Vera Law, calligrapher and gilder, papers

Original decorative work: design sketches, collages, samples of textile design (undated); examples of, and materials used in calligraphy and gilding (undated); documents and papers, (1923-1995); reference material, various, (undated).

Vera Law (1899 - 1985) was born in Northampton. She trained at the Central School of Arts and Crafts , London from 1917 to 1922 under Graily Hewitt and H. Laurence Christie . In 1921 she was one of fourteen founder members of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators and she exhibited nine pieces of work at the Society's first exhibition in July 1922. She later became Secretary of the Society between 1937 and 1943.

Before the Second World War she had a variety of jobs in London, including gilding and undertaking gesso work at Joseph Armitage 's workshop in 1922, handicraft tutor at H.M. Borstal Institution in 1924, assistant teacher of illuminating and writing at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London from 1927 to 1930 and assistant in conservation to S. Kennedy North from 1928 to 1930. She worked with other scribes on several major commissions including the production of the Metropolitan Police Roll of Honour with Dorothy Hutton and the study of humanistic scripts with Alfred Fairbank , with whom she published several articles on Ludovico Vincentino degli Arrighi. She died on 19 July 1985.

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Given by Audrey Freeman, 1997, AAD/1997/5.

Given by Audrey Freeman to the V&A National Art Library, 2001. Transferred Archive of Art and Design, 2002, AAD/2002/12.

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