Monogram

“ Neither the painters, nor the engravers, nor the metal-founders, nor the medalists of those ages, availed themselves of this device, nor do we find it at all general among such artists, till the very close of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. But, once introduced, it became universal. Every artist of the [pg 265] sixteenth, and of the greater part of the seventeenth century, has his monogram, more or less simple according to the taste or caprice of the designer ”

“ The designing and painting of monograms constitutes an art mastered, save in exceptional instances, only after long continued study and practice. Some of our best monogram makers do not ascribe their success to talent, but, rather, to hard work and practice. ”

“ Gorgeous monograms are not desirable. If used at all—and very few even of our proud and aristocratic families do use them—they should be decorative without being elaborate. A good stationer should be consulted before one determines upon a monogram. ”

“ When it is required of a design that it will read from all points of view, Roman letters will usually be found to give the most satisfactory result.
Intermixture of styles should always be avoided. If the Roman and Gothic are found too severe to suit a given subject, the Cursive and Rustic letters with their easy flowing lines can be made to fill almost any space one will be called upon to fill with either Monogram or Cipher.
A device besides being of one style of letter should also be pure as a whole; plan either a Monogram or a Cipher, but don't combine the two. ”

“ A Monogram is a combination of two or more letters, in which one letter forms part of another and cannot be separated from the whole. A Cipher is merely an interlacing or placing together of two or more letters, being in no way dependent for their parts on other of the letters. ”

“ In this as in other branches of ornamental painting the harmony by analogy and the harmony by contrast are recognized and adhered to. The monogram painted in relief is an illustration of harmony by analogy. Such a monogram represents the employment of a single color and its blended tints and shades. Harmony by contrast consists of painting each letter of the monogram a different, but complementary, color. ”

“ It is to be observed, however, that some artists were by no means uniform in the style of monogram which they employed. The device of the same artist often varies, not only in the size and figure of the letters which form it, but sometimes even in the letters themselves. Many artists have employed two, three, four, and even a greater number of devices; and of the celebrated engraver just named, Albert Dürer, we ourselves have seen not less than thirty different modifications of the letters A D, the initials of his name. ”

“ As some proficiency is gained the slate may be discarded in favor of the writing pad, pencil and eraser. The compass and dividers are not advised as aids to be constantly relied upon. The general practice should be to let these aids severely alone. Free-hand drawing produces, as a rule, the most symmetrical and graceful monogram. Study of proportion and balance should early engage the thought of the learner. Curves on one side of a monogram, for instance, should be followed when possible by similar ones on the opposite side. ”

“ A Monogram or Cipher is in all cases intended for ornament, whether used as a mark of ownership by private individuals, or for a company, or a trade-mark. For purposes of commerce it is of course important that the device should be distinct and easily read. The same might apply also to the design for a club or society mark. For private use, however, where the device is to enrich a piece of jewellery, plate, the binding of a book, a piece of furniture, or part of the decoration of a house, it should in the first place be a good design. ”

“ The same practice obtained in the Frankish empire. The Merovingian kings, or at least those of them who knew how to write, subscribed their diplomas and great charters with their own hands; and their great officers of state, chancellors and others, countersigned in autograph. The unlettered Merovingian kings made use of monograms composed of the letters of their names; and, curiously, the illiterate monogram was destined to supersede the literate subscriptions. For the monogram was adopted by Charlemagne and his successors as a recognized symbol of their subscription. ”

“ The letters for the Monograms are taken at random from a list of authors. The last plate, CXXXV, is a suggestion for the decorative treatment of Sacred Inscriptions in Monogram and Cipher, following the style of the Italian Renaissance.
One plate has been added to the work, engraved by Mr. Thomas Moring, which shows some few ways in which these designs [Pg xxi] can be intelligently interpreted for a particular craft. It also shows how the character of a design may be preserved while a change is made in the letters or in their position. ”

“ The pictures in this alphabet are all signed with an A, at the top of which is a little projection suggesting that it stands for the monogram of A. S. My friend Mr. Sayle has found initials with this signature in books printed during the reign of Elizabeth and James I., which nearly make up a complete alphabet, with some letters in duplicate. According to Bryant and Nägler, the engraver Anton Sylvius, who was born at Antwerp in 1526, and worked for Plantin from 1550 to 1573, used the monogram I have described. But I am not wholly satisfied that this A. S. is the same man. ”

“ It is bad form to use it in addition to the mucilage on the flap of the envelope unless the mucilage is of a very poor quality.
A monogram or crest is placed in the center at the top of the page when no address is given. It should be omitted entirely when the address appears at the top of the page. The space occupied by a crest or monogram should not cover more than the approximate circumference of a silver dime. A crest is usually stamped in gilt, silver, black, white or dark green. Vivid colors must be avoided. ”

“ A device of any two letters will always be readily found, which should be sufficient to furnish the designer or artisan with a base upon which to build a design of three or more letters.
There is to-day a growing taste for severe chaste forms in printing types and lettering; the same influence is also directing a change of style in the more decorative Monogram and Cipher. The florid combinations of the last two centuries are gradually falling into disuse, and are giving place to the very simplest forms. ”

“ Designing the Monogram The designer well versed in this work combines the letters so that each stands out clearly and is easily deciphered at a glance. Curling lines and waves which mean nothing, but only deceive the eyes, are never found in the best examples. ”

“ A difficulty is sometimes created by the discovery of the letter V—very frequently smaller than the other letters of the monogram—between the initials of the artist's name. It occurs in the signatures of Flemish or German artists, and represents the van or von, which, in the usage of these countries, was the characteristic of nobility. ”

“ The dishonesty of the modern picture-market, however, has made it now little more than a curious study. As a practical guide in determining the genuineness of a work, the monogram, from the skill and precision with which fraudulent dealers have learned to counterfeit it in almost all its varieties, has long been far worse than equivocal, and the authorship of a picture must, now-a-days, often be decided on entirely independent grounds. ”

“ Here, luckily,' continues Renouvier, 'a monogram enables us to attribute the engravings to their author. It is a G alone, or enclosing an F, subscribed on a shield or in a cartouche hanging from a branch. ”

“ Monograms are not entirely “out,” but they are only used by those to whom their own especial design, through long use, has come to seem almost a part of themselves. All fleeting fancies in stationery should be passed by on the other side, or, at most, left to the wayward tastes of “sweet sixteen,” or to some few whose very eccentricities are part of their fame. Sarah Bernhardt, for instance, uses433 blue paper framed in a pale gray line on the top of the page, and the flap of the envelope is a tragic mark, above which her initials are traversed by a scroll bearing her motto, “Quand méme.” ”

“ Placing the Monogram The place of stamping is optional and depends largely on individual taste, but the full line of paper should show the same marking, a smaller die being often cut for the first size sheets or place cards. ”

“ Sometimes you will find a very elaborate letter, the outline of which has been worked in satin-stitch or French stemming. Little eyelets or satin-stitch dots are worked between the lines.
Fig. 138. Van Dyke stitch
When two or more letters intertwine they are called a monogram. It is not every set of letters that will make good monograms. Letters that have a good swing should be selected so that though they intertwine each letter should stand forth clearly. It is permissible to use the surname initial a trifle larger than the Christian initial. ”

“ Two or three minutes after we passed O'Reilly we were mixed up in a big crowd, almost fighting our way through...."
"Oh, a big crowd!" Clo broke in. "A chance for that pickpocket. Suppose he came the minute you had turned your backs on O'Reilly, and he sent his trained thief after you, hot foot, to get that envelope?"
"Ah, but you've forgotten something!" cried Beverley. "A thief might get the envelope: I'll admit that. But how could he have another one exactly like it, with the same seals, the same monogram, to put into Roger's pocket, when he took the original?" ”

“ It is a remarkable circumstance, however, in the history of art, that the signatures of the most distinguished painters are precisely those which, for themselves, and for their forms, possess the least interest. With few exceptions, it may be said of the great painters, that they appear to have avoided the affectation of the use of monograms ”

“ With the painters of the eighteenth century, they fell into complete disfavour; and although, in the present century, the revival of ancient forms has led to their re-adoption in the German school, and among the cultivators of Christian art generally, yet many of the first painters of the present day seem to eschew the use of monograms, as savouring of transcendentalism, or of some other of the various affectations, by which modern art is accused of having been disfigured. ”

“ One of the most curious among the studies of a professed connoisseur, is that of the signatures or marks, technically called 'monograms,' by which painters, sculptors, engravers, and other artists, are accustomed to distinguish their works. ”

“ To perform good work in painting monograms due attention must be given the tools. These should consist of mahl stick, palette, palette cups, a small palette knife, pounce bags, small bottles containing japan, turpentine, etc., and a complete assortment of pencils. The pencils should be red sable hair, set in metal, and outfitted with cedar handles. The hair had best not exceed 1/4 inch in length, and in size the pencils may run from knitting-needle bulk to what pencil makers call No. ”

“ There are two obvious relations in which the scales employed in any system of music may stand to each other. They may be related as two keys of the same mode in modern music: that is to say, we may have to do with a scale consisting of a fixed succession of intervals, which may vary in pitch—may be 'transposed,' as we say, from one pitch or key to another. Or the scales may differ as the Major mode differs from the Minor, namely in the order in which the intervals follow each other. ”

“ A fifth experiment, first devised by Newton, is also within the reach of the student. On a disc of cardboard the centre and border of which have been previously painted black, are pasted seven strips of paper, painted as nearly as possible of the same colour as the components of the spectrum—or if the student is anything of an artist he may paint the disc in imitation of the spectrum, carefully shading off the tints into each other. ”

“ The phonograph lay under the very eyes of Science, and yet she did not see it. The logograph had traced all the curves of speech with ink on paper; and it only remained to impress them on a solid surface in such a manner as to regulate the vibrations of an artificial tympanum or drum. Yet no professor of acoustics thought of this, and it was left to Edison, a telegraphic inventor, to show them what was lying at their feet.
Mere knowledge, uncombined in the imagination, does not bear fruit in new inventions. It is from the union of different facts that a new idea springs. ”

“ The monocord. In the first instrument the notes are indicated by frets. On the monocord in the foreground the child places the frets as he discovers the notes by drawing the bow across the string.
Material for indicating the intervals of the major scale and its transposition from one key to another.
We have, however, for this purpose a real musical material, as appears from our design. Here on a wooden form like that used for the bells, but two octaves instead of one octave long, we have arranged prisms of equal dimensions but painted black and white according to the tones they represent. ”