in Great Dunham. Do you know where this book came from?
ReplyDeleteI'm not really a palaeography expert, though ...