LETTERING 
 
 IN 
 
 ORNAMENT 
 
 AN ENQUIRY INTO THE 
 DECORATIVE USE OF 
 LETTERING, PAST, PRE- 
 SENT, AND POSSIBLE 
 
 BY 
 
 LEWIS F.DAY 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'ALPHABETS OLD AND 
 NEW,' ' ARJ-iifciiEEDI^EWORK,' ETC. 
 
 OF TH 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS, OLD AND NEW 
 
 LONDON : 
 B. T. BATSFORD 94 HIGH HOLBORN 
 
 - 1902 
 

 c -SE 
 
 BRAUBURV, AGNEW, & CO. LL)., PRINTERS, 
 LONDON AND TONBRIDGE. 
 
-c/v v 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THIS is not so much a sequel to "Alphabets 
 Old and New " as that is preliminary to this. 
 The earlier volume dealt with the alphabet only, 
 the forms of letters : the consideration is here 
 their use in ornament, the way they have been 
 and are to be employed in decoration. 
 
 The illustrations (of which a descriptive list is 
 given) are chosen strictly with a view to illustrate, 
 which will account for the introduction of my own 
 designs : it was not possible always to find the 
 fitting instance, and an obvious way out of the 
 dilemma was to make a drawing. 
 
 Incidentally, however, the examples of old work 
 here brought together show how universal was 
 the use of Lettering in Ornament, how varied, 
 how ingenious, and at times how beautiful. 
 Haply they may serve as incentives to fresh 
 invention; in any case they are valuable object- 
 lessons in decorative treatment. 
 
 My point of view, it is. hardly necessary to say, 
 is that of the workman who, if he is a good 
 workman, is something of an artist too ; and 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 what I have to say is addressed to those engaged 
 in ornamental design or seriously studying it. 
 
 The historic side of the subject is dwelt upon 
 because of its bearing upon the practical. 
 The work of other days throws full on what is 
 possible to-day a light, failing which, the 
 best of us grope awkwardly in the dusk of 
 perhaps very limited experience. 
 
 LEWIS F. DAY. 
 
 13, MECKLENBURGH SQUARE, 
 LONDON, W.C. 
 
 September ist, 1902. 
 
NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT. 
 
 I am indebted in many quarters: to Mr. R.Anning 
 Bell, Mr. Walter Crane, Mr. Raffles Davidson, 
 Mr. Harry Soane and Miss B. A. Waldram, for 
 the use of their designs or drawings ; to Herren 
 Gerlach and Schenk, the Imprimeries Reunies, 
 Herr von Larisch, Mr. Harry Soane and Messrs. 
 H. Virtue & Co., Ltd., for allowing reproductions 
 from their publications ; to Miss Gimingham, for the 
 loan of photographs; to the Rector of Stonyhurst 
 College, for sanctioning the illustration of Queen 
 Mary's prayer-book ; to the authorities of the British 
 and Victoria & Albert Museums, and especially to 
 Mr. A. B. Skinner and Mr. G. F. Hill, for valuable 
 assistance in the production of this book. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. INTRODUCTORY I 
 
 II. THE PRINTED PAGE ... . l8 
 
 III. THE WRITTEN PAGE ..... 2Q 
 
 IV. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS . . . . 40 
 V. DECORATIVE LETTERING .... 57 
 
 VI. INSCRIBED LABELS OR SCROLLS . 75 
 
 VII. HIDDEN MEANINGS ..... QO 
 
 VIII. CONJOINED LETTERS . .... IOJ 
 
 IX. MONOGRAMS 114 
 
 X. CYPHERS 129 
 
 XI. ORNAMENTAL LETTERING .... 145 
 
 XII. INITIAL LETTERS . . . . . . 165 
 
 XIII. ORNAMENTAL INITIALS . . . . IJI 
 
 XIV. PICTORIAL INITIALS . . ... l8l 
 
 XV. LETTERING AND ORNAMENT . . . 1.93 
 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 1. FRAME OF A PURSE OR BAG, with the lilies of France and 
 
 inscription incised. Found in England. i5th century. 
 (B. M.) 
 
 2. RUSSIAN MS. 
 
 3. PALI BUDDHIST MS. 
 
 4. ICELANDIC INSCRIPTION, carved in wood. 
 
 5. ARABIC INSCRIPTION, from a stone slab in the Mosque at 
 
 Cordova. 
 
 6. LEAF OF A DIPTYCH, carved in ivory, with subjects relating 
 
 to the Nativity, etc. Rhenish. loth century. (B. M.) 
 
 7. CARVED DRAWER FRONTS, from a Gothic cabinet. The letter 
 
 A in the word FATA deliberately bisected by the framing. 
 French. (Cluny Museum.) 
 
 8. TRACERY WINDOW, from the refectory of the Hospital of 
 
 S. Cross, with quarries bearing the motto of Cardinal 
 Beaufort, whose arms occupy the centre of the light. 
 English Perpendicular Gothic. About the middle of the 
 i5th century. (Winston.) 
 
 9. BRONZE MEDAL of the Italian Renaissance. (V. & A. M.) 
 
 10. DECORATIVE PANEL Perseus and the Graeae in gesso upon 
 
 oak, the inscription in raised gilt letters by Sir E. Burne- 
 Jones. 
 
 11. PART OF AN EMBROIDERED STOLE. The inscription, worked into 
 
 the gold background, so far Jpst in it as merely to break 
 the basket-stitch diaper. Roumanian, 
 
xii DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 12. WOODCUT INITIALS, from a book printed at Bale in the 
 
 1 6th century. 
 
 13. METAL COVER OF A CRYSTAL CUP, in the Uffizi at Florence, 
 
 pierced and enamelled with the cypher of Henri Deux. 
 French. i6th century. (H. Havard's " Dictionnaire de 
 I'Ameublement." Quantin.) 
 
 14. GLAZED ENCAUSTIC TILE, with part of a Latin inscription 
 
 from the Book of Job, xix. 21. Found in Sussex. Dated 
 1456. (B. M.) 
 
 15. FROM A JEWELLERY DESIGN, by H. Holbein. (Print-room, 
 
 B. M.) 
 
 16. MARKS OF THE PRINTERS, Jaques Huguelan and Mathew 
 
 Huz_ Lyons. 1494,1493. 
 
 17. ROUGH SKETCH FOR A NEWSPAPER HEADING. (L. F. D.) 
 
 18. POSTER, by R. Anning Bell. 
 
 19. PARCHMENT GRANT to a Hospital in Burgos, by Alfonso the 
 
 Wise, surrounded by inscription, SIGNO DEL KEY DON 
 ALFONSO, and confirmation of Juan Garcia, in concentric 
 circles. Spain, 1254. (B. M.) 
 
 20. INSCRIPTION by Joseph Plenick, of Vienna. (Beispiele 
 
 Riinstlerischer Schrift. Herr von Larisch.) 
 
 21. INSCRIPTION by Otto Hupp, of Munich. (Beispiele Riinst- 
 
 lerischer Schrift. Hecr von Larisch.} 
 
 22. DIAGRAM, to show^ letter-spacing. 
 
 23. DIAGRAM, to show construction of Roman letters. 
 
 24. TITLE-PAGE to W. Eden Nesfield's " Specimens of Mediaeval 
 
 Architecture." 1862. 
 
 25. BRONZE PLATE, from the grave of Veit Stoss, the 
 
 sculptor. Nuremberg. German, 1591. (" Die Bronce- 
 Epitaphien der Friejhofe zu Niirnberg." Gerlach <~ 
 Schenk, Vienna.} 
 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, xiii 
 
 26. BACK OF A PINEWOOD STALL, from the Church of S. Valen- 
 
 tine, Kiedrich. Carved by Erhart Falkener, of Abensperk. 
 Flat lettering grounded out, the words separated by inter- 
 mediate ornament. German, 1510. (" Monumental- Schrif- 
 ten vergangener Jahrhunderte. " Gerlach & Schenk, 
 Vienna] 
 
 27. INSCRIBED PANEL under the pulpit in the Cathedral at Siena. 
 
 Marble, the letters in relief. Italian. 1543. 
 
 28. INSCRIPTION PANEL, from thg tomb of Mary of Burgundy, in 
 
 the Church of Notre Dame at Bruges. 1495 1502. 
 
 29. INSCRIPTION on the tomb of Benozzo Federighi, in the Church 
 
 of S. Trinita, Florence, by Luca della Robbia, the letters 
 incised in marble. 1450. 
 
 30. INSCRIBED PANEL, from the shrine of S. Simeon, at Zara 
 
 in Dalmatia. Silver, embossed and gilt. The work of 
 Francesco di Antonio, of Sesto. 1380. 
 
 31. CAST-IRON GRAVE SLAB, from the Church of S. Jacobi, 
 
 Liibeck. 1599. (" Monumental-Schriften vergangener 
 Jahrhunderte." Gevlach & Schenk, Vienna.) 
 
 32. LATIN INSCRIPTION, in ribbon-like Gothic character, from a 
 
 mural brass at S. Peter's Church, Cologne. 1506. (From 
 a rubbing by W. H. James Weale in the Library at 
 V. & A. M.) 
 
 33. DIAGRAM to show the fitting together of letters so as to avoid 
 
 as much 'as possible open spaces of ground between. 
 
 34. SLAB outside the Church of S. Emmeran, Regensburg, cut 
 
 in sandstone. (" Monumental-Schriften vergangener Jahr- 
 hunderte." Gerlach dr Schenk, Vienna.) 
 
 35. BRONZE GRAVE PLATE. (" Die Bronce-Epitaphien der Fried- 
 
 hofe zu Nurnberg." Gerlach & Schenk, Vienna.) 
 
 36. CARVED PEW-END. English. 1 6th century. From a sketch 
 
 by Raffles Davison. 
 
 37. PART OF A BELT Iron inlaid with^silver. Byzantine. (B. M.) 
 
xiv DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 38. LEAF OF A DIPTYCH, carved in ivory. loth century. (B. M.) 
 
 39. PART OF A WOODEN DOOR at the Cathedral of Le Puy. Flat 
 
 carving grounded out. Inscribed- on the upright post is 
 the name of the artist. (Compare with 81.) French. 
 1 2th century. 
 
 40. COVER OF THE GOSPELS, with Slavonic inscriptions, repousse, 
 
 silver gilt. 1519. 
 
 41. ENLARGEMENT OF AN ENGRAVING on copper, by Hans Sebald 
 
 Beham. German. 1542. (B. M.) 
 
 42. GRAVE STONE, with incised inscription, from the Island of 
 
 Gotland. 1316. 
 
 43. GLAZED EARTHENWARE LOVING CUP, decorated in clay of 
 
 different colours. Staffordshire. lyth century. (B. M.) 
 
 44. PART OF A CARVED WOODEN DOOR, with Moresque ornament 
 
 and inscription in Gothic character by way of border. 
 Spanish. i5th century. (Musee des Arts Decoratifs, 
 Paris. ) 
 
 45. PART OF AN IRON DOOR, diapered with the arms of Leon and 
 
 Castille. Inscription, by way of border, beaten up. In the 
 Cathedral at Toledo. 
 
 46. SILVER TETRADRACHMS. 
 
 A. Reverse, with crab and bow in case, and the inscrip- 
 
 tion, KniON MOSXmN. Cos, island off Asia Minor. 
 3rd century B.C. 
 
 B. Obverse, with a Bee (symbol of Artemis) and the letters, 
 
 E * = Ephesus. 4th century B.C. 
 
 C. Reverse, with vine and the inscription, Em MHTPO- 
 
 AOTO. Maronea, a city of Thrace. 5th century B.C. 
 (All in the B. M.) 
 
 47. SILVER TETRADRACHMS. 
 
 D. Reverse, with the figure of Zeus and the word 
 
 AAEEANAPOT ; coin of the types of Alexander the 
 Great, probably issued after his death. B.C. 316 
 297. 
 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, xv 
 
 E. Reverse, with figure of Athene and inscription, BA2I- 
 
 AEH2 ANTirONOY. Antigonus, King of Macedon. 
 B.C. 277239. 
 
 F. Reverse, with figure of Zeus, and the inscription 
 
 BA2IAEYONT02 AFA0OKAEOT2 AIKAIOT, "in the 
 reign of Agathocles the Just." Bactria. 2nd century 
 B.C. 
 
 G. Reverse, with figure of Zeus, and the inscription 
 
 BA2IAEH2 BA2IAEHN AP2AKOY2 ETEPFETOT 
 AIKAIOY Eni4>ANOT2 4>IAEAAHNO5. Parthia. B.C. 
 
 5737- 
 
 H. Reverse, owl in a wreath of olive, with inscription 
 HPIAN2I . nrPFIAS . KA. Priansus, a city of Crete. 
 2nd century B.C. 
 
 48. ) 
 
 - BRONZE MEDALS. Italian. i6th century. 
 
 50. BRONZE MEDAL, with two inscriptions, the one raised, the 
 
 other sunk. Italian. i6th century. 
 
 51. INSCRIBED LABEL, from a Gothic stained-glass window. The 
 
 letters picked, with a pointed stick, out of solid paint. 
 English. i4th century. 
 
 52. PANEL, from the choir of Albi Cathedral. The name of the 
 
 prophet (or as much of it as the artist thought necessary 
 to identification) incised upon the background, the quota- 
 tion on a label. 
 
 53. PART OF A READING DESK, with the arms of France and Savoy, 
 
 letters L, and scrolls inscribed SPERANDUM AC FEREN- 
 DUM ; carved in ivory and painted. French. i6th century. 
 (In the possession of Mr. Salting.) 
 
 54. GOTHIC TAPESTRY, with figures and inscribed scrolls. French. 
 
 i5th century. (Cluny Museum.) 
 
 55. | PLAQUES OF FAIENCE. Inscribed labels used to occupy the 
 56.} background. Gubbio. 1 6th century. 
 
 57. ENLARGED BOOKPLATE. Inscription not following the con- 
 volutions of the label. Engraved on copper by Hans 
 Sebald Beham. German. 1^43. (B. M.) 
 
xvi DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 58. ENGRAVING ON COPPER. The alphabet inscribed on a scroll 
 
 H. S. Beham. (B. M.) 
 
 59. PART OF A SQUARE CARPET. The ornament consists almost 
 
 entirely of inscribed scrolls. German. (V. & A M.) 
 
 60. CYPHER AND INSCRIBED LABELS, designed for the " Art 
 
 Journal Illustrated Catalogue of the Exhibition of 1851," 
 by W. Harry Rogers. (H. Virtue & Co.) 
 
 61. The words SECUNDUM LUCAM, from a manuscript of the 
 
 Gospels. German. i5th century. 
 
 62. Two names, CHARLES and MAUD, intermingled with symbolic 
 
 and decorative intent. (L. F. D.) 
 
 63. GOTHIC PEW-END, with letter G used decoratively. From a 
 
 Church in Somersetshire. i4th century. 
 
 64. IRON BOLT-PLATES in the form of a letter F. French. Period 
 
 of Francis ler. 
 
 65. BORDER OF A PAGE from "The Book of Wedding Days." 
 
 Branches of the brier rose, appropriate to the month, 
 spell JUNE. Designed by Walter Crane. 
 
 66. ENGRAVED PANEL, in which florid Gothic foliage resolves 
 
 itself, upon examination, into the at first unsuspected word 
 ISRAEL, and (sideways) the letter M. Subsidiary labels 
 bear mottoes "Da gloriam Deo," etc. From a print (in 
 which, however, the design is reversed), engraved by 
 Israel van Meckenen. German. 1 5th century. (B. M.) 
 
 67. The letters R . L . L . s . v, coloured, with so little regard to shape 
 
 as further to disguise already florid forms. Embroidered, 
 border-wise, on linen. German Gothic. (V. & A. M.) 
 
 68. GOLDEN VOTIVE CROWN, found near Toledo. Suspended from 
 
 it in the form of a fringe are the letters RECCESSVINTHUS, 
 in cloisonned mosaic of coloured stones. Visigothic 
 workmanship of the yth century. (Cluny Museum.) 
 
 69. MERCHANT'S MARK, in relief upon a bronze memorial tablet 
 
 at Nuremberg. 1616. 
 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, xvii 
 
 70. MERCHANT'S MARK, c . E . G., from a seal or stamp. (Barclay's 
 
 " Monograms.") 
 
 71. MANGLING APPARATUS, with decorative inscriptions. Carved 
 
 in wood. Icelandic. 
 
 72. ORNAMENTAL LETTERING, painted on a picture frame by 
 
 Victor Vasnetzoff. Russian. (" The Studio.") 
 
 73. SLAVONIC INSCRIPTION of the i6th century. 
 
 74. BACK OF MIRROR FRAME, carved in low relief and enriched 
 
 with gold and colour. Inscription, o THOU SATISFIER 
 OF WANTS, Persian. i7th or i8th century. (India 
 Museum.) 
 
 75. The word ALLAH, in letters designed to form an ornamental 
 
 device. (L. F. D.) 
 
 76. The word PROPHET, in cursive ornamental letters. (L. F. D.) 
 
 77. The word ALLAH, in fret-like letters, after the manner of a 
 
 Chinese seal. Compare also with Cufic lettering. (L. F. D.) 
 
 78. The word PROPHET, in strap-like letters elaborately inter- 
 
 laced. (L. F. D.) 
 
 79. STAMP OF DOMITIAN, with raised letters AOMITIANOT. Iron. 
 
 Byzantine. (B. M.) 
 
 80. BRONZE PENDANT, enamelled in black and white. Spanish. 
 
 i7th century. 
 
 81. DETAILS from the doors at Le Puy (comp. 39), showing the 
 
 point to which the conjoining of letters was carried in the 
 I2th century. 
 
 82. PART OF AN INSCRIPTION, with conjoint Gothic lettering, 
 
 from a mural brass at Termonde. Flemish. 1575. (From 
 a rubbing by W. H. James Weale, in the Library at 
 V. & A. M.) 
 
 83. CONJOINT LETTERS of various periods. 
 
 84. DIAGRAM. 
 
 L.O. b 
 
xviii DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 85. CONJOINT LETTERING, forming the central device, in gold 
 
 with black (niello) outline, upon some silver dishes found 
 at Rome. 4th or 5th century of our era. (B. M.) 
 
 86. MONOGRAM, E . M. s., falling short of being a cypher only 
 
 because of its continuous line (comp. 90, 91, 92, 93). 
 (Barclay. ) 
 
 87. SUNDRY MONOGRAMS The component letters are written at 
 
 the side of each. (L. F. D.) 
 
 88. SOLIDUS (58 grain weight), with monogram inlaid in white 
 
 metal (silver or lead). Roman. (B. M.) 
 
 89. THE ALPHABET IN MONOGRAMS OF THREE LETTERS. (L. F. D.) 
 
 90. CONTINUOUS MONOGRAM, F. L. Reversible, i.e. , reads the 
 
 same upside down (comp. 86, 92, 93), by J. Bonella. 
 (Barclay.) 
 
 91. ) CONTINUOUS MONOGRAMS, s . P . L. and G . .p . L. (comp. 86, 90, 
 92.} 93), by W. H. Rogers. (Barclay.) 
 
 93. CONTINUOUS MONOGRAM, R . E . D. (comp. 86, 90, Ql, 92). 
 
 (L. F. D.) 
 
 94. | MONOGRAMS from jewellery designs by Holbein. (Print- 
 
 95. j room, B. M.) 
 
 96. DIAGRAM, indicating the variety of letter-shapes available 
 
 for the monogram mist. 
 
 97. MONOGRAMS AND CYPHER T. H. E. 
 
 98.1 
 
 99- V MONOGRAMS T. H. E. (L. F. D.) 
 
 100. J 
 
 101. STENCILLED MONOGRAM, with frame. (L. F. D.) 
 
 102. STENCILLED MONOGRAM, with symbolic background. (L.F. D.) 
 
 103. STENCILLED MONOGRAM, W . T. (L. F. D.) 
 
 104. MONOGRAM from a coin of QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, xix 
 
 105. REVERSED CYPHER PANEL of a carved walnut coffer. French. 
 
 1650. (V. & A. M.) 
 
 106. MONOGRAMS AND CYPHERS, painted upon quarries of old glass. 
 
 English. (V. & A. M.) 
 
 107. ) IRON KEY BOWS, with reversed cyphers. i7th or i8th 
 io8.j century. (B. M.) . 
 
 109. REVERSED CYPHER, from a wrought-iron fanlight. French. 
 1 8th century. 
 
 no. PAINTED TILES, with reversed cypher, c i. French. Period 
 of Henri Deux. 
 
 in. BOOKBINDING, tooled with the reversed cypher of Julie 
 d'Angennes, Duchesse de Montausier. One of several of 
 the same design by Le Gascon. French. 1651. (" Les 
 Femmes Bibliophiles." Quentin-Beauchart.} 
 
 112. CARVED AND FRETTED CYPHERS L .E.W.I. S D . A . Y. 
 
 i p G | by J- Fowler - (Barclay.) 
 
 115. G R s., by F. Montague. (Soane.) 
 
 116. B.E., by W. H. Rogers. (Barclay.) 
 
 117. w s., by F. Montague. (Soane.) 
 
 118. GOTHIC CYPHERS, A.M., i . H . s., (from old embroidery) 
 
 A.n. (L.F. D.) 
 
 119. FOLIATED CYPHER, i . H . c. (Adapted from H. Rogers.) 
 
 120. CYPHER, A. M. Cutwork. (L. F. D.) 
 
 121. CYPHERS, T . H . E. (L. F. D.) 
 
 122. CYPHER AND MASONIC DEVICE. (Harry Soane.) 
 
 123. MANUSCRIPT. Italian. 1439. 
 
 124. STAMP FOR PRINTING ON LINEN. Metal tape driven into a 
 
 block of deal, roughly sawn across the grain. 
 
xxii DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 165. EARLY WOODCUT INITIALS. 
 
 166. s., in glazed earthenware. Designed by Godfrey Sykes.' 
 
 (V. & A. M.) 
 
 167. ALPHABET. Designed by Godfrey Sykes. (V. & A. M.) 
 
 168. WOODCUT INITIALS, by Matthias Gereon. 1555. 
 
 169. EARLY WOODCUT INITIAL. (Same series as 164.) Bale. 
 
 170. WOODCARVING, by Francois Siebecq, from the bedchamber 
 
 of Henri II. in the Louvre. 
 
 171. WOODEN CEILING in the Salle de Diane, Chateau de Fon- 
 
 tainebleau. 
 
 172. PAVING TILES, from Harpesden Church, Oxon. Early i4th 
 
 century. (B. M.) 
 
 1 73< IGOTHIC PEW-ENDS, from a church in Somersetshire. 
 I74-J 
 
 175. EARTHENWARE DISH, painted in blue and lustre on a white 
 
 ground. Spanish. i5th or i6th century. (V. & A. M.) 
 
 176. CLOTH, embroidered with the collar of the Saint Esprit, and 
 
 devices from it. (Cluny Museum.) 
 
 177. GLAZED TILE, from the ancient Chateau de Beauty. 
 
 (Havard's " Dictionnaire de rAmeublement.") 
 
 (From STALLS, carved in pinewood, in the Church of S. 
 '-I Valentine, Kiedrich. German. 1510. ("Monumental 
 
 I79> ( Schriften." Gerlach & Schenk.} 
 
 1 80. MONOGRAMMIC DEVICE, A n and cross, in couched gold thread, 
 
 by Beatrice Waldram. 
 
 181. CYPHER DECORATION, painted in red and green on a whitish 
 
 ground, from the roof of Sail Church, Norfolk. 
 
 182. MONOGRAM, the background inlaid in flint upon a pier in 
 
 Wymondham Church, Norfolk. 
 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, xxiii 
 
 183. PART OF THE LID OF A PEARWOOD CASKET, carved with a diaper 
 
 of strapwork, crowned initials, etc., said to have belonged 
 to Mary Queen of Scots. Scottish. i5th century. (B. M.) 
 
 184. ALPHABET IN DRAWN WORK, from an old sampler. (V. &A. M.) 
 
 185. LETTERING, with ornamental background designed to take 
 
 from its obtrusiveness. 
 
 186. DEVICE with cypher v. R. , by F. Montague. (H. Soane.) 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 V. & A. M.= Victoria and Albert Museum. 
 
 B. M. = British Museum. 
 L. F. D. = Lewis F. Day. 
 
I. IRON PURSE MOUNT. 
 
 T. INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Lettering has, over and above its practical use, 
 and apart from any ornamental treatment of its 
 forms, a decorative value of its own ; and until 
 recent times craftsmen of all kinds turned it 
 habitually to account in their designs. More than 
 that, lettering is (or was, so long as any care for it 
 existed) in itself ornamental. A page consistently 
 set up in good type of one character throughout, 
 after the manner of days when there was life in 
 lettering, and not "displayed" after the distract- 
 ing fashion of the modern printer a merely well 
 planned page is in its degree a thing of beauty. 
 To that end, of course, the letters must be 
 well shaped and well spaced ; but, given the 
 artist equal to the not very tremendous task of 
 shaping them, or it may be of choosing them only 
 and putting them together, mere type is in itself 
 something upon which the eye can rest with 
 
 L.o. B 
 
2. RUSSIAN MANUSCRIPT. 
 
 satisfaction. To handle a printed book of the 
 days when the printer cared for his art is a 
 pleasure second only to that of turning over the 
 pages of a fine manuscript. 
 
 And this is no mere prejudice of the biblio- 
 maniac, who, indeed, values books for reasons not 
 intimately connected with the love of beauty. 
 Decorative artists have in all times felt the charm 
 of lettering, and owned it in their work ; they 
 have gone even to the length of inventing mock 
 writing, when they had nothing to say by it except 
 how thoroughly they appreciated the use of any- 
 thing like an inscription in design. 
 
 Artists as remote from decorative tendencies 
 in their own work as the painter of " The 
 Angelus" have been deeply interested in letter- 
 ing. It is told of J. F. Millet* that as a 
 boy he used to write verses of the Bible 
 on the wooden gates in the fields, choosing his 
 text to fit the bars. Each letter, he held, had an 
 intrinsic decorative value of its own ; and its form 
 meant something to him. He would describe to 
 his son, in teaching him, how the top of the big G 
 stooped over as if to drink out of the little goblet 
 below ; and he had a liking for the combination of 
 
 * H. Naegely. " J. F. Millet and Rustic Art." 
 
letters in certain words, even in foreign words 
 which he did not understand. WEYMOUTH, 
 for example, struck him as a fine combination of 
 letters to express a poor thin-sounding word. 
 Another artist who would have repudiated any 
 
 3-090 Oo86000 OQOod 
 
 cooo 
 
 Q3UCQ23O OOOOOD COO 
 
 X"\y"v*-^ 
 
 3. PALI BUDDHIST MANUSCRIPT. 
 
 particular leaning towards the ornamental side of 
 art, and who yet saw decorative value in lettering, 
 was Robert Louis Stevenson, who, a year before 
 his death, was bent on decorating the ruddy 
 wooden walls of his house at Samoa with letter- 
 ing. His idea was, to have made for him some 
 
 B2 
 
ICELANDIC INSCRIPTION. 
 
 hundreds of gilt letters on the model of ".really 
 exquisitely fine clear type from some Roman 
 monument " mounted on spikes like drawing-pins. 
 "You see," he wrote to Mr. St. Gaudens, 
 " suppose you entertain an honoured guest, when 
 he goes he leaves his name in gilt letters on your 
 walls ; an infinity of fun and decoration can be got 
 out of hospitable and festive mottoes; and the 
 doors of every room can be beautified by the 
 legend of their names. I really think there is 
 something in the idea." It was with reluctance 
 he abandoned it. " I had a strong conviction," 
 he wrote later, " in that I was a great hand at 
 writing inscriptions, and meant to exhibit and 
 test my genius on the walls of my house ; and 
 now I see I can't. It is generally thus. The 
 Battle of the Golden Letters will never be 
 delivered. On making preparation to open the 
 campaign, the King found himself face to face 
 with invincible difficulties, in which the rapacity 
 of a mercenary soldiery and the complaints of an 
 impoverished treasury played an equal part." 
 
 It is no mere fancy, then, of the book-lover or of 
 the decorator, that lettering is worthy of its place 
 

 5. ARABIC INSCRIPTION, 
 
in ornament. Lines of well formed lettering, 
 whether on the page of a book or on the panel of 
 a wall, break its surface pleasantly. It has only 
 to be proportioned and set out with judgment to 
 decorate the one or the other modestly it is true, 
 but the best of decoration is modest ; and it is not 
 the least of the ornamental qualities belonging to 
 lettering that it does not clamour for attention, but 
 will occupy a given space without asserting itself. 
 It gives at first sight not much more than texture 
 or variety of surface ; yet, when you come to look 
 closely at it, it tells you what could in no other 
 way be so clearly conveyed. Symbols may be 
 misinterpreted, pictures may not convey all that 
 is meant, the written or the graven word tells 
 what they cannot : there is no mistaking it. 
 
 At the same time, penned, painted, carved, or 
 anywise adequately rendered, it is in itseli 
 decorative. This seems to apply to the script ol 
 no matter what race ; Egyptian hieroglyphic, 
 Assyrian cuneiform imprint, Greek or Roman 
 chiselling, Gothic penmanship, are all alike pleasant 
 to see, quite apart from the meaning of the words, 
 which may, as likely as not, be past our understand- 
 ing. So too the writing of strange peoples every- 
 where, the Hebrew character, the Slavonic (2), 
 the Pali of the Buddhists (3), the Runic of the 
 Icelanders (4), the Cufic and the Neshki of the 
 Arabs (5), and all manner of to us mystifying 
 script, conveying to the unlearned absolutely 
 
6. BYZANTINE IVORY CARVING. 
 

 7- GOTHIC FURNITURE. 
 
 nothing of the meaning of the words, tell us 
 one and all of the decorative value of mere 
 lettering. 
 
 There is perhaps no more absolutely satisfactory 
 simple way of breaking a surface than by means of 
 well formed, well spaced lettering. In combination 
 with ornament it has from the first been used by 
 the decorator, and always with effect. On painted 
 mummy cases from Egypt, in carved reliefs from 
 Nineveh, and ivories from Byzantium (6), on 
 coins from Greece and Syracuse, on Persian tiles 
 and lustred pottery, on Gothic glass (8) and 
 tapestry, on church embroidery (n) and furni- 
 ture (7), on leather bindings, in locksmith's and 
 goldsmith's work (i and 15) and all manner of 
 craftsmanship, in the decoration of the manu- 
 scripts and books of all times (12), and on the 
 seals and signet rings of all peoples, lettering in 
 some form, often a very emphatic one, plays a 
 decorative part. 
 
 In modern days we seem to have lost sight of 
 its artistic possibilities. Only here and there an 
 artist appears to perceive the opportunities it 
 offers. William Morris himself did not, except in 
 his printed books, turn it to appreciable account ; 
 
though once at least Sir E. Burne-Jones in his 
 panel of Perseus and the Graese (10) bound his 
 
 8. STAINED GLASS TRACERY LIGHT. 
 
 composition together by a broad overhanging belt 
 of beautiful lettering across the vacant background 
 
10 
 
 of the panel very much as the medallist of the 
 Renaissance before him clouded as it were the sky 
 of his medallion (9) with inscription. 
 
 The use, however, of lettering in ornament does 
 
 Q. RENAISSANCE BRONZE MEDAL. 
 
 not depend upon its association with picture. It is 
 itself the graphic art. It takes the place of picture, 
 and conveys in the surest way what might possibly 
 have been conveyed by carved groups or painted 
 
II 
 
 figure subjects, but not so precisely ; and all this 
 without calling attention to itself. There are 
 abundant occasions when decoration ought not 
 to attract too much notice, apart from those other 
 
 IO. PERSEUS AND THE GRAEME, BY SIR E. BURNE- JONES. 
 
 occasions when adequate figure design is out of the 
 question. It must be remembered (though it may 
 sometimes suit us to forget it) that the moderate 
 degree of artistic accomplishment which contents 
 us in old work will not do for us in the produc- 
 tions of our own day. .We have passed the period 
 
of unsophisticated art when naivete was possible, 
 and are fast coming to the conclusion (if indeed 
 we have not already reached it) that, decoration 
 being in the nature of a luxury, superfluous in 
 the sense that it is possible to do without it, 
 only the best is to be tolerated, the best of its 
 kind. Rather than feeble figure-work let us 
 have good ornament ; rather than poor scrollery 
 let us have mere diaper, or some other simplest 
 form of enrichment. 
 
 Here, surely, lettering comes in, an art within 
 the scope of any decent craftsman give him but 
 a model to work from. For, to tell the truth, the 
 pretty theory that the workman should be left to 
 his own devices in design, works out in sheer waste 
 of workmanship. It is not so much that invention 
 is a rare gift, but that in the matter of taste, almost 
 as rare, the workman lacks as a rule the culture 
 which would keep him straight. With regard to 
 absolute originality, there is not much scope for it 
 in lettering ; and when a man speaks of designing 
 it, he means, as a rule, no more than that it is his 
 handwriting. 
 
 Meaning plays by no means an essential part 
 in ornament the prime purpose of which is 
 beauty ; but it may be desirable, in addition 
 to beauty, and the artist with ideas desires 
 always to do something more than solve a 
 decorative problem. Thoughtful artists turn to 
 symbolism, with the result that they are hampered 
 
II. PART OF AN EMBROIDERED STOLE. 
 
14 
 
 by it in their design, and perhaps led into a form 
 of expression which conveys their meaning only 
 to the smallest circle of admirers. The possi- 
 bilities of symbolism stop suddenly short. The 
 designer is faced by two alternatives. Either the 
 symbols at his service are familiar, so familiar as 
 to be hackneyed and commonplace, or, if they are 
 of his own imagining, the interpretation of them 
 
 12. INITIALS FROM EARLY PRINTED BOOKS. 
 
 makes demands upon our sympathetic recognition 
 to which only here and there an appreciative soul 
 responds. It has continually been found necessary 
 to explain the significance of symbols, and even to 
 call in for that purpose the aid of lettering, which of 
 itself would have sufficed without them. It is not 
 as though symbols were of themselves invariably 
 ornamental. The sign which best conveys the 
 meaning of the artist may not, and in practice 
 often does not, readily conform to the conditions 
 
of design, and its forcible introduction into the 
 scheme of decoration has consequently always 
 an air of intrusion. 
 
 Lettering, on the other hand, is by nature most 
 
 13. CHAMPLEVE ENAMEL. HENRI DEUX. 
 
 amenable to treatment ; there are so many varieties 
 of lettering, so many ways of introducing it ; and, 
 given the artist accustomed to its manipulation, 
 it can so readily be made to take its place in such 
 a way as certainly not to mar the decorative effect, 
 and most likely to enhance it. 
 
1 6 
 
 A picture itself, or a piece of sculpture, con- 
 ceived in the spirit of decoration, may gain no less 
 in decorative value than in significance by the 
 introduction into it of lettering in one form or 
 
 14. GOTHIC ENCAUSTIC TILE. 
 
 another. This lettering may fill, or just suffi- 
 ciently occupy, a panel or a tablet ; it may be 
 introduced into the nimbus of a saint or on a 
 label encompassing him ; it may be as it were 
 embroidered on the hem of his garment or 
 
17 
 
 written across the folds of it, as was done in 
 mediaeval times whilst the Assyrian of old boldly 
 cut his cuneiform inscriptions right across his pic- 
 tures in relief; it may be-diaper the ground (n), 
 or otherwise enter into its decoration (6) ; the 
 devices of the designer are more than it is here 
 possible to number. In certain initials from early 
 printed books (12) lettering at once decorative 
 and explanatory is introduced into the subsidiary 
 decoration of the capital letters. 
 
 Ornament, apart from picture, may gain still 
 more from lettering, which takes, in turn, the 
 place of figured story. It may form itself the 
 staple of all decorative device, as in many an 
 instance here given ; it may be cunningly inter- 
 woven with ornament (13) ; it may be plentifully 
 employed (14) or sparingly (170) ; it is equally 
 ready to fill the most conspicuous place or to 
 retire discreetly into obscurity ; it is the most 
 obedient servant of the ornamentist. 
 
 15. JEWELLERY, BY H. HOLBEIN. 
 
 L.O. 
 
II. THE PRINTED PAGE. 
 
 The idea of lettering is so closely bound up with 
 that of printed type that the book, from title 
 page to printer's mark, naturally comes into 
 consideration. 
 
 Due consideration of it from the printer's point 
 of view would, however, lead us astray from the 
 present purpose ; it would demand quite a volume 
 to itself. The very extent of the subject compels 
 its compression within strict limits. It will be 
 impossible- here to do more than consider the 
 page, printed or written, as a comparatively com- 
 pact mass of lettering, the main business of which 
 is to tell us something, but to tell it with decent 
 regard for appearances : it would not otherwise 
 come within our scope at all. The assumption 
 that the appearance of the page is to be improved 
 only at the cost of legibility, may have some 
 grounds in the vagaries of artists wanting in 
 respect for the art in which they dabble, but it is 
 not founded upon any inherent incompatibility 
 between what is beautiful and what can easily be 
 read. Lettering may very well answer both con- 
 ditions, and should do so. Is our newspaper type 
 more legible than a fine Roman inscription ? Any 
 
19 
 
 advantage print may have lies entirely in the 
 fact that the man in the street is more familiar 
 with it. Modern improvements (?) in type have 
 unfortunately been in the one direction of plain 
 printing, leaving aside the question of beauty, with 
 the result that the immediate effect of any artistic 
 improvement in letter-shapes must be a degree 
 of strangeness which, however slight, will strike 
 people as less readable not that it is really so. 
 Only in so far is it true, that more beautiful 
 lettering means lettering more difficult to read. 
 Many a beautiful script which asks of us rather 
 more attention than modern type, would be at 
 least as plain -to us if it were our ordinary reading. 
 There is not the slightest doubt that twentieth', 
 century type might well be made more beautiful 
 than it is. The obstacles in the way of doing it are, 
 not that such type would be less readable, but that 
 " practical" people have made up their minds that 
 it would be, and vast commercial interests are 
 engaged on the side of letting things be. The 
 best we can hope for is gradual improvement, and 
 that such slight changes as occur in the fashions 
 of print may be for the better. It is well that 
 artistic attention should be called to it, for some- 
 thing of all artistic doing trickles through into 
 trade. The effort of William Morris has not been 
 without effect. Printers who would most emphati- 
 cally deny that they are converted to his opinions 
 have plainly been influenced by his work. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 In the case of the written page, as of the graven 
 slab, the painted tablet, and other hand lettering, 
 (to all of which much that is here said equally 
 applies) the artist is untrammelled except by public 
 prejudice, which, if he deserves the name, he will 
 to some extent ignore. It is the bounden duty of 
 the caligrapher to obey the principle of beauty, to 
 shape his letters as perfectly, and to space them as 
 pleasantly, as conditions will allow. 
 
 The conditions of execution with pen, brush, 
 graver or other tool will affect in most cases the 
 shape of the letters. With regard to their distri- 
 bution and arrangement, the conditions apply 
 equally to page, panel, tablet, or any solid block 
 of writing such as the rectangular patch of com- 
 pact inscription adopted by Greek or Roman 
 carvers when they did not frame it in mouldings 
 or design a tablet for its reception. 
 
 Let us take the printed page as typical of the 
 area on which a patch of lettering is to be spread. 
 Experience proves that the eye is best satisfied 
 by a tolerably uniform distribution of the letters, 
 Roman, Gothic, or whatever their character, over 
 it, so that they give at first sight the impression 
 of a fairly even surface, distinguished from the 
 surrounding surface (that is, the margin) more by 
 a difference of tint than by any appreciable letter- 
 forms within the mass. 
 
 The tint of print is, however, only relatively 
 even : words are of uneven length ; and there may 
 
21 
 
 be other breaks in its continuity, occurring as the 
 sense of the words determines, and just not as the 
 compositor would have them. Nevertheless he is 
 bound to accept them, not merely to take them 
 into account, but to make the best of them, un- 
 happily as they may come for him. He cannot, 
 without forfeiting all claim to artistic feeling, 
 shirk the difficulty of so scheming his lines that 
 they are of equal length, that the words are as 
 little broken as possible and never awkwardly, 
 and that the spaces between them do not run into 
 little rivulets of white wandering irregularly down 
 the page, to its extreme disfigurement. Broad 
 spaces of white between the lines of print inter- 
 cept such ugly streams, at the same time that they 
 make reading easier ; but the comparatively even 
 tint given by closely compact lines of type is more 
 restful to the eye than distinctly marked bars of 
 print. Here is, for once, a point of divergence 
 between the most useful and the most beautiful 
 way of doing it. It applies, however, more to 
 printed books than to carved, graven or written 
 inscription. 
 
 In books, where easy reading counts for much 
 and symmetry for little, it would be absurd to 
 sacrifice convenience to effect, and to abandon 
 any division or distribution of the text upon the 
 page enabling us to grasp the meaning readily. 
 We want our reading made easy : and there is 
 not the least doubt that breaks in the type which 
 
22 
 
 correspond to breaks in the sense do make it 
 easier. The division of the text into words, 
 sentences, paragraphs, and chapters, is a foregone 
 conclusion, with which it is futile to quarrel. 
 
 The remedy for the undue preponderance of 
 white, where a paragraph breaks the uniformity of 
 the printed page, is, not to do away with para- 
 graphs, but to break up the page into a number 
 of them. That also makes it livelier and easier 
 to read ; and if to some extent it takes away from 
 the importance attaching to a less frequent pause, 
 the balance of emphasis can be restored by a dis- 
 tinctive form of letter at the beginning of the 
 dominant paragraph, denoting a fresh start 
 which of itself may be made to add to the interest 
 and beauty of the page. But the consideration 
 of the initial letter belongs to another chapter. 
 
 An alternative to leaving a blank space at the 
 end of a sentence, is to mark the pause by a printed 
 sign, much heavier than the type of course (or it 
 would not equally arrest the attention) and there- 
 fore no less objectionable than the plain paper: 
 the recurrence of relatively solid black ornaments 
 amidst the grey tint given by the type, is even 
 more irritating than gaps of white in it. The sign, 
 of something like equal weight with the text, by 
 which the Greek scribe, say of the eighth century, 
 marks a pause in the sense, is proportionately 
 happier in effect, but does not meet the modern 
 need for a signal which there can be no mistaking 
 
23 
 
 even from a long way off. In fact, the demand for 
 something more like " stops " is as old as the tenth 
 century. 
 
 The proportion of the patch of print to the page 
 of the book, the amount, that is to say, of margin 
 left round the text, and the position of the patch 
 upon the page, have very much to do with its 
 
 16. PRINTERS' MARKS. 
 
 appearance, and are very serious considerations 
 with the artist. It has been attempted to define 
 precisely how to place the print upon the page ; 
 but it is one thing to say this or that system 
 answers well, and another to insist that only upon 
 one system are good results to be got. The pro- 
 portion of print to plain paper is just one of those 
 points upon which an artist follows his instinct, 
 and is not to be bound by rule : he works out 
 rules for himself. 
 
24 
 
 The double column owes its origin presumably 
 to practical convenience. When the page was 
 broad, and the type employed was not very large, 
 the lines of print ran to such a length of words 
 that it was not easy to carry back the eye and 
 take up the next line with certainty. The obvious 
 remedy for this was to have two shorter lines of 
 print, with a sufficiently broad interval between 
 them to divide the print into clearly marked 
 columns. And the effect of this in early printed 
 books was most satisfactory. In modern printing, 
 where the space between the columns is reduced to 
 a minimum (when will some really practical news- 
 paper printer give us once more columns sufficiently 
 wide apart ?), the effect is not merely unpleasing 
 but perplexing, the eye being continually caught by 
 something in the adjoining column and led astray. 
 Except, however, in very wide pages, excusable 
 mainly on the grounds that they may be necessary 
 to adequate illustration, the double column is no 
 longer wanted, and is in fact so nearly obsolete that, 
 where it survives, it has a distinctly old-fashioned 
 look. 
 
 It is, nevertheless, no less effective than it is logical, 
 to consider the two pages of the open book as one 
 area on which to plant, as it were, two columns of 
 print. A very considerable reduction of the inner 
 margins, as compared with the outer and the 
 upper and lower, has this effect ; and it is perhaps 
 the most satisfactory way of composing the page 
 
17. ROUGH SKETCH-DESIGN FOR NEWSPAPER HEADING. 
 
 if only the binder were to be depended upon. 
 Unless the folding of the sheets is perfect, the two 
 patches of print do not range, and the closer they 
 come together the more obtrusive is the fault : it 
 is not so easily detected when there is a broad 
 space of white between. 
 
 The ornamentation of the page, beyond the 
 mere setting out of type upon it, is a subject 
 apart. The only opportunity of the compositor 
 for anything like free and fanciful composition is 
 in the title page, where, again, he does wisely in 
 curbing his fancy. Plain print in the body of the 
 book seems to demand corresponding severity in 
 the treatment of the title page, in any case the 
 most difficult page in the book to set out. 
 
 Our type is a carrying on of the character which 
 came originally from the use of the pen. It will 
 always probably, perhaps it always should, bear 
 trace's of its origin : we do not want to wipe out 
 the landmarks of its history. But there seems no 
 
26 
 
 reason why this carrying on should not be also 
 a carrying further, and in the direction, not of 
 writing, but of printing, and even of type-founding. 
 Why should not type bear on its face the evidence 
 of that also ? 
 
 As in the title page of a book, so in a newspaper 
 heading (17), or the cover of a magazine, there is 
 possible scope for design, more especially as they 
 are not ordinarily printed from type, but from a 
 block. Unfortunately, however, the publisher's 
 idea of lettering is usually type, to which he 
 would have the artist conform most strictly. The 
 demand of trade is, further, for something which 
 shall advertise itself on the railway bookstalls, 
 which shall be unmistakably readable as the 
 flurried passenger hurries past to catch his train, 
 and at the same time fresh and unexpected. The 
 dictates of art, on the other hand, suggest some- 
 thing which shall not shout itself hoarse. 
 
 It is difficult under such conditions to do more 
 than design bold, broad and effective lettering, 
 and to go as far towards mitigating its obtrusive- 
 ness as the publisher will permit ; but one cannot 
 help doubting whether the clever people whose 
 business it is to gauge the public taste do not 
 over-estimate its vulgarity. 
 
 Advertisement, into which lettering enters, 
 and must always enter, largely, affords but little 
 scope for art it is a game of brag ; but publishers 
 and others who have an interest in announcing not 
 
CITY40F 
 IVERF 
 
 CHOQ 
 
 REMAND 
 LIEDtA 
 
 LEGl 
 
 EBSSBSs 
 j8. POSTER BY R. ANNING BELL. 
 
28 
 
 merely what they have to sell, but the beauty and 
 refinement of the things, might well trust some- 
 thing to the efficacy of tasteful announcement. 
 Where, by chance, the responsibility for an ad- 
 vertisement sheet is in the hands of people not so 
 much concerned about trade as about art, and 
 they entrust its design to a competent artist, as in 
 the case of Mr. Anning Bell's announcement of 
 the Liverpool School of Art, the result, though by 
 no means legible at a glance, is something which, 
 by its very distinction from the common run of 
 flaring posters, attracts attention and holds it. 
 For the rest, the only chance of the decorative 
 artist in the direction of advertisement rests with 
 the poster-humorist, who has found his oppor- 
 tunity, and makes good use of it if not of lettering 
 always. 
 
 To return, however, to the wider subject of the 
 printed page, all that is here claimed on behalf 
 of art is, due regard to its appearance. In the 
 printing of books the ruling consideration is not 
 beauty, but the sense of the author's words. The 
 only question open to serious dispute is, how best 
 to make that clear and easy reading, with least 
 violence, if any, to the sense of proportion and 
 beauty. 
 
ig. ALFONSO THE WISE, HIS MARK. A.D. 1254. 
 
 III. THE WRITTEN PAGE. 
 
 The written page is naturally set out very much 
 on the lines of print itself, of course, originally 
 modelled upon manuscript. In so far as type 
 and manuscript seek the same end, they are 
 subject to the same laws ; but only to that extent ; 
 and the aim of the two is not identical. 
 
 The scribe of old was not so bent upon rapid 
 writing that he had no time to consider its form, 
 nor so intent upon ready reading that he dared not 
 make the slightest demand upon the attention of 
 
30 
 
 the reader. You may see that in Don Alfonso his 
 mark (19). And to-day also when a page is penned 
 it is not with a view to conveying the author's mean- 
 ing in the plainest and most unmistakable way. 
 
 The craft of the scribe (as distinguished from 
 the fluent correspondent) is not so utilitarian as 
 that of the printer. The writer is free to indulge in 
 luxuries of art which the printer cannot afford, at 
 times even to sacrifice something of plain speech 
 to what might be called rhetoric; he has, by 
 right of his pen, a faculty of taking liberties with 
 the set form and mechanical order of letters, 
 which the man of print has not, a power which 
 insensibility only would neglect to exercise. 
 When, as in the present day, caligraphy is 
 employed no longer in writing books upon 
 parchment but in penning the text to accompany 
 some form of illustration (eventually to be incor- 
 porated in the printer's process-block), the free 
 exercise of his power is the very occasion and 
 excuse of the artist for venturing into penmanship. 
 He is in a sort compelled to make the venture ; for 
 the decoration of the page implies the sympathetic 
 rendering of accompanying text. 
 
 The art of lettering is one which the decorative 
 artist cannot afford to neglect ; not necessarily 
 ornamental script, but plain, simple lettering 
 something which, when he is decorating a book, he 
 may use in his designs, or with his designs, in place 
 of type. .Type is only too ready to his hand; but 
 
CARITAS COTI CESANC IVLI . 
 QVARZ FACVLT/ET ENWORE 
 PALMETTE DVKOVINA DAGO 
 BERT FVX SCHRIFT PSYCHE 
 
 2O. INSCRIPTION BY JOSEPH PLECNIK, VIENNA. 
 
 when it comes to finding a fount which will go well 
 with pen or brush drawing, the choice is well nigh 
 hopeless. Nothing seems to be quite right. If he 
 wants something which shall not jar with his work, 
 he must do it himself; and to do it satisfactorily he 
 must be master of at least one form of lettering. 
 
 It is true that many an artist who has felt the 
 incongruity of type, and therefore penned his own 
 page, has only escaped from one troubleinto another. 
 " I hope," writes a distinguished author, apropos 
 of the publication of his own poems, " it isn't 
 necessary to put the verse into that rustic print- 
 ing. I am Philistine enough to prefer clean 
 printer's type : indeed, I can form no idea of the 
 verses thus transcribed by the incult and totter- 
 ing hand of the draughtsman, nor gather any 
 impression beyond one of weariness to the eyes." 
 Who does not sympathise with this protest against 
 the bad work of perhaps a good artist ? A man 
 may be an excellent draughtsman, and yet in the 
 direction of caligraphy no more expert than a 
 child. But the choice is not between the bad 
 
32 
 
 writing of the artist and the hard arid fast type of 
 the founder of which two evils type may be the 
 lesser ; there are at least two other alternatives 
 that the artist should learn to write, or that he 
 should get a sympathetic scribe to write for him. 
 
 Caligraphy is a term we use in speaking of the 
 ancient or mediaeval scribe, because he it was who 
 wrote beautifully. The scribe who cultivates the art 
 of writing is to-day rare, but the species is happily 
 not extinct ; and there is, at all events in some 
 quarters, a rather general desire to master script, 
 consequent upon the realisation of its use in design. 
 
 An artist may have no desire to deviate into 
 ornament, and yet appreciate the advantages of 
 penning his own lettering, or seeing it written 
 under his own eye. It gives him, even if he 
 accepts the alphabet as it is, in all its severe 
 simplicity, the opportunity, not only of shaping it 
 to suit himself, but of placing the letters where and 
 as he likes ; and, if he should want an even effect, 
 of spacing them more perfectly than print allows. 
 He can put letters just as close together or just as 
 far apart as may seem fit to him, can spread, 
 contract, persuade them even, by some slightest 
 modification of the letter-shapes, to accommodate 
 themselves one to another as ready-cast type can- 
 not possibly do. He can give to capitals their 
 relative importance, and emphasise his words in 
 other ways than by the use of italics. In short, 
 he can have his own way instead of going the way 
 
WA1D:1 r 
 
 21. INSCRIPTION BY OTTO HUPP, MUNICH. 
 
 of the machine only he must have command of 
 his implement, pen or brush or whatever it be : 
 his writing must be adequate. 
 
 The writer does wrong to form himself, as he 
 often does, upon printed type (his obvious model is 
 manuscript, upon which that itself is formed), and 
 especially wrong to emulate the regularity of print. 
 He can get with the pen or brush qualities of more 
 account than mechanical precision (in aiming at 
 which he is at a disadvantage as compared with the 
 machine), qualities beyond the scope of printing, 
 and of a kind which differentiate his work from it. 
 
 It may be as well to exemplify the sort of even- 
 ness of distribution to be obtained in penmanship 
 and not in printing. The writer has only to pro- 
 long a stroke to occupy the gap of white which 
 occurs between two such letters as RT, or EV. 
 
 L.O. D 
 
34 
 
 Or the gap may be avoided by the choice of a 
 different type of letter; it will be seen (diagram 22) 
 how the choice of the straddling M fills up the 
 space left at the foot of the letter F, and how it 
 widens the breach after the letter A. 
 
 Writers of old never seem to have been bound 
 hard and fast to one type of letter. Even in the 
 same phrase various forms of the same letter occur, 
 as if it happened so, much to the enlivenment of 
 the page. And such variation shows regard (con- 
 scious or unconscious) to the way the various shapes 
 compose. The playful variety of old lettering is 
 one of the charms we find in it. How pleasant 
 the surprise of the rectangular C occurring once 
 only in the word ECCE, as we find it on the 
 doors at Le Puy (diagram 22). One has less 
 sympathy nowadays with the turning about of 
 a letter to make it fit a space. That was all very 
 well when writers were not particular as to whether 
 the bar of the N slanted this way or that. We 
 are no longer at liberty to make a P or S face back- 
 wards ; it is a device belonging to a stage of letter- 
 ing more elementary than the one we have reached. 
 
 The same objection does not apply to the liberty 
 taken on occasion with the size of individual letters; 
 but there should be occasion for it. It should be 
 done with deliberate purpose for the sake of 
 compression, composition, emphasis, not out of 
 mere wilfulness. It is reasonable enough to reduce 
 the size of a letter in order to bring it into the desired 
 
35 
 
 compass, to make it, for example, occupy the blank 
 space which always follows the letter L observe 
 the compactness of the letters LOD and the want 
 of it in LOT (diagram 22) but to reduce an unfor- 
 tunate vowel always to proportions at which it 
 looks more like a stop than a letter, does not seem 
 to justify itself on any ground of taste or expe- 
 
 FMFM 
 
 AM A/A ECCC 
 
 12DLO 
 
 22. DIAGRAM. 
 
 diency, except that it enables the writer to shirk 
 the difficulty of penning a bold round O a paltry 
 excuse for pretended artistry. 
 
 One is apt to resent mere wilfulness on the part of 
 the scribe variations, that is to say, not suggested 
 by conditions of the case. We accept them readily 
 when there is reason for them, and all the more 
 readily when the writer consistently carries through 
 the idea of compression, or whatever his motive 
 may be. Old writers often saved space by 
 enclosing one letter within another, as in the 
 combinations DI, ON, VS (diagram 22). 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 Once in a while we are able to express by the 
 proportions of a letter something not otherwise 
 easily to be conveyed as, for example, by reducing 
 the size of a letter in the word MARY to indicate 
 a pet name in which the R is familiarly dropped. 
 
 A useful rule of writing has been laid down by Herr 
 v. Larisch, from whose " Beispiele Klinstlerischer 
 Schrift " two very different instances are given 
 (20 and 21), to the effect that the letters of a word 
 should be so contrived that the ground-space 
 between them is always equal (not the distance 
 between their extremities) ; but that is possible 
 only on condition of taking occasional liberties of 
 the kind already mentioned. The Viennese artist, 
 it will be seen (20), adopts the old German 
 device of writing the double T in GOTT as one 
 letter, and the Bavarian (21) dwarfs a Z when his 
 composition requires it. 
 
 When it comes to the modification of the letter- 
 shape, in what is ostensibly plain lettering, the 
 penman is on rather dangerous ground ; but he 
 may safely lengthen the limbs of letters, or other- 
 wise extend or compress them, so long as no im- 
 pression is conveyed of torturing them, or of trifling 
 with a script which has serious business to do. 
 The impression of affectation is easily produced 
 by undue liberties with the proportion of letters. 
 The bar of the A or of the H is not once and for 
 all fixed ; it may be shifted a trifle higher or lower 
 without hurt ; but the fashion, not merely of high- 
 
37 
 
 waisted letters, but of waists gradually rising almost 
 to their necks, becomes absurd. It is one thing to 
 depart from orthodoxy, another to go beyond the 
 bounds of all moderation. It is only in modera- 
 tion that freedom of hand is here claimed, and 
 only on this ground: that the proportion of the 
 
 23. DIAGRAM TO SHOW CONSTRUCTION OF LETTERS'. 
 
 letter itself is of less moment than the aspect of 
 the word, the line, the page, in favour of which 
 the letter must be sacrificed. 
 
 The variety which is the charm of handwork 
 comes naturally to the writer who is ready with 
 his pen or brush ; and, if for its sake only, it is 
 incumbent upon the decorator, and especially upon 
 the ornamentist, to master the art of lettering. 
 He need not be adept in lettering of all kinds, but 
 at least he should take some ofie character, Roman, 
 
Gothic, or whatever may best suit his style of work 
 (of course, a fine type of letter, not common 
 newspaper print), and master that, make it his, 
 get as expert in it as in writing a running hand. 
 Let him acquire, in short, a hand of his own ; 
 it need be no more like print than his epistolary 
 hand is like a writing master's ; it should be in 
 every sense his own handwriting. 
 
 Elaborate diagrams (23) have been devised to 
 show the geometric plan on which letters are sup- 
 posed to be built. These are of some use in helping 
 to explain the exact proportion of their parts ; but 
 a draughtsman should be able to draw without all 
 that amount of compass-work. The construction of 
 the alphabet appears to have been first worked out 
 in the fifteenth century by an Italian, one Felice 
 Feliciano ; after him followed Fra Luca Paccioli ; 
 but the best known diagrams are those of Dtirer, 
 who in his book on proportion (1525) gave twenty- 
 two pages to them, and yet the types of letter he 
 adopted are by no means unimpeachable. 
 
 The fact is, all this mathematical jugglery is 
 beside the question of art, and especially of design. 
 It is not so that letters are designed, nor anything 
 else. The artist must learn to write painfully if 
 he should have no turn that way ; but when it 
 comes to lettering, he must do it straight off; 
 that is necessary to spontaneity, without which 
 it will never be anything but cramped. There are 
 occasions when exceptional care is necessary, and 
 
39 
 
 IM6NS 
 
 OFIIVieOITEVRL 
 
 CeNTURieSIIN! 
 
 IhlTeCTJLONOOri 
 
 I PUBLISH eo :BY:OAY:RNO:SON:RT 
 
 I N N ' FIfiT ,H SoJKNTTTSRY' 
 
 24. TITLE PAGE BY W. EDEN NESFIELD. 
 
 a high degree of finish and exactness ; but there 
 is no middle course between direct penmanship 
 or brushwork and most carefully drawn lettering. 
 There is not much to be done in the way of touch- 
 ing-up letters which have been freely put in. It 
 must be one thing or the other. 
 
 Spontaneity, it should be explained, does not 
 imply rashness in setting out writing, or careless- 
 ness in penning it. The lines should be straight, 
 of equal length, and at equal distances. The soul 
 of the scribe must not be beyond measurement or 
 calculation. It is not till he has taken the neces- 
 sary precautions, mechanical and other, that he 
 can safely go ahead and write freely. 
 
25. BRONZE ON THE GRAVE OF VEIT STOSS. 
 
 IV. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 What has been said of manuscript applies in 
 great part, and often with even more force, to the 
 kind of inscription designed rather to be a record 
 for those who care to search for it, than to serve 
 as an announcement to the world not so much an 
 advertisement as a confidence. 
 
 The architectural carver, or the monumental 
 engraver, has no less absolute control of his letter- 
 shapes than the penman. He is himself controlled 
 by the serious purpose and position of his work ; 
 and in proportion to these must be the severity of 
 his lettering, as well as the stateliness with which 
 it is ordered. 
 
 Nesfield's lettering in the title page of his 
 " Specimens of Mediaeval Architecture " (24) 
 
is unmistakably very much what he would have 
 designed for a brass. There is a dignified austerity 
 about it not usually to be found either in the 
 printing or the penmanship of his day. 
 
 Of such importance may be the dignity of letter 
 design, that some facility in reading is readily to 
 be sacrificed to it. It is not imperative that an 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 26. BACK OF CARVED PINE CH. STALL, I5IO. 
 
 inscription should be read as you run ; enough if 
 it is apparent that there is an inscription which, 
 if you care to pause and study it, you may read. 
 
 Accordingly, the rules which apply to print or 
 manuscript may in monumental inscription be re- 
 laxed. It is no longer necessary to keep the lines of 
 lettering wide apart so as to form horizontal bars of 
 text ; they may follow closely one upon the other, 
 and the words themselves tjiay be closed up to form 
 a compact mass. In place of orthodox punctuation, 
 
42 
 
 and of theordinary division into sentences, the artist 
 may mark the pauses in his own way. Should it be 
 by the interpolation of flowers, badges, or other 
 ornaments, these may now be, and usually will be, 
 of equal weight with the lettering, it being no longer 
 so necessary to make reading easy as to present a 
 dignified inscription. The utmost the reader has a 
 right to ask of him is that there shall be no possible 
 mistake about it when he comes to study it. 
 
 Architectural dignity is best preserved by the 
 adoption of the simplest and severest character, 
 and by distributing the lettering in the evenest and 
 most formal way. The style of it must depend upon 
 that of the architecture ; but straight-lined charac- 
 ters, Roman or Gothic (27, 28), seem always to 
 take their place in a building more as if they 
 belonged to it than any florid writing ; and this is 
 especially the case with carving in stone or engraving 
 in metal ; anything in the nature of a flourish is 
 more appropriate to the pen or brush. There is no 
 possible rule, however ; an artist is guided by his 
 feeling in such matters, and if he has taste it will 
 guide him aright. The beautiful panel of lettering, 
 well deserving its place of honour in 'the tomb of 
 Mary of Burgundy, at Bruges (28), shows that it 
 only needs the competent artist, and he can, with- 
 out offence, give play to his fancy even in serious 
 monumental design. It will be seen that he 
 reserves in this instance the more fantastic flourish- 
 ing of the letters for the base of the panel, where 
 their work is over and they may safely be playful. 
 

 
 INST, 
 E> 
 
 27. RAISED LETTERS IN MARBLE. 
 
 Inscriptions are written by common consent in 
 horizontal lines. It is noj; so universally conceded 
 that the lines should be of equal length, and form 
 
44 
 
 therefore a compact rectangular mass of lettering. 
 This may not be possible in the case of an ample 
 inscription within, let us say, a wreath, which was at 
 one time common enough (29). The lettering must 
 often in that case perforce follow the lines enclosing 
 it. But similar or other fanciful distribution of the 
 words occurs also where there is no such reason 
 for it, where no framing lines constrain the writer. 
 In that case he loses something of the dignity and 
 decorative value of inscription by straying from 
 the straight line : there is virtue in its vertically. 
 Even should there be some reason against a simple 
 four-sided patch of lettering, the lines may with 
 advantage be grouped so as to give at least a 
 rectangular figure. An edge meandering in and 
 out unmeaningly, or following a florid framing 
 line, is a thing to avoid. And if the frame compels 
 it, the fault was in designing a frame so ill-adapted 
 to its purpose. The rectangular space is invariably 
 satisfactory (30). Given a frame to fill, the 
 designer of an inscription must do his best ; and a 
 competent artist will make the best of even a very 
 bad job ; but, clearly, the better way to set about 
 lettering in decoration is, to set out the inscription 
 before designing a tablet or setting of any kind for 
 it to design, in fact, the frame for the lettering, 
 not adapt the lettering to the frame. 
 
 To the inexpert a word or two may be accept- 
 able as to the setting out of an inscription. There 
 may be many ways of doing it. Mine is one which 
 works out satisfactorily. It is this: 
 
28. FROM THE MAUSOLEUM OF MARY OF BURGUNDY, 
 BRUGES, l6TH CENTURY. 
 
i. Imagine about how you think the inscription 
 would subdivide say into so many lines (long or 
 short according to your scheme of design). 
 
 29. INCISED MARBLE, LUCA BELLA ROBBIA. 
 
 2. Write one line as it comes. 
 
 3. Count the number of letters in the line 
 (reckoning the space between word and word as 
 equivalent to one letter). 
 
 4. Reckon to how many lines your inscription 
 
3O. EMBOSSED IN SILVER-GILT, DALMATIA. 
 
 will run, and how this number of lines will suit 
 your space. 
 
 5. If it does not accommodate itself, you may 
 have to begin again ; but each successive guess is 
 likely to be nearer the mark than the last. 
 
 6. Having determined that your inscription 
 shall be in so many lines, averaging so many 
 letters, at such or such a distance apart, the next 
 step is to note (upon the rough copy of the words) 
 where the lines would end, and how the words 
 would be broken. 
 
 7. You will probably find that, by a little 
 readjustment, taking a letter or two from one line 
 and including it in another, you can divide your 
 inscription into lines containing each a number 
 
4 8 
 
 31. CAST IRON FROM A GRAVE SLAB. 
 
 of letters which, by a little compression in one 
 case and a little distension in another, will give 
 lines of equal length, without the necessity of 
 breaking any word awkwardly. Very awkward 
 words might possibly involve a reconsideration of 
 the whole scheme. 
 
 8. Having determined finally the words which 
 shall occupy each line, you sketch in the letters, 
 lightly of course, because only tentatively. It is 
 not until you have quite satisfied yourself as to 
 the spacing of the words, that it is safe to begin 
 with the pen, brush, or chisel. A false start is fatal. 
 
 9. In finally adjusting the letters, some compres- 
 sion or distension of the words may, it was said, be 
 necessary ; but it is the line that has to be closed up 
 or spread out ; there is not much to be done with a 
 separate word or two, without danger of disfiguring 
 the text. It must seem as if the lines were of 
 equal length ; any clear evidence of a word being 
 squeezed in, or long drawn out, tells against the 
 writer. The possibilities of contraction within the 
 compass of a single word are greater when the 
 artist is free to use conjoint letters (p. 109), or 
 otherwise take liberties with the form and propor- 
 tion of individual letters. A rather extreme instance 
 
S. JACOBI, LUBECK, 1 59Q. 
 
 of making free with the normal letter-shapes is 
 given above (31). 
 
 Apart, of course, from the style of letter deter- 
 mined by the architecture of a building or monu- 
 ment, is the character which comes of its execution 
 in stone (27), or metal (30), and of its standing 
 up in relief upon a sunken ground (27), or being cut 
 into the surface (29). The face of the letters may, 
 indeed, be carved, and sometimes is, especially in 
 wood ; it may be modelled, and sometimes is, in 
 clay ; and there is no precise limit to the relief or 
 modelling in which the artist may on occasion 
 indulge ; but it is not often that it is desirable to 
 interfere with the flat surface of lettering ; there is 
 a danger of frittering away the valuable surface 
 of the material; and the forms of most letters 
 express themselves sufficiently by their outline 
 alone. Even the so-called ribbon letters (32), 
 in which the turnover of the ribbon needs to be 
 expressed, want little more than one sharp cut to 
 express the fold. To insist upon nearer resemblance 
 to ribbon is to indulge in a florid form of letter- 
 ing remarkable, not for architectural dignity, 
 but for a certain playfulness, pleasing indeed, but 
 ill-suited to very serious and sober decoration : it 
 
 L.O. E 
 
32. RIBBON-LIKE GOTHIC 
 
 is not so much lettering in ornament as ornamental 
 lettering which is not the subject of this chapter. 
 There is less occasion, then, in architecture for 
 actually modelled lettering than for letters cut into 
 the ground or left in flat relief upon it. Either 
 expedient is in its place equally perfect. In incised 
 lettering the surface of the slab is preserved ; but 
 the simple " grounding out " of the letters, leaving 
 the rnetal, stone, or wood intact, to form their face, 
 is also a sure way of preserving their breadth of 
 surface. It is quite commonly employed in brass 
 and bronze, plain strips of metal (measuring perhaps 
 as much as twice the thickness of the strokes of 
 the letters) being left between the rows of writing, 
 broken only by the tops and tails of tall letters 
 engraved across them, and by an occasional 
 
IIIIIIIIK 
 
 INSCRIPTION FROM A FLEMISH BRASS. 
 
 initial (34). This expedient of the band was, in 
 fact, almost necessary for the accommodation of 
 the projecting parts of the minuscule letters ; 
 certainly it has invariably a good effect. 
 
 The grounding-out of letters upon brass was 
 sometimes done with a view to filling in the space 
 with black or coloured mastic ; but the sunken 
 parts, being beyond the reach of the polisher, 
 soon tarnish in any case, and deepen of themselves 
 in colour, with the result that the letters tell light 
 and bright upon it. 
 
 So in the case of wood or stone, the surface of 
 the raised letter is apt to get in time a polish 
 which the ground does not. A sunken ground 
 is commonly adopted in blact letter inscriptions, 
 in which the upright strokes come close together ; 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 and there is seldom any broad surface of ground 
 between. In the case of Roman letters, or Gothic 
 letters more or less of the Roman type, there are 
 apt to be gaps in the ground, which give rise to 
 the occasion, if not the need, for ornament of 
 some kind, in order to preserve the evenness of 
 the inscription. The danger may, however, be 
 evaded by closing the letters up and minimis- 
 ing the space between them, especially if the 
 inscription is in channels with plain raised bands 
 between. A similar plan of crowding out the 
 background may be employed with good effect 
 by the penman or painter. By merely draw- 
 ing his letters in outline as close together as 
 he can and filling in the background, he gets 
 a character in his lettering (33) quite different 
 from that which would result from painting light 
 letters upon a dark band. In the case of black 
 letter inscriptions, the engraver of the fifteenth 
 and sixteenth centuries often, as before said, made 
 incisions in them to suggest the turn over of a strap 
 or ribbon, playing indeed slight variations upon 
 that simple idea with admirable effect ; but he 
 was happiest when he was content to suggest a 
 turnover and did not want to imitate it. 
 
 33. DIAGRAM. 
 
53 
 
 34' SANDSTONE SLAB, REGENSBURG. 
 
 The flaw in black letter inscription is the incon- 
 gruity of the capitals used with it. They break the 
 line perhaps happily, and relieve the monotony of 
 an exceptionally rigid form of minuscule ; but 
 they rarely seem to belong to it (35). The 
 capitals above (34) are much more in keeping 
 
54 
 
 tnfftiiidfr^ 
 
 35. BRONZE FROM A GRAVE AT NUREMBERG. 
 
 with the other letters than those on this page (35); 
 but really satisfactory capitals to go with black 
 letter have never been, and are perhaps not to be, 
 designed. This is a matter of less practical im- 
 portance to us, seeing that the days of that 
 particular character are, except for occasional 
 purposes, already passed. 
 
 There is no reason why grounding out should 
 not more often be employed in stone or marble 
 when the scale allows it ; it is employed to ad- 
 mirable effect in the wooden pew-end opposite 
 (36), and in the inscriptions upon the much 
 earlier doors of the cathedral at Le Puy (39). 
 
 Small lettering is more naturally cut into 
 stone, as the cuneiform and Greek and Roman 
 
55 
 
 inscriptions invariably were. In the little Byzan- 
 tine iron shield at the end of the chapter (37) the 
 incised lettering is filled in with silver. Between 
 sunken letters 
 and letters in re- 
 lief, the choice 
 is determined 
 
 11 
 
 partly by the 
 consideration as 
 to which is the 
 easier to do, 
 partly by which 
 will be the more 
 secure from in- 
 jury; when nei- 
 ther would be 
 difficult and 
 either would be 
 safe, it becomes 
 a question mere- 
 ly of effect. The 
 lasting charac- 
 ter of lettering 36. OLD ENGLISH PEW-END. 
 on a sunken 
 
 ground, in metal, is witnessed by numberless 
 mediaeval monumental brasses, in which the 
 decorative use of lettering is shown trium- 
 phantly. We have only to compare these with 
 the tombstones of a later date to see how 
 monumental lettering ma^ be used to artistic 
 and to ineffective purpose. Which of the two it 
 
56 
 
 might be, was in the past very much a question of 
 period: engravers of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 and especially the nineteenth centuries fell on evil 
 days for design : with us it is a question of taste. 
 We have lost hold of tradition, but we have freer 
 choice ; and out of our eclecticism, may I call it, 
 better things should come if we but take the 
 pains to inform ourselves. The work of a man 
 who knows what master workmen before him 
 have done, must needs be better than he could 
 spin out of his own ignorant imagining. 
 
 37- IRON INLAID WITH SILVER. BYZANTINE. 
 
38. IVORY CARVING OF THE TENTH CENTURY. 
 
 V. DECORATIVE LETTERING. 
 
 Many and various were the methods of intro- 
 ducing inscription into decorative design. It 
 found its way even into picture, until the time 
 when the pictorial ideal ceased to include decora- 
 tive effect. Long inscriptions claimed for them- 
 selves, as a rule, a place apart ; shorter ones were 
 used sometimes to frame the picture, sometimes 
 to form part of it. 
 
 In introducing lettering into decoration, people 
 accustomed to write in horizontal lines from left 
 to right naturally adopted that direction. They 
 might occasionally be led by considerations of 
 design to scheme an inscription otherwise ; but, 
 in the main, decorative lettering takes the hori- 
 zontal direction. Such, in fact, is the decorative 
 
58 
 
 use of some such horizontal band as lettering 
 gives, that one is inclined to suspect that in- 
 scriptions have often been introduced into design 
 quite as much for the line they gave as for the 
 information it was desired to convey in them. 
 
 About the earliest and most uncompromising use 
 of inscription that we know of is seen in the well- 
 known bas-reliefs from Nineveh (eighth and ninth 
 centuries B.C.), in which broad belts of cuneiform 
 lettering deliberately cross the picture in a way 
 which, brutal as in a sense it must be called, is 
 not sheer brutality, so useful is it in the com- 
 position, and so little hurt is there to broadly 
 conventional sculpture of that kind in a treatment 
 which, applied to more delicate workmanship, 
 would be downright cruel. We find indeed some- 
 thing of the same kind in quite late Gothic 
 tapestry and wall-painting, where the names of 
 the personages represented are sometimes written 
 straight across their drapery. 
 
 The gentler treatment is to write only upon the 
 background to the figures, where the horizontal 
 bands or belts of lettering are of use in crossing 
 narrow upright spaces between the figures or 
 between the figure and its frame, and in binding 
 the parts of the composition into one. 
 
 Another use to which bands of inscription are 
 commonly put is to separate tiers of small picture 
 panels one from the other, as, for example, in the 
 narrow lights of tall Gothic windows, which they 
 hold together in a most satisfactory manner. A 
 

 ^Y^r 
 I ^iS*,.>*J 
 
 , 
 
 gut 
 
 piasdaafe^ 
 
 *& 
 
 -T! 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 SI 
 
 39. PART OF A DOOR OF THE CATHEDRAL AT LE PUY. 
 
6o 
 
 very pronounced use of bands of lettering to sepa- 
 rate little figure subjects is made in the doors of the 
 cathedral at Le Puy, of which a portion is illus- 
 trated (39). The lettering there is on a pro- 
 portionately very large and important scale ; but 
 it holds its own perfectly both with the ornamental 
 borders and with the figure subjects. The carving 
 is of the simplest kind, mere flat "grounding out," 
 but the effect is singularly rich ; and certainly not 
 the least interesting part of the design, when you 
 examine it in detail, is the lettering. It proves to 
 be Latin hexameters, explanatory, of course, of the 
 incidents depicted, running right across the four 
 divisions of the doors. The upright post between 
 the two doors (to the right of the illustration), 
 show r s another use of lettering. Clearly, where all 
 about it was so full of pattern, that called out for 
 enrichment. Why should not the carver make 
 use of it to sign his name ? And who is not 
 grateful to Master Godfrey for the way he has 
 done it? He could hardly have devised ornament 
 more effective or more fitting. 
 
 There is no need to multiply instances of 
 pictures kept apart by interspaces of lettering. 
 The mediaeval decorator delighted in a multitude 
 of little figure groups, and he knew no better way 
 than this of separating them nor do we for that 
 matter, though nowadays we are not so fond of 
 lettering. 
 
 It is no uncommon thing to find in one and the 
 same mediaeval composition inscriptions treated 
 
40. SILVER-GILT COVER TO A COPY OF THE GOSPELS WITH 
 SLAVONIC INSCRIPTIONS, 
 
62 
 
 in a variety of ways. The designer had the wit 
 at the same time to diversify his design and to 
 make his meaning as explicit as might be after 
 all, words are the most explicit form in which to 
 convey it and he succeeded in making them 
 subserve an artistic purpose also (40). There 
 is a Flemish tapestry at the Victoria and Albert 
 Museum representing the Seven Deadly Sins 
 (1485 1520), in which the names of Jeremiah, 
 Justice, Pity, etc., are written across their bodies, 
 whilst the words of the prophet occupy a scroll. 
 
 It is a rather important point in design that in 
 a single composition different forms of inscription 
 should be adopted only to convey different kinds 
 of information ; and that, vice versa, different 
 kinds of information should be conveyed in dif- 
 ferent ways. What is necessary to intelligibility 
 may be made so, to contribute to decorative effect. 
 
 Of old it did not occur to the writer to intro- 
 duce all manners of writing into his design ; he 
 confined himself habitually to one form of letter, 
 varying perhaps in scale, or in the manner of its 
 rendering, but in its main lines the same through- 
 out for the simple reason, it may be, that no other 
 was familiar to him. To-day we turn our know- 
 ledge of many types to the worst possible account 
 in mixing them together. Our scraps of know- 
 ledge lead us continually into danger. It is often 
 desirable, and even necessary, to make some 
 words stand forth in a design, and others to 
 shrink back; it is the business of a designer to give 
 
such words as he may introduce their due and 
 precise value, to make some perhaps larger than 
 othefs, some more solid, to reduce certain of them 
 to relative insignificance ; but reason and art alike 
 demand that all should be in one handwriting. 
 
 Natural as it is to write from left to right, and 
 useful as cross bands of lettering are in counter- 
 acting the upright lines in figure composition, the 
 
 41. ENGRAVING ON COPPER BY H. S. BEHAM, 1542. 
 
 artist has always felt himself free to depart from 
 the usual practice when that did not suit his 
 purpose. If he had no need of any definite line, 
 he preferred perhaps merely to break the surface 
 of the background with quite irregular lettering. 
 He made bold, if need were, to place the letters of 
 the words in vertical instead of horizontal order, or 
 to scatter them about the ground more in the form 
 of a diaper; perhaps he preferred to write them on 
 a tablet or a scroll (41) designed to receive them, 
 
'&u i^a^^^ss^wmmaaaaaasm W 
 
 42. STONE GRAVE SLAB, GOTLAND, 1316. 
 
or to introduce them into the details of the picture 
 itself. The nimbus of a saint was, for example, so 
 convenient to his hand, that it seems almost as if 
 it must have been designed to be inscribed with 
 his name. The mere writing of the letters in a 
 ring round his head was enough to indicate a halo. 
 
 43. OLD STAFFORDSHIRE EARTHENWARE. 
 
 A device employed in tapestries and stained glass 
 windows was to introduce the name of a personage 
 in the hem or border of his garment, or as a 
 pattern in the stuff, as though it had been woven 
 in it or embroidered on it ; but the limits of that 
 kind of thing are soon reached. 
 
 The horizontal band, so common on flat sur- 
 faces, becomes, in the case of a vessel circular in 
 plan, a belt of inscription, very valuable always in 
 
 L.O. F 
 
66 
 
 emphasising the roundness of a vase, and some- 
 times in correcting its proportions. Quite rude 
 instances of this occur in the mugs and other 
 common earthen pots decorated in "slip" after a 
 Staffordshire fashion of the end of the seventeenth 
 century (43). More refined examples occur in old 
 Greek vases ; but there the inscriptions are so deli- 
 cate that, reduced to the scale of our illustrations, 
 they would hardly be seen. They are, in fact, so 
 inconspicuous that, but for the fact (pointed out to 
 me by Mr. Cecil Smith) that they occupy a position 
 of honour in the scheme of Greek vase painting, 
 one might take them to be an afterthought of the 
 designer. 
 
 The lip, the neck, the shoulder of a vase may 
 each in turn conveniently be decorated in this way, 
 the words engraved on silver, painted on pottery, 
 enamelled on glass. Successive rings of letter- 
 ing, with or without other ornament between, 
 make excellent decoration, w r hich, as the 
 wording is never seen all at once, does not 
 assert its meaning. The Hispano- Moresque 
 potters frequently introduced bands of mock 
 Arabic inscription into their lustred earthenware, 
 preferring, it is said, not to profane the name 
 of the Prophet by putting it upon the infidel 
 market. They also hashed up into ornament the 
 Roman and Gothic character, not perhaps know- 
 ing the havoc they were working with its sense. 
 The practice speaks for the value of lettering in 
 ornament; but it does not justify mock inscrip- 
 

 I 
 
 1 
 
 M 
 
 44. PART OF A MOORISH DOOR, WITH GOTHIC INSCRIPTION. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 tion, for which there is no honest place in decora- 
 tion. If something like lettering is wanted where 
 there is a reason why real w r ords should not be 
 usegl, it should be within the power of an artist to 
 design ornament having nearly enough the value 
 of lettering without ever making any pretence to 
 be inscription. 
 
 Lettering makes a very good border not merely 
 in connection with ornament, though there is scope 
 for that too in very broad borders, but by itself, 
 as may be seen in many a grave slab (42) and 
 old brass, where it frames a monumental effigy or 
 heraldic device as effectively as any pattern would 
 do. The letters make, in fact, pattern enough, 
 excellent and appropriate in proportion to its 
 severity. The formality and rigidity of letters 
 make for that steadiness which is so desirable 
 in a border ; the parallel upright strokes of 
 Gothic black-letter, of which an orientalised 
 version is given (44), fulfil very much the 
 same purpose as the rectangular lines of a Greek 
 fret ; but it is seldom that lettering comes amiss. 
 The one objection to a border of lettering is, the 
 difficulty there is likely to be in reading it from one 
 position. That, however, does not apply to brasses 
 and tombstones which you can walk round, or to a 
 thing like a book cover, \vhich you take in your 
 hand and turn about. Moreover, the difficulty is in 
 great measure got over, say in the case of a door, 
 by making the inscription run uninterruptedly 
 round only three sides of the thing, and on the 
 

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 i** 
 
 > 3 . ^", .,,.., ,. . , 
 
 : ^lf^P^> 
 u 
 
 -^^*v-^, ,-, ,-r 
 
 A --^ 
 
 ' ! \ \ h\ 'T I M i JM !A 'n- . > 
 
 45. PART OF AN IRON DOOR IN TOLEDO CATHEDRAL. 
 
yo 
 
 fourth (or bottom border) making it read as in the 
 top one. This is seen in a portion of an iron door 
 from the cathedral at Toledo (45). 
 
 In a circular disc, where the ring of inscrip- 
 tion is precisely analogous to the rectangular 
 frame to a slab, the lettering naturally follows 
 round, in case the thing is small enough to 
 be handled. In case it is not, the difficulty of 
 changing the direction is not always very happily 
 
 46. GREEK COINS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 
 
 managed, as may be seen in the mark of Alfonso 
 the Wise (19) ; nevertheless it is good lettering. 
 
 For coins, seals, medals and so forth, lettering 
 proves to be the absolutely perfect border. 
 Enclosed within marginal lines or without them, 
 incised or in relief, singly or in double row, it 
 frames the portrait or the coat of arms effectively, 
 giving weight to the design just where it is wanted. 
 Not the least serviceable use of it is where it 
 is made to pass, as it were, behind the image, 
 forming something between a border and a back- 
 ground to it. Boldly used it never comes amiss. 
 It is only the mean lettering of an artist who does 
 not value it, would rather not use it, and is in fact 
 
 
half afraid of it, that is uninteresting. The great 
 medallists who have given it the importance it 
 deserves have never had cause to repent it. 
 
 For all the value of the ring of inscription on a 
 
 GREEK COINS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 
 
 coin or medal, the scope of the designer does not 
 end there : that is one way of doing it, but not the 
 only one. It is the hard and fast rule we have 
 adopted in modern days ; but the Greeks, who 
 were our masters in art, and the medallists of the 
 Renaissance, knew better fhan to act on any one 
 
72 
 
 mechanical idea. The Greeks, it will be seen 
 (46, 47), wrote the inscription across the coin, 
 or in an upright line, or in two such lines, 
 
 48. ITALIAN RENAISSANCE MEDAL. 
 
 or in one horizontal line (as a base for the 
 figure), and lines at the two sides of the coin, 
 and even in four straight lines giving a square 
 within the circle. Framed in double lines of 
 inscription (47) the figure is, as it were, set in 
 
73 
 
 a diaper of lettering. Other devices are where 
 the ground between the symbolic creature and its 
 encircling wreath is diapered with lettering (47), 
 where the inscription is confined to a rectangular 
 
 49. ITALIAN RENAISSANCE MEDAL. 
 
 frame within the circle, and where single letters 
 are used to balance the composition (46) and all 
 this during the finest period of design. Another 
 beautiful use of single letters is seen in the ivory 
 carving of a later period (38). 
 
 The medallists of the Renaissance, as well as 
 
74 
 
 the Greeks, often wrote inscriptions across the 
 background to a portrait head (48,49). A second 
 ring of incised lettering, within the outer band in 
 relief (50), is a convenient means of occupying the 
 field of a medal without either confusing two 
 separate inscriptions or calling undue attention 
 to the less important of them. 
 
 Some modern medallists make good and 
 characteristic use of lettering, but they employ 
 sometimes too much of it to keep it bold 
 enough. Its proportion in the design of so 
 small a thing as a coin or medal is all-important. 
 The temptation appears to be to make it too 
 small; but it seems to have been the constant 
 endeavour of the great medallists to keep it as 
 large as possible. 
 
 50. ITALIAN RENAISSANCE MEDAL. 
 
VI. SCROLLS OR LABELS. 
 
 A device from which very happy effects of 
 decoration have resulted is that of a label, scroll, 
 or ribbon, to bear an inscription. It is a means 
 at once of giving dis- 
 tinction to it and of 
 introducing into the com- 
 position lines invariably 
 useful. 
 
 Its origin is not far to 
 seek. A strip of parch- 
 ment made a convenient 
 ticket on which to write 
 a name or description. 
 Such labels must often 
 have been attached to 
 things upon which they 
 were more or less a dis- 
 figurement. The artist 
 naturally preferred to 
 
 paint, or carve, or weave, his own label ; and it 
 seemed to him to give actuality to the thing if 
 he represented also the buckling and the curling 
 over of the ends of parchment, an accident sure 
 to occur to it in the end. When he found that the 
 
 51. GOTHIC 
 GLASS : THE 
 LETTERS 
 SCRATCHED 
 OUT OF THE 
 SOLID PAINT 
 
7 6 
 
 turning over of the ends led to a characteristic 
 form of ornament, he naturally developed the idea; 
 and so we get the ornamental label, severe at first, 
 eventually, as taste became more florid, twisting 
 about in the most fantastic fashion. It takes, 
 finally, the fluttering form of ribbon ; but the effect 
 was happier when it was less flimsily conceived, in 
 the likeness, that is to say, of more robust strap work. 
 
 Labels of the squarer ticket-like shape were often 
 represented as if attached by pins to the surface of 
 the thing they adorned. Longer and more strip- 
 like labels were invariably turned over or curled 
 up at the ends ; sometimes the ends were first split 
 and then so treated. The twisting and twirling 
 of the label itself was an affair partly of the reign- 
 ing fashion of the day (severe in the thirteenth 
 century, florid in the fifteenth), partly of the 
 function of the particular label in question : it 
 might not allow much scope for fancy, or, on the 
 other hand, it might almost demand to be turned 
 into ornament. 
 
 The label is seen in its simplest form on the drug 
 vases of the Italian majolica painters, just a band 
 of bold inscription between two lines which, upon 
 examination, turn out to be the edges of a simple 
 label, the indelible, and, at the same time, orna- 
 mental, substitute for the common parchment 
 ticket. The broad horizontal bands, also, which 
 separate the subjects in a fourteenth or fifteenth 
 century stained glass window, suggest the parch- 
 
77 
 
 52. CARVING FROM THE CHOIR OF_ THE CATHEDRAL AT 
 ALBI. 
 
 ment scroll ; and so do the phylacteries in the 
 hands of prophets and qthers, though these are 
 
53- PART OF AN IVORY READING DESK. 
 
 made also to take a form more deliberately orna- 
 mental, in order to occupy the background, or 
 conveniently to cross the body of the figure. 
 
 The sculptured figure from the wonderful 
 church at Albi (52) is one of a series of prophets 
 holding each his label, which both crosses the 
 figure and occupies the background. It need 
 hardly be pointed out how useful the line of the 
 scroll is in the composition of the panel, and how 
 well it contrasts with the name of the prophet 
 horizontally incised in bolder lettering on the flat 
 background in a line with his head. A commoner 
 and more conventional form of label is that on 
 the first page of this chapter (51). Such a label 
 was planned to occupy the space about the head 
 of the saint, descending in front of him ; the turn- 
 over at the end was grasped in his hand. A similar 
 but more elaborate use of the label occurs in four- 
 teenth century tapestry, where it is seen curling 
 about the heads of the personages, making quite a 
 pattern in the upper part of the picture, or per- 
 haps (54) all over the background. Labels, together 
 
79 
 
 with initial letters, are cleverly introduced into 
 design more purely ornamental in an ivory reading 
 desk of the sixteenth century (53), where they 
 greatly help to balance the design. 
 
 The use of the label as a repeated form in 
 ornament is not so common ; but it is sometimes 
 effectively used, as in the tracery of a window, 
 
 54. TAPESTRY IN THC HOTEL CLUNY. 
 
 > 
 
8o 
 
 .... where it makes a most appropriate accom- 
 paniment to the central shield of arms. It is 
 used also, for the sake of the meandering line 
 given by its recurring form, in the broad borders 
 of engraved brasses and applique embroidery. 
 At times, too, other short contrasting scrolls 
 
 55- PLAQUE OF GUBBIO FAIENCE. 
 
 cross it at intervals, at an angle calculated to 
 steady the flow of the foliage. 
 
 The label is employed sometimes in coins, 
 medals, and the like, but without so much reason. 
 There is rarely need for it or room for it ; the 
 available space is better given to the lettering 
 itself. It is happier as the border of corporation 
 
8i 
 
 or other important seals, and in medallions of 
 larger dimensions it forms often a useful feature, 
 the ends, as they turn about, satisfactorily occupy- 
 ing the vacant ground. They are made even to fill 
 it with their flourishing, as in the rather typical 
 
 56. PLAQUE OF GUBBIO FAIENCE. 
 
 examples of Italian majolica illustrated (55 and 56), 
 in which the twisting of the label is a little 
 too obviously designed to fill up. It is, no 
 doubt, one very valuable use of the twisted 
 scroll, that it does fill up a space ; but it ought 
 not to strike one at a glance as devised merely 
 with that end. In so doing.it confesses itself too 
 L.O. G 
 
82 
 
 plainly a makeshift. There is less danger of betrayal 
 when it is cunningly contrived to bear just the 
 words wanted, and just as they should come ; 
 which is hardly the case in these Gubbio plaques, 
 in both of which the label is, in fact, better suited 
 to the inscription of two words than of one. The 
 fact is, the label asks rather more conscientious 
 design than we must expect from the Italians of 
 the Cinque Cento. 
 
 It was said above that enclosing shapes should 
 be designed with a view to the lettering to be 
 inscribed upon them ; and this applies with 
 especial force to the label, which should be 
 schemed to accommodate the words upon it. 
 In fact, the position of the words needs first 
 to be planned and the label designed to take 
 them. Given an existing space, it is the business 
 of the artist to fit his design to it ; but no practical 
 designer would of his own accord first twist about 
 a label and then begin to consider how best he 
 could arrange the words within its lines. As well 
 choose a canvas irrespective of the picture to be 
 painted on it. The lettering is here the picture, 
 so to speak, and the label but the canvas for it ; 
 and, however fanciful its convolutions, they should 
 be so contrived as to accommodate, not merely 
 so much wording, but such and such words in the 
 order of their reading. 
 
 The question occurs as to the way the lettering 
 ought to run. Should it conscientiously follow 
 
57- ENLARGEMENT OF A BOOKPLATE BY H. S. BEHAM. 
 
 G 2 
 
8 4 
 
 the course of the label ? should it be confined to 
 one side of the label ? should it be hidden where 
 the label dives behind an overlap or disappears 
 behind the figure ? Naturally it should do all 
 three ; but the ends of art are not so easily achieved. 
 An inscription strictly following the course of the 
 label would, if that happened to turn upon itself, 
 as well it might, be seen lying sometimes on its 
 back and read from right to left, and so be 
 difficult to follow ; at times it would be lost to 
 sight under a fold, and not be readable at all. 
 Only in the case of words designedly disguised, or 
 so familiar that from one or two of them we guess 
 the rest, can the artist safely let lettering stand 
 upon its head or disappear from view. He is 
 compelled, therefore, if he wishes to be intelligible, 
 to treat his label, not as an inscribed band twisted 
 into ornamental shape, but as a band first twisted 
 into shape and then inscribed with the desired 
 words so that they can be seen and read. He 
 has, in fact, frankly to accept the label as a con- 
 vention, and not pretend that it is a real scroll. 
 Realistic representation may at times be possible ; 
 some may think it desirable ; but in any case it 
 does not go far towards meeting the conditions of 
 ornamental design. 
 
 Accepting the label, however, as a convention, 
 a game of ornament, it is part of the strict game 
 to confine the writing to one side of it, and, by 
 rights, to follow its course. The artist has the 
 
58. ENGRAVED ON COPPER BY H. S. BEHAM. 
 
 determining of its direction ; it is his business to 
 compel it into the way it should go. You may tell 
 a good workman by the conscientiousness with 
 which he keeps to the face of the ribbon and 
 follows the flow of its convolutions. It is easier, 
 no doubt, to ignore all such considerations, and 
 write haphazard ; but that is a poor excuse for 
 not playing fair. 
 
 In effect the artist designs his label and on the 
 visible parts of it he inscribes his words ; what he 
 does in fact is, to plot and place his words, and 
 about them to devise a label. They give him 
 certain short lengths of scroll, which he accepts, 
 trusting to his invention to find lines which will 
 supply the necessary continuity. Should he fail 
 in that, he tries the words in different order. In 
 the tailpiece to this charJter (60) the -artist has 
 
86 
 
 planned the label bearing the words, " All nations," 
 better than that inscribed " in-dus-try." An in- 
 genious designer seldom finds himself compelled 
 to break up his inscription awkwardly ; he does 
 not, for example, introduce a fold in the middle of 
 a word ; rather he reserves the fold to mark a 
 break in the wording. He is careful to avoid the 
 impression that his lettering was in any sense an 
 afterthought. He designs the label for the words ; 
 and design is, literally, forethought. 
 
 It is not pretended that labels have always been 
 scrupulously designed. Artists even who ought to 
 have known better have before now shirked the 
 difficulty of design, in so far discounting the merit 
 of otherwise masterly work. It will be seen 
 that the robust designs of Hans Sebald Beham 
 are not in this respect above reproach ; in the 
 one case (58) the letters flow evenly on, but are 
 written upon both sides of the label ; in the other 
 (57) the words do not follow the direction of 
 the label. 
 
 The Germans of the early sixteenth century made 
 extraordinary use of the label in their design, more 
 particularly in association with heraldry, and, to a 
 man almost, designed it, as they did their mantling, 
 with unfailing vigour and effect. A curious and 
 perhaps unique instance of the length to which, 
 already in the fifteenth century, they carried the 
 device occurs in a carpet in the Victoria and 
 Albert Museum, a portion of which is illustrated 
 
below (59). The ornament consists almost entirely 
 of inscription. The main lines of the design are 
 bands of lettering. They outline the border, they 
 give the central medallion, and the big circular 
 
 59- PART OF A CARPET IN THE V. AND A. MUSEUM. 
 
 band, which is the main feature of the plan. The 
 arches of the niches under which the figures stand 
 are inscribed, and lettered labels occupy the 
 background behind them ; the figures in the 
 spandrils bear parti-coloyred labels as conspicuous 
 
as themselves. To such an extent does the artist 
 rely upon this one device of ornament, that, but for 
 the variety of colour in the scheme, the effect would 
 have been mechanical. The labels and the letters 
 on them are coloured in the most arbitrary 
 fashion, with a view to colour combination and 
 not to the division of the w^ords, except in so far 
 as it was the idea purposely to confuse them and 
 prevent them from staring out of the carpet. 
 This is not playing the game according to the 
 rules laid down ; but at least the artist makes no 
 pretence of doing so. He makes bold to start a 
 game of his own, a game in which a label may 
 change suddenly and incontinently from one 
 colour to another, and the colour of the letters 
 too. At all events the inconsistency of the colour 
 scheme is followed through with a consistency 
 compelling you to realize that there is here no 
 evasion of the problem of design but a deliberate 
 device to disturb the monotony of wording 
 which would otherwise insist too much upon your 
 reading it. In just such a spirit the old Hispano- 
 Moresque potter would break up the invocation 
 within the border of a plaque thus : AVE.MA.RIA. 
 GRA.PLE.NA., to give at least variety of form 
 to words familiar to the point of wearisomeness. 
 
 The label is a device to bear lettering ; and here 
 again the vertical lines of black letter seem, as it 
 were, made to go with it ; but, Gothic or Roman, 
 or whatever the character of the lettering, it 
 
8 9 
 
 should be upright ; the effect of slanting letters or 
 italics on it is never happy. 
 
 Instances are to be found of labels bearing 
 no inscription ; and they would make satisfactory 
 ornament, were it not that, by association of 
 ideas, they inevitably suggest the want of lettering. 
 Their use, however, in this way is proof of the 
 ornamental value of the label. 
 
 60. DESIGNED BY HARRY ROGERS. 
 
6l. OLD GERMAN LETTERING. FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 VII. HIDDEN MEANINGS. 
 
 It has been contended in these pages that, 
 though the first and usual purpose of lettering is 
 that it shall be read with ease, there are occasions 
 when easy reading is of secondary consequence (so 
 long as it is readable enough), and that the more 
 important consideration is decorative propriety. 
 It is further maintained that its very legibility 
 may under certain circumstances be endangered, 
 and more than endangered, in the cause of 
 ornament. Plain reading is by no means the 
 invariable purpose of lettering in ornament, and 
 it is a mistake to suppose that it ought alw r ays to 
 be read at sight, or readable at all, except to 
 those whom it may concern. It may be intro- 
 duced only for the satisfaction of those who have 
 the key to its meaning in which case all that the 
 outside world has a right to ask is that it shall be 
 ornamental ; a sign or symbol which is a blot upon 
 the design is indefensible from the standpoint 
 of art. 
 
62. INTERMINGLED NAMES. 
 
 There are times when wording may be intro- 
 duced into design with the deliberate purpose of 
 escaping too ready detection, perhaps of mysti- 
 fying. A truthful man is not bound to blurt out 
 everything ; there are moments when it is wiser 
 only to suggest. Art is not advertisement. 
 
 Instances innumerable occur in which the mean- 
 _ing of the words an artist may introduce into his 
 design ought not to be obvious, when it would be 
 nothing short of an offence if they were too plainly 
 readable. This is especially the case where a 
 sentiment is conveyed in them ; we do not shout 
 our sentiments from the housetop ; and the more 
 tender the sentiment conveyed in the words, the 
 more becoming it is that they should be spoken 
 under the breath. 
 
 A certain mystery about the wording of a senti- 
 ment is of the very essence of its tenderness. If 
 upon the marriage chest of old the carver inter- 
 twined the names of bride and bridegroom (62), 
 if upon a bridesmaid's locket the goldsmith of to- 
 day enamels the initials o the pair, if the one sees 
 
fit to introduce into his carving the other into 
 his enamelling a pious wish, a prayer for their 
 happiness, would he, being a man of delicate 
 feeling, so shape the letters that who ran might 
 read ? Would he not in his discretion preferably 
 reduce them to ornament which, though decipher- 
 able to those concerned, did not advertise an 
 intimate thought or feeling to the world ? It often 
 happens that the right thing, and the only thing 
 to do, is to express what we have to say so reticently 
 
 that, whilst the few for 
 whom it is written will be 
 sure to catch the meaning, 
 the attention of the rest 
 of the world shall not be 
 called to it. We do not 
 by preference play love 
 tunes on a trumpet. 
 
 The name of Allah 
 figures largely in Moresque 
 ornament, variously writ- 
 ten. Precisely what 
 liberty the artists took 
 with the Arabic character, 
 I do not know ; but they 
 couldhardly take too much. 
 There seems to be a sort 
 of reverence in veiling the 
 name of the deity, and there is little likelihood of its 
 being misunderstood. Would any pious Christian 
 
 63. OLD SOMERSETSHIRE 
 PEW END. 
 
93 
 
 64. IRON BOLT-PLATES. FRANCOIS I ER - 
 
 miss the meaning of the words upon the scroll 
 ingeniously composed to occupy the background to 
 a picture of the Annunciation ? One reads them 
 by anticipation, and they may safely therefore be 
 reduced to a form which in itself would not be 
 easy to decipher. There is little difficulty in 
 following even the most intricate of ornamental 
 lettering when the very position of the words 
 puts the reader on the track of their meaning. 
 That, of course, is the justification of inscriptions 
 such as that at the head of this chapter (61) ; 
 elsewhere it might be unreadable, occurring where 
 it does in the Gospels, it explains itself at a glance, 
 SECUNDUM LUCAM. The use of the words 
 is little more than a formality ; they might almost 
 be " taken as read." 
 
 The desirability of not clearly stating a meaning, 
 
94 
 
 still less of emphasising it, gives rise to the use of 
 single letters only hinting at it (63). Even then 
 the letter need not stand revealed in the naked form 
 of the familiar alphabet. The florid initials upon 
 the fagade of the chateau at Blois make more satis- 
 factory ornament than the bald N which figured 
 upon the walls of public buildings in Paris in the 
 time of Napoleon the Third : there was about that 
 an air of advertisement in harmony only with the 
 cheapest form of Imperialism. The F of Frangois I er> 
 was put to all manner of decorative purposes. The 
 crowned F in the form of a bolt-plate (64) is just 
 a little too self-assertive. Better for all purposes 
 than the simple initial was the cypher, commonly 
 used by Henri II., or the monogram to which 
 a chapter by itself is devoted. 
 
 Enough has been said to account for the 
 meaning of lettering being hidden by the artist. 
 The ways of hiding it are many. The letters 
 themselves may be so playfully treated as to be 
 disguised ; they may be intricately interlaced, 
 they may branch out into confusing ornament, or 
 be half hidden in scrollery intertwined with it. 
 
 In the case of the cunningly designed initial 
 page from Mr. Walter Crane's " Book of Wedding 
 Days" (65), the June roses grow from thorny 
 stems which spell the name of the month, half lost 
 in leaves and further hidden by the cupid errant 
 with his shield. A much simpler growth of 
 ornamental lines is enough to transform words 
 
\ 
 
 into ornament out of which the 
 meaning emerges as you look. 
 
 In the masterly design of Israel 
 van Meckenen (66), the letters 
 of his name, Israel M, are delibe- 
 rately designed to look like scroll- 
 work merely, in which a casual 
 observer would not suspect there 
 lurked a meaning. They form, it 
 will be seen, a fine panel of florid 
 ornament, satisfactory decoration 
 apart from the significance of the 
 lines on which it grows. The con- 
 fusion, more or less, that may result 
 from interlacing letters not in them- 
 selves very fantastic, is seen in the 
 renderings of the word PROPHET 
 (76, 78). Where two separate 
 words are interlaced (62), the 
 disguise is naturally more complete, each, as 
 
 65. A PAGE FROM 
 THE "BOOK 
 OF WEDDING 
 
 D A YS, " BY 
 WALTER CRANE. 
 
96 
 
 it were, entangling the sense of the other. By 
 merely taking liberties with the letters themselves 
 (to some extent necessitated in order to adapt them 
 to fretwork in ivory) the Portuguese artist respon- 
 sible for the cabinet in the Cluny Museum from 
 which the words AUDEO-SPERO (131) are taken 
 has brought them to the desired condition of orna- 
 ment which does not thrust its meaning on you. 
 
 A simple means of preventing words from 
 staring at you is, to break the continuity of the 
 letters by colouring them arbitrarily, as was done 
 in early Saxon manuscripts. The obtrusiveness 
 of individual letters may be guarded against 
 in a similar way by breaking them into parti- 
 colour, so that the forms which strike the eye 
 are only parts of letters, and do not insist upon 
 the fact that they have a meaning. The particular 
 character employed in the old German embroidery 
 from which the letters overleaf (67) are taken, 
 seems to us at this date hardly to necessitate 
 further removal from the obvious ; but the needle- 
 woman evidently meant to make sure they should 
 not be too evident ; and so, not merely confused 
 them with ornamental foliation and tendrils, but 
 rendered them in colours which may be said to 
 blur any possible distinctness of statement con- 
 veyed in them. Severer forms of letters might 
 with even more reason be treated in the same 
 way and so reduced to ornament. The sculptor or 
 modeller may arrive at a similar result by varying 
 
66. ENGRAVING BY ISRAEL VAN MECKENEN. 
 
 L.O. 
 
 H 
 
67. GERMAN GOTHIC EMBROIDERY. 
 
 the relief and the texture of his letters instead of 
 the colour. 
 
 The fringe of cloisoned letters dependant from 
 the seventh century Visigothic crown (68) is a 
 singularly happy device ; barbaric it may be, but 
 admirably ornamental. This is a votive crown, it 
 will be understood, designed to be hung up before 
 a shrine, not worn on the head. It was dug up in 
 the neighbourhood of Toledo, and one seems to 
 trace in it the influence of Moorish ingenuity in 
 ornamental device. By no possible chance could 
 the name of the donor, RECCESSVINTHUS, 
 intrude itself. It is there by way of record ; to 
 the casual observer it is ornament. 
 
 The degree of illegibility permissible in orna- 
 mental lettering is determined only by the purpose 
 of it. What is meant to be hidden may well lie hid 
 from all but those who have the key of the mystery. 
 Even where the secret is an open one, there may 
 be a charm in the mystery in which it is wrapped. 
 If it is a riddle, we have a right to expect it to be 
 possible of solution. If it is meant to be readable, 
 it should not puzzle us beyond measure. It is 
 
99 
 
 annoying to suspect, as we cannot help suspect- 
 ing, that the designer meant us to unriddle many 
 
 68. VISIGOTHIC VOTIVE CROWN OF THE 7TH CENTURY. 
 
 a seventeenth and eighteenth century cypher, 
 which after all our pains remains to us a 
 mystery. The handsome panel from a cabinet in 
 the Victoria and Albert Museum (105) has all the 
 
 H 2 
 
 
100 
 
 air of telling us more than 
 it does. Was that the 
 intention of the carver, 
 or was it not ? 
 
 A printer's or a mer- 
 chant's mark (69, 70) is 
 often built up of lettering 
 not easy to read; and it 
 need not be readable ; it 
 is his sign, known to be 
 such ; and that is enough. 
 So, too, a stamp, such as 
 that of Domitian, which 
 forms the tailpiece to this 
 chapter (79), might well be 
 less easy to read than it 
 
 is, and yet perfectly fulfil its function. 
 
 It is difficult for us to realize how clearly the 
 
 meaning may be expressed 
 
 in lettering which we do 
 
 not understand. All the 
 
 unlearned can say of the 
 
 Icelandic (71), the Sla- 
 vonic (72, 73), the Chinese, 
 
 the Arab, or other to them 
 
 strange character, is that 
 
 it is most satisfactory as 
 
 ornament ; and the fact 
 
 that, as such, it interests 
 
 them, speaks eloquently for 
 
 69. MERCHANT'S MARK. 
 1616. 
 
 70. MERCHANT'S MARK. 
 C.E.G. 
 
101 
 
 the decorative use made of it. Possibly^ (*- 
 it would strike us as less entirely 
 ornamental if we could read it ; we 
 find it perhaps all. the more ornamental 
 because it cannot possibly intrude 
 upon our ignorance ; but there is no 
 doubt of its being ornamentally 
 rendered. 
 
 It seems certain, too, that the 
 Eastern artist was allowed an enviable 
 liberty of rendering, which enabled 
 him to reach something like the per- 
 fection of lettering in ornament. The 
 short and seemingly simple inscrip- 
 tion on the Persian mirror back (74) 
 is not to be read right off. Even an 
 accomplished Orientalist takes his 
 time to puzzle out the words, 
 " O, thou satisfier of wants." The 
 writing of the Arabs is, of itself, 
 enough to show that they were not 
 often in a hurry. In the use of it in 
 ornament they took it for granted 
 that the reader would be more than 
 leisurely. Prohibited by the laws of 
 the Prophet from picturing God's 
 creatures, and desiring, after the 
 manner of mankind, to say something 71. ICELANDIC 
 in their design, they indulged pro- MANGLING IM- 
 fusely in inscription ; and their natural 
 
 ELEMENT. 
 
102 
 
 72. RUSSIAN ORNAMENTAL LETTERING BY VICTOR 
 VASNETZOFF. 
 
 ingenuity and ornamental instinct not being 
 hampered by any popular prejudice against free 
 and fanciful treatment of the alphabet, they did 
 marvels in the way of beautiful design, more ela- 
 borate it is true than is our Western wont, but 
 undeniably the work of masters in their art (74). , 
 
 Lettering forms one of the most striking features 
 in what we call Arab art. We find it in the lustred 
 tiles, the enamelled glass, the fretted brass of the 
 Persians ; in the plaster-work of the Alhambra 
 and other buildings of the Moors in Spain ; in the 
 wood-carving of the Tunisians ; in the embroidery 
 of the Turks ; in Saracenic silk-weaving ; in 
 illuminated copies of the Koran ; throughout, 
 in fact, the whole range of Mohammedan design. 
 The power of the artist is shown in the perfect 
 
 73- SLAVONIC INSCRIPTION OF THE I&TH CENTURY. 
 
103 
 
 ease of his treatment: he can play with it; and 
 yet, for all his playfulness, it never degenerates 
 into frivolity. He reduced to ornament even 
 the early monumental chisel -cut character, the 
 rigid and angular " Cufic," not very much like 
 lettering to us, except that by its very strangeness 
 
 
 74. BACK OF A CARVED PERSIAN MIRROR FRAME. 
 
 we are led to suspect a meaning in it ; but his real 
 opportunity came with the introduction of the 
 suaver cursive hand (ca. 1000), whose sweeping 
 lines suggest, however executed, the stroke of the 
 original pen ; and he seized upon it. It is in 
 this Neskhi character that his triumphs in 
 decorative writing have b^en achieved. 
 
104 
 
 75' THE WORD " ALLAH " FORMING AN ORNAMENTAL DEVICE. 
 
 There is clearly not anything like the same 
 elasticity in Roman or Gothic lettering as in 
 Arab, nor have we the mastery of those Eastern 
 ornamentists over the signs and symbols with 
 which we have to deal ; but the lesson of their 
 work ought not to be entirely lost upon us ; and 
 it would be interesting to see what we could do 
 in emulation of their manner. The result would 
 probably not meet with popular approval ; but it 
 might be well worth the pains ; and in particular 
 we might learn the way to hide a meaning in our 
 
76. THE WORD " PROPHET" IN ITALICS. 
 
 ornament, and to hide it just as effectually as 
 
 seemed good to us to 
 
 screen it, if need be, 
 
 from all but sympathetic 
 
 observation. The few 
 
 experiments here given 
 
 (75i 76, 78) do not > in 
 the least, pretend to 
 show what is to be done 
 in this way: they are 
 but a beginning, an 
 
 77. THE WORD " ALLAH 
 AFTER THE MANNER OF 
 'A CHINESE SEAL. 
 
 78. THE WORD "PROPHET" IN INTERLACING STRAP-LIKE 
 
 LETTERS. 
 
io6 
 
 indication, merely, of the direction in which 
 experiment might be worth making. 
 
 Something, too, is to be learnt from the severely 
 square-cut Chinese character (77), as well as from 
 their freer brush-writing (the two styles have 
 analogies with the Cufic and Neskhi respectively), 
 and from other script, which, in proportion as 
 we do not understand a word of it, we can judge 
 without bias as ornament. 
 
 Our Western temperament puts us at some dis- 
 advantage. We are a matter-of-fact people, and 
 the practical view we take of lettering hinders us 
 from making full use of it in ornament. Our 
 attitude towards the alphabet is somewhat too 
 respectful. If we could bring ourselves to play 
 with letters we might easily reduce them to 
 ornament. The first step is to believe in the 
 possibilities of lettering: only in that faith is art 
 possible. 
 
 79. IRON STAMP. BYZANTINE. 
 
8O. ENAMELLED BRONZE PENDANT. 
 
 VIII. CONJOINED LETTERS. 
 
 We are to a great extent debarred from the use 
 of contractions, which, obvious as they must have 
 been to monkish readers, to whom mediaeval 
 writing was addressed, are enough to scare a 
 modern one from the very attempt to decipher 
 old manuscripts abounding with them. But 
 there is no such undeniable objection to the 
 mere conjoining of letters in the old way. 
 
 A certain amount even of complication might be 
 excused, where the writer did not wish to be too 
 plain, or had a right to expoct the reader would 
 anticipate the word. There are cases without 
 number in which it is clear from the first word or 
 two of an inscription what is to follow. It may 
 
io8 
 
 safely be taken for granted that the faithful will 
 not want to read through the Crede, the Ave, or 
 the Lord's Prayer. There is no need to spell 
 out every word of a familiar quotation ; and 
 if there were, there it is, though not as plain as 
 print. Any hardship the reader might suffer from 
 the conjunction, here and there, of letters other- 
 wise awkward to manage, would be as nothing to 
 the convenience it would be to the designer, who, 
 as it is, is tied by popular prejudice as never ancient 
 writer was fettered. But there is not necessarily 
 any confusion resulting from conjoined letters. 
 The wording on the doors of Le Puy (81), in 
 which it is carried to most interesting excess, is, 
 it is true, only with difficulty to be deciphered 
 which may be said also of the Gothic inscription 
 from a Flemish brass (82) ; but the compound 
 letters add no little to its variety, and were pre- 
 sumably not difficult to read at the time they were 
 written. It is mainly the misplaced satisfaction of 
 the Philistine with printed type which inclines him 
 to resent the liberties a writer is naturally tempted 
 to take with forms the printer has stereotyped. 
 
 Time was when even printers were not averse to 
 combined letters (accustomed as folk were to them 
 in MS.), but the diphthong and the ampersand alone 
 survive, and that mainly in the form of &c. This 
 particular sign was never at the best of much artistic 
 use it does not range with the line for one thing 
 but why not simply join the letters ? We have only 
 
nm 
 
 
 
 )|riDy][!D)o] 
 
 MMI 
 
 
 
 
 
 P;A\W MET 
 
 8l. DETAILS FROM THE WODEN DOORS OF LE PUY 
 CATHEDRAL. 
 
82. FROM A 
 
 to let the two upright strokes of the N form on 
 the one side part of the A, and on the other part 
 of the D (84), and we have a perfect monogram 
 which, moreover, acknowledges by its contrac- 
 tion the comparative insignificance of the word. 
 At all events a writer is free to indulge in any such 
 monogrammic device which does not interfere with 
 the legibility at which he aims ; whatever helps the 
 artist in spacing his letters is to the good. There 
 is no occasion to keep sacred the separate identity 
 
Ill 
 
 FLEMISH BRASS. 
 
 of each particular letter; and in this particular 
 instance, at least, there is no mistaking the letters. 
 Again, if we may use A.D. for Anno Domini, why 
 not make a monogram of the letters (84), or 
 join the double N in ANNO (84) ? The com- 
 pound letter is not difficult to read in that con- 
 nection. These and similar devices (83, 84) 
 were all once freely in use. 
 
 It is an axiom of design that the method of 
 workmanship employed sjiould be, not only 
 
83. DIAGRAM OF CONJOINT LETTERS. 
 
 confessed, but turned if possible to characteristic 
 account. What though the monotony of hard and 
 fast form is inseparable from a page set up in type ? 
 The penman, painter, carver, engraver, or other 
 craftsman claims that he, for his part, shall be 
 allowed to show, by deviation from the fixed forms 
 of printed type, he has used his brains about his 
 work ; and his just claim is not invalidated by the 
 incompetence of this scribe or the affectation of 
 that. The word engraved within the wreath 
 overleaf, from a piece of old Roman silversmith's 
 work (85), was probably meant to tell no more 
 than it does. 
 
 /D /imo 
 
 84. DIAGRAM OF CONJOINT LETTERS. 
 
Popular prejudice against any individuality in 
 the rendering of familiar signs comes of their very 
 familiarity. The ideal of the unthinking is the 
 letterpress they know so well. They forget that 
 type is but a stiff rendering of the written 
 character, and that it is at best a most degraded 
 form of print they peruse in the cheap edition 
 or the daily paper which is their standard of 
 orthodoxy. 
 
 85. CONJOINT LETTERS, ROMAN. 
 
 L.O. 
 
86. EMS, CONTINUOUS. 
 
 IX. MONOGRAMS. 
 
 The use of conjoined letters and contractions 
 leads immediately to the design of the Monogram 
 which is in fact neither more nor less than a 
 contraction two or more letters writ in one. 
 
 A monogram is a compound letter, or, as its 
 name implies, the combination in one sign (simple 
 or complex) of two or more letters no longer 
 separate. Whether the letters form, as in the 
 beginning they apparently did, the first letters 
 of a word (XP for XPI2TO2), or whether they are 
 the initials of a man's several names, as is the 
 more common use nowadays, does not matter, 
 nor whether they are used as badge, symbol, or 
 trade-mark; the point is that it is one sign 
 conveying the significance of several letters. 
 
 In a monogram, rightly so called, there is no 
 letter which does not form part of another (87). 
 This is not generally understood, or we should not 
 
HGM 
 
 A 
 
 87. MONOGRAMS. 
 
n6 
 
 commonly hear the interlacing of any two or 
 three letters described as a monogram. The 
 interlacing I.H.S., for example, whether we read 
 the letters to signify Jesus Hominum Salvator 
 or IH2OY2, are not properly called the sacred 
 monogram, nor the intertwining A and O, nor the 
 initial letters of XPI3TO3, except when one limb 
 of the X forms the stroke of the P. 
 
 The rule that no one letter in a monogram 
 shall be independent, but that each letter shall 
 
 form part of 
 the design of 
 very easy pas- 
 depends upon 
 joined in one. 
 in naming chil- 
 had in mind the 
 designers ; and 
 some of their 
 
 another, makes 
 monograms no 
 time. Much 
 the letters to be 
 It is not as if, 
 dren, sponsors 
 convenience of 
 
 , OLD WEIGHT, 
 
 85 GRAINS. they provide 
 godchild ren 
 with initials which seem bent upon maintaining 
 entire independence. 
 
 Whether they are absolutely irreconcilable re- 
 mains in each case to be proved. One may have 
 spent hours in vainly trying to bring them to- 
 gether, and all at once they come, as it were, of 
 their own accord. As an instance of the likelihood 
 of happy combination, I have taken the letters of 
 the alphabet and tried what could be done with 
 them, three by three, as they came, at a short 
 sitting (89). The monograms are by no means 
 
117 
 
 perfect ; two or three of them do not read in the 
 order of the letters in the alphabet ; but that is 
 the best I could do right off, and I give the results 
 as they came. They come well enough, I think, 
 
 89. THE ALPHABET IN MONOGRAMS OF THREE LETTERS. 
 
 to promise a fair likelihood that letters, take them 
 as they come, will be amenable to ingenious 
 treatment. 
 
 If they are by no possible means to be reduced 
 to a single sign, that may fee enough reason for 
 
n8 
 
 90. F L, REVERSIBLE. gi. S P L, CONTINUOUS. 
 
 interlacing them, or tying them together, or other- 
 wise bringing them to the condition of ornament ; 
 but the result, beautiful or otherwise, will not be 
 a monogram ; and should not be so described. 
 It causes only confusion to call things by names 
 to which they are not entitled. 
 
 The one case in which there can be a question 
 as to the title of monogram is, where the letters, 
 though in a sense independent, are continuous 
 (86, 93). It is sometimes possible to devise a mono- 
 gram in which one letter forms part of another and 
 yet the line is continuous, and 'the contrivance 
 adds interest to the design (91, 92, and 100 D) ; 
 but any device drawn in one stroke might claim 
 etymologically to be a monogram, even though 
 one of the component letters could be removed 
 and leave the others complete. 
 
 A reversible design, which you may turn upside 
 down and it reads the same, is a rare possibility (90). 
 
iig 
 
 92. GPL, CONTINUOUS. 
 
 93. RED, CONTINUOUS. 
 
 Though the letters of which a monogram shall 
 be formed are prescribed to the artist, he has 
 usually some choice as to the character of the letter 
 he will adopt ; and the letters given him determine 
 often the character he shall choose. He naturally 
 adopts an alphabet which will give him the par- 
 ticular letters required in forms amenable to his 
 purpose. 
 
 Comparatively simple letter-forms, but not too 
 rigidly fixed, are the most serviceable. Letters in 
 themselves already florid, such as the late German 
 capitals, are by no means promising ; they are in 
 themselves involved enough already, and quite too 
 fanciful to be further played with. 
 
 Mr. Barclay, from whose book I have, by the 
 permission of Mr. H. Soane, borrowed some beauti- 
 ful specimens of design, comes to the conclusion 
 that the earlier Gothic letters, in which curved 
 lines abound, alone lend themselves to monogram- 
 mic use, and that the straight lines of the Roman 
 
 / 
 
120 
 
 94. BY HOLBEIN. 
 
 95. BY HOLBEIN. 
 
 character render it unfit. It is quite true that 
 Lombardic capitals, for example, are exceptionally 
 amenable, all the more so as their shapes are not 
 so definitely fixed as the Roman, and one may 
 with less offence take liberty with them ; but, 
 though there is something final about the form 
 of Roman lettering, and' its lines are straight and 
 rigid Holbein himself could not always bend 
 it to his purpose (94, 95) it is by no means 
 always unmanageable, and when it does lend 
 itself to the combination desired, the resultant 
 monogram has a sort of dignity all its own. 
 It is a great convenience to have two or more 
 forms of a single letter to choose from. The 
 rounded form may offer possibilities which the 
 angular does not, and vice versa. It is not, 
 by the way, always a question of Roman or 
 Gothic character, as may be seen in the diagram 
 opposite (96). There is scope for choice within the 
 range of either Roman or Gothic. 
 
 Absolute symmetry is not essential to satis- 
 factory design, but there must be in it a sense 
 
121 
 
 of balance ; and in pursuit of it the designer is 
 tempted, not merely to tamper with the shapes 
 of letters, but to place them out of their order. 
 It is better that the natural sequence of the letters 
 should be at once apparent in the monogram ; but 
 in any case it should not be so flagrantly violated 
 as to compel one to read them awrong. So also 
 with regard to the value of the letters, their relative 
 importance should be maintained. In the letters 
 
 HR T$A AM 
 
 CO MW GC MM 
 
 EG rsn 
 
 ce 
 
 Tt; 
 
 96. DIAGRAM INDICATIVE OF VARIETY IN AVAILABLE 
 LETTER SHAPES. 
 
 of a single name the initial would naturally domi- 
 nate. In the case of initials it might be desirable 
 to insist either upon the Christian or the surname, 
 or to pronounce the two equally, or to relegate to 
 insignificance the second of two Christian names 
 habitually dropped. 
 
 Only for some good reason should the letters 
 of a monogram differ widely in size. They need 
 not be all of a size, but there should be no appear- 
 ance of any difference in scale. This is the more 
 
122 
 
 important where the part of one letter forms in 
 itself another complete letter. The letter P is 
 contained, of course, within the B or R, the F 
 within the E, but in neither case will the one 
 letter do duty for a monogram of the two if it is 
 meant to be read. 
 
 Not only should letters read in their order, but 
 they should read from the same point of view : 
 
 A. B. C. 
 
 97- MONOGRAMS AND CYPHER, THE. 
 
 only in the case of a monogram decorating some- 
 thing as likely to be seen from one point of view 
 as another, is it excusable to place them at various 
 angles of inclination. 
 
 There is an obvious and soon-reached limit to 
 the number of letters which can be combined in a 
 satisfactory monogram. It is only when you know 
 they are there that you can read in the device 
 which forms the tailpiece to this chapter the letters 
 ELIZABETH R. 
 
5. MONOGRAMS THE. 
 
124 
 
 In order to illustrate in a practical way some of 
 the points above discussed, I have taken the letters 
 of the word THE and made monograms of them 
 (97, 98, 99, 100). It will be seen that they lend 
 themselves to a variety of combinations, some of 
 which read in the order of the word, and others 
 do not though these last were really written in 
 the right order. In most the T is made to take 
 its due prominence ; occasionally it is a capital 
 followed by minuscules. Those of them which 
 read in the order TEH are, in so far, unsatisfac- 
 tory. In two instances (h 98 and c 100) it is only 
 by a slightly fanciful treatment of the termina- 
 tion of the E that the letters are completely 
 made out. The kind of balance observed in k 98 
 is a thing to aim at in monogram design. Of the 
 minuscule versions (97) a is readable only if we 
 accept a disconsonant H ; b is not a monogram at 
 all ; and c reads E T H. 
 
 Supposing the letters THE stood for the initials 
 of a man's name, it would be desirable to give 
 importance to the E of the surname, and the H 
 
 r -. |= , might possibly, as 
 
 /Q qpx only the second 
 
 J n ^\ n C-/ Christian name, take 
 
 eL-\ X 1 \^ . , . i 
 
 quite a back place in 
 
 QQ. MONOGRAMS THE. . 
 
 the design. The 
 
 point is that the letters should retain as nearly as 
 possible their actual value. 
 
 Another condition which enters into the design 
 
125 
 
 B. C. 
 
 100. MONOGRAMS THE. 
 
 of a monogram is, the space it has to fill, or, 
 failing that, the shape it will give. A given space 
 to occupy may put out of the question an other- 
 wise possible composition. A given arrangement 
 of letters may compel a circular, upright, squat, 
 or irregular shape, as the case may be. 
 
 A cartouche or other shape enclosing a mono- 
 gram (86, 101) may help to bring the compo- 
 sition together ; but is no part of the mono- 
 gram. A monogram if well designed should stand 
 alone. To fall back upon the frame for help is, 
 in a measure, to confess yourself beaten ; but if 
 the frame exists to begin with, then you have a 
 right to rely upon its lines ; in fact it is one of the 
 conditions to which you have to conform. 
 
 Another confession of weakness is to resort, in 
 the design of a monogram as such (and not as an 
 ornamental device for some particular decorative 
 purpose), to ultra-fantastic treatment of the letter 
 forms, and a yet more abject one is the introduc- 
 tion of independent ornament. There would be 
 less occasion for any such makeshifts, were we 
 not possessed by a demon of symmetry. We 
 

 126 
 
 forget that it is not equal - 
 sidedness but balance that is 
 essential ; and that there is a 
 compensating charm in cha- 
 racter. 
 
 This is not to say there may 
 not be good reason for devices 
 in which for some symbolic or IOI . L F D, WITH 
 other sufficient purpose an em- BORDER, STENCILLED 
 blem is included. The excuse 
 is the more sufficient when the symbolism (as 
 in the case of the rays in 102, which hold the 
 stencil plate together) fulfils some practical 
 purpose. 
 
 The component parts of a monogram should be 
 coherent, consequent, and quite clearly belonging 
 to the letters they unite to represent ; but the 
 
 Designer need have no 
 compunction in departing 
 widely from the normal 
 proportion and symmetry 
 observable in the separate 
 letters. The consideration 
 ' s now tne shapeliness of 
 the monogram, not of the 
 individual letters of which 
 ^ ^ s ma de up. The letters 
 may be of the artist's own 
 102. L F D, WITH BACK- designing; he is bound to 
 GROUND DEVICE, STENCILLED, no alphabet i but they 
 
127 
 
 must be all of one handwriting. The incongruous 
 association of Roman and Gothic letters, florid 
 and simple, is intolerable in proportion as the 
 diverse characters are pronounced. And, except 
 in the unusual case of a monogram designed to be 
 seen from all sides, the letters should have one 
 and the same inclination, upright or slanting. 
 Crossed letters seldom come well. 
 As to precisely what degree 
 JMJ I of liberty the designer may take 
 ^^^^ ^f M with the alphabet it would be 
 &/ A ^R futile to lay down any law; to 
 Bi 4B some extent he must be governed 
 by the circumstances of each 
 given case ; for the rest he owes 
 obedience only to his own artistic 
 sense. The common case of the 
 designer who is more intent on 
 disguising the lines of his mono- 
 gram with flourishes than com- 
 I03< pelling them into the way of 
 
 W T, STENCILLED. * > J 
 
 beauty, is hopeless. Elaborately 
 ornamental letters raise at once a suspicion as to 
 the designer's competence. On the other hand, 
 there is in simple, straightforward lettering a 
 distinction and character which make amends for 
 some lack of obvious grace. 
 
 It is not enough that the letters should be all 
 there : it should be possible to decipher them. 
 Monograms have been ere now designed (104) 
 
128 
 
 in every respect admirable, except that one could 
 no more be expected to read them than to un- 
 riddle one of those unimpeachable conundrums 
 devised with the deliberate intention that it shall 
 not possibly be guessed. There are occasions 
 when the object of a monogram is disguise, when 
 the problem is to invent a symbol which shall tell 
 nothing to those who have not the key to its 
 meaning. In the ordinary way the meaning is 
 meant to be unravelled by whosoever cares to give 
 it a thought. It should form at first sight a good 
 pattern ; on further examination it should be 
 readable, and only difficult to read in proportion 
 as it is meant to be enigmatical. 
 
 104. FROM A COIN OF 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
IO5. REVERSED CYPHER, FRENCH WOOD-CARVING. 
 
 X. CYPHERS. 
 
 Even if it were within the scope of design to 
 make any given letters into a monogram, the only 
 possible one would many a time be ugly. In such 
 case an artist naturally discards the idea and 
 falls back upon cypher : he may indeed in any 
 case prefer that device as the more appropriate to 
 his ornamental purpose ; at all events it is never 
 the forlorn hope which a monogram may be. 
 
 A cypher differs from a monogram in that it is 
 not a contraction, not a separate sign compounded 
 of several letters, but a commingling or interlacing 
 of signs, .each of which is in itself a perfect and 
 independent letter, the one #s it were planted in 
 
 L.O. K 
 
130 
 
 front of the other, or, more commonly, entangled 
 with it. Letters thus interlocked are commonly 
 accepted as monograms ; but, though they pass 
 current, they are not coin of the realm. For the 
 rest, however, the rules which govern the com- 
 position of the cypher are very much the same as 
 those to which the monogram is subject. 
 
 Lettering of all kinds lends itself to this device 
 of cunning interlacing, but none perhaps so readily 
 as cursive writing, the flowing forms of which 
 were so commonly employed by the designers of the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, to whom the 
 straight line, ever-recurrent in the upright Roman 
 letter, was abhorrent. So entirely did they adopt 
 this one slanting form of letter, that it is some- 
 times assumed that the term cypher applies only 
 to letters of the cursive type ; but this is not so. 
 It is further fallaciously assumed that a cypher 
 must be absolutely symmetrical. There was once 
 a generation of artists who apparently determined 
 
 106. GLASS QUARRIES WITH MONOGRAM AND CYPHERS. 
 
I0y. KEY-BOW WITH 
 REVERSED CYPHER. 
 
 to have symmetry, at no 
 matter what price of intri- 
 cate convolution ; but the 
 essential is not symmetric 
 but ornamental form. 
 Enough that the lines make 
 good pattern. The striving 
 after absolute symmetry 
 resulted in designs, grace- 
 ful indeed, but all very much 
 of one pattern, and that 
 often arathereffeminateone. 
 It was the insatiate desire for symmetry which 
 
 led to the practice, at one time almost invariable 
 
 in cyphers in which the flowing line prevails, of 
 
 reversing the letter; 
 
 though the sloping form 
 
 of the writing was in itself 
 
 a temptation (given the 
 
 ideal of symmetry) to 
 
 avoid the difficulty of 
 
 design by simply turning 
 
 the device over, or turning 
 
 over so much of it as was 
 
 needful to symmetry. 
 
 The result was at times 
 
 rather poverty - stricken 
 
 (107), at times rich but 
 
 obscure beyond elucida- Io8 . KEY-BOW WITH 
 
 tion (105). In reality the REVERSED CYPHER. 
 
 K 2 
 
I0g. WROUGHT-IRON CYPHER, REVERSED. 
 
 necessity for reversal was never very great, seeing 
 that designers were not hampered by any thought 
 of keeping strictly to the letter, but indulged 
 quite freely in wreathing lines of ornamental 
 scrollwork only in so far part of the lettering that 
 they grew out of it. An inventive mind might 
 
133 
 
 readily by means of such extraneous ornament 
 have made good the balance of design, and so 
 avoided all occasion for reversing letters ; but 
 the real truth is, that letters sloping all one way 
 do not naturally lend themselves to symmetric 
 design. 
 
 The confusion which comes of overturning 
 letters is worse confounded by the fact that 
 one letter reversed may in combination with the 
 
 
 IIO. PAINTED TILES, WKTH CYPHER D I C. 
 
III. BOOKBINDING TOOLED WITH CYPHER DIAPER J I- 
 REVERSED. 
 
135 
 
 lines of another letter give a third which is perhaps 
 not needed. The letter E in the wrought-iron 
 cypher illustrated (109) might be the accidental 
 result of inverting the B, or vice versa. 
 
 A difficulty with which the designer has to 
 contend is that (say) of three letters, two perhaps 
 
 112. CYPHERS, NOT REVERSED, CARVED. 
 
 unite as it were inevitably into a single sign, 
 whereas the other refuses obstinately to give up 
 its independence. The result is, properly speaking, 
 neither a monogram nor a cypher ; but something 
 between the two, and, by reason of its indeter- 
 minateness, not quite satisfactory, though per- 
 haps the best possible under the circumstances. 
 
136 
 
 For my own part I prefer, as a 
 rule, either a monogram or a 
 cypher to any compromise between 
 the two ; but it is in every case 
 the result which justifies the 
 method or fails to do so. There 
 is this objection to the hybrid 
 form of design, that, according as 
 it is the monogrammic sign or the 
 separate letter which first catches 
 your attention, you expect either 
 
 113. CYPHER TG. a monogram or a cypher, and are 
 / likely therefore to be puzzled by 
 
 the combination of the two. 
 
 Except where the idea was to confound us, the 
 
 fault of confusion is difficult to condone. It can 
 
 hardly be said that, where a certain degree of 
 
 mystery is sought, it is not 
 
 permissible to reverse ; but the 
 
 artist who relies upon reversing 
 
 lays himself open to the sus- 
 picion that, if the task of 
 
 straightforward design is not 
 
 beyond him, he is disposed to 
 
 shirk it. Occasionally, how- 
 ever, a letter is turned over 
 
 to such admirable purpose 
 
 that one is bound to confess 
 
 that the artist adopted this 
 
 treatment for the unanswerable IJ 4- CYPHER p G. 
 
137 
 
 115- CYPHER G R S. 
 
 reason that it is the best that 
 could possibly be done with 
 given letters. That is so in 
 the case, for instance, of the 
 familiar combination of Q H D 
 in the monogram of Henri Deux 
 and Diane, which, frequently 
 as it occurs in work done for 
 the king or his mistress, seems 
 never to come amiss. It has a dignity which the 
 sipping italics of later date never reach ; and 
 
 it is difficult to imagine 
 how it could be bettered. 
 Again, in the 3 I C in 
 painted tile work of the 
 same period (no) it will 
 be seen that the beautiful 
 severity of the letters, 
 their proportion, and the 
 . . simplicity of their compo- 
 
 sition, give an air of distinction to a cypher 
 which, less perfectly proportioned, might have been 
 mean or commonplace. Orna- 
 mental devices of this kind are 
 so readily resolvable into their 
 elements that there is no possi- 
 bility of the confusion always 
 likely- to occur when intricately 
 interlacing forms are reversed. 
 
 For a similar reason one has 117. CYPHER w s. 
 
 Il6. CYPHER B E. 
 
138 
 
 nothing to say against the reversal of a single 
 letter, the double C, for example, of Charles VIII., 
 and of our own Charles II. If the artist can make 
 a satisfactory badge or ornamental device out of 
 a letter, he is within his province : the condition 
 is that he shall make ornament of it. Even for 
 more fanciful reversing, the excuse of ornament 
 holds good. As a cypher of the letters J L, the 
 device on page 134 (in) is very much like other 
 interlacings of the period : as an ornamental 
 diaper, it makes most excellent decoration in 
 tooling. 
 
 The determination to abstain from turning 
 letters over results in a form of severity (112) of 
 which lovers of symmetry do not approve. 
 
 Bookbinders made admirable use of the simple 
 initial as a repeat, with or without a surmounting 
 crown, in binding books for royal patrons such 
 as Louis XIII. Before that the crowned F of 
 Franois ler figured prominently in the details of 
 his chateaux. As for the H of Henri II., it was 
 used in such a plain and simple way that one 
 almost wonders how it is that it does not look 
 bald. It forms, however, perfectly adequate 
 decoration, owing to the extremely judicious way 
 in which it \vas everywhere introduced. 
 
 In the fine ceiling of the Salle de Diane, at 
 Fontainebleau (171), both the simple H of Henri 
 and the monogram d H D are used in a quite 
 masterly way. One is apt to associate the idea of 
 
Tl8. CYPHERS A M, I H S, A 
 
140 
 
 monograms and cyphers with something small or 
 finikin ; but the breadth and dignity of decoration 
 such as that is unsurpassed. 
 
 Enough, however, about reversing; let us return 
 to the cypher. The interlacing of separate letters 
 does not hinder them from being each of a different 
 colour (b 97), by aid of which colour (or in the 
 
 CYPHER I H C. 
 
 case of carving it might be texture) letters most 
 intricately interwoven may be traced and easily 
 identified. By the same means any one letter 
 may be emphasised at will. Than-ks, therefore, 
 to colour, or to texture, the artist is enabled safely 
 to venture upon combinations of letters which, 
 apart from it, would be inextricably involved. Of 
 the Gothic minuscule cyphers on page 136 the 
 
one (114) would be difficult, the other (113) 
 impossible, to read but for such help. An artist, 
 however, who really enjoys lettering prefers to do 
 without it if he can. 
 
 The occasion for minuscule letters does not very 
 
 120. OUTWORK CYPHER A M. 
 
 often occur in cypher or monogram design ; we 
 appear to have made up our minds in favour of 
 capitals though a foreigner does not seem to see 
 the objection which we have to beginning his 
 signature with a small letter. In the case of letters 
 which spell a name, we might well combine the 
 initial majuscule with minuscules. 
 
142 
 
 The protest that a cypher is not a monogram, 
 must not be taken to imply any under- valuation 
 of the cypher. The designer naturally prefers to 
 make a monogram possibly because it is the more 
 difficult thing to do but the cypher gives him 
 opportunities of ornament which that does not ; 
 and some of the most beautiful and completely satis- 
 factory letter-combinations are not monograms 
 but cyphers. The designs of Mr. Montague (115, 
 117) are admirable, and that of Harry Rogers 
 on the same page (116) is a triumph of ingenuity. 
 Think again of the many beautiful interlacings 
 of the letters A M, I H S, A O (118, 120) in 
 Christian art. The letters I H C on page 140 (119) 
 branch out, it will be seen, very freely into foliage 
 without which the letters would be complete. As 
 a cypher the design is in so far open to reproach ; 
 but, as a panel of ornament, to which the meaning 
 of the letters adds interest, the treatment fully 
 justifies itself. The severer foliation of the A M 
 (120) stands still less in need of excuse. 
 
 In forming cyphers of the letters T H E (121), 
 which it may be interesting to compare with the 
 monograms in the last chapter, I have confined 
 myself to a Gothic character more or less florid, 
 and have adapted the designs uniformly to a given 
 space which they are easily made to fill ; but out 
 of the six which occurred to me at the time of 
 designing, one at least reads TEH, which in a 
 monogram of the letters T H E is a distinct fault. 
 

 121. CYPHERS OF THE LETTERS THE. 
 
i 4 4 
 
 The tailpiece below is not so much a cypher as 
 a symbolic device in which a cypher is included 
 that being of course quite a right thing to do, 
 though it is not precisely cypher design. 
 
 It is one thing to design a monogram, it is 
 another to design it for a specific place or purpose, 
 or to include it in some scheme of decoration. 
 Here as elsewhere there are few things the artist, 
 for all that may be said to the contrary, dare not 
 do with lettering, provided only he is competent, 
 and that he cares for lettering. If he loves it, he 
 may safely be trusted with it. 
 
 122. DEVICE INCLUDING 
 
 CYPHER AND MASONIC 
 
 SYMBOL. 
 
123- ITALIAN LETTERING, I43Q. 
 
 XL ORNAMENTAL LETTERING. 
 
 The form of an artist's lettering is seldom entirely 
 under his control. In departing from accepted 
 shapes he runs the risk of not being read. So long 
 as he desires to be read, he is free only within the 
 limits of legibility a quality it is for his readers to 
 determine. He must be not only legible, but legible 
 to them. Learning itself is therefore no safe shelter 
 against misunderstanding. The adoption of an 
 obsolete character will be reckoned to a man as at 
 the best pedantry, just as the invention of quite 
 new forms will be put down to his conceit or affec- 
 tation. 
 
 The wise policy for an artist (not that it is wise 
 always to act on policy) is to keep safe hold of some 
 time-honoured and familiar form of letter, and to 
 deal with it gently, venturing Qnly upon such depar- 
 tures from it as in artistic conscience he feels bound 
 to make. This applies to all jnanner of inscriptions 
 
 L.o. L 
 
146 
 
 whose plain business it is to enlighten us, and that 
 without great tax upon our attention. 
 
 Deviation from accepted form, prompted by the 
 artistic conscience, maybe in one or more of several 
 directions. The designer is open to suggestions 
 arising out of his scheme of decoration, out of the 
 nature of the inscription, out of the position it is 
 to occupy, out of the material in which and the 
 implement with which it is to 
 be written ; and, apart from de- 
 liberate decorative purpose, and 
 no matter what the general 
 character of the lettering he 
 may adopt (that may be deter- 
 mined for him by architectural 
 and other considerations) the 
 implementand methodemployed 
 in rendering it will affect his 
 rendering, removingthelettering 
 somewhat from the original type, 
 and giving it a character more or less of its own. 
 We do not want telling whether lettering was 
 written with a pen, or painted with a brush ; 
 indented with a point in something soft, or cut 
 with a chisel out of something hard ; we see at 
 once that it was cut in wood, or stone, or metal, 
 and whether it was incised or grounded out. The 
 inevitable character of its execution is seen even in 
 work which is meant to be graphic and no more, 
 and it is seen to be so much to the good as art. 
 
 124. STAMP. THE 
 
 LETTER IN METAL 
 
 TAPE ON ROUGH 
 
 DEAL. 
 
147 
 
 125- WOODCUT INITIALS. GERMAN. 
 
 This the artist ornamentally inclined naturally 
 develops in the direction of ornament ; and so 
 arrives, almost by accident, certainly without any 
 very deliberate intention on his part, at something 
 like ornamental lettering. When it comes to the 
 design of lettering in which plain reading is not 
 the first consideration, he is in ornamental duty 
 bound to develop it to 
 the full. Over-elabora- 
 tion is a fault into which 
 the ornamentist is prone 
 to fall ; but so long as 
 he confines himself to the 
 evolution of that cha- 
 racter which comes of his 
 material or of the way 
 he is working it, he is 
 on tolerably safe ground. 
 Out of the conditions 126. COPPER ENGRAVING. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 127. PART OF A FLEMISH BRASS 
 
 under which he is working and his own personal 
 bias, unstimulated by any fervid desire to be 
 original, beautiful and ever fresh variations on the 
 alphabet arise. 
 
 The influence which the way of working exercises 
 upon design is very plainly seen on page 146, in 
 the illustration representing a rude block for print- 
 ing on linen an initial D. afterwards presumably 
 to be embroidered. The process of its making is 
 simple : into a chunk of deal, roughly sawn across 
 the grain, strips of flat metal tape are driven. 
 
149 
 
 GROUNDED OUT. 
 
 This naturally suggests sweeping lines and forms 
 that can easily be bent into shape. Hence the 
 type of letter, and hence the character of the 
 added decoration. The workman, like his public 
 the thing was made for French peasant use, 
 and sold by a peasant in the market-place 
 would very possibly have liked to make the 
 sprig of foliage more natural ; but the wire would 
 have it so. More, perhaps, from reasons of 
 economy than from any 'promptings of taste or 
 preference for severity, h followed its prompt- 
 
pour esfre ce(e(nre # 
 
 *tt'ft mots ty 
 esf re 6isfn0ues nu $ 
 cotmeras en#aitis 
 
 128. PART OF A FLEMISH SLAB 
 
 ings, and, almost in spite of himself, gave it 
 character. 
 
 The rudeness of the work enables us in this 
 instance the better to see how design is influenced 
 by the conditions under which work is done. 
 But similar influences may be seen at work in tjie 
 letters engraved upon Greek coins, which look 
 sometimes (47) almost as if the die-sinker had set 
 about elaborating the Greek character, so curiously 
 are the letters rounded at the points. Very little 
 consideration shows us, however, that he had no 
 such fantastic idea. v lt simply happened in that 
 way. There was always a danger, in cutting short 
 sharp lines \vith no matter what implement, of 
 overshooting the mark. A safeguard was, first to 
 drill holes at the points where the lines met or 
 ended, and then engrave the lines from hole to 
 
r cfwri cm enwron te 
 t cwquef a orfcomte 
 >fts 6e 0fe6 fromenf 
 
 CUT IN STONE OR SLATE. 
 
 hole. That is what he did with the result that 
 the drill marks, not being effaced, assert them- 
 selves sufficiently to give a quite peculiar character 
 to the writing. In the case of the coins of course 
 the strokes end in little pearls. A precisely similar 
 device is adopted in a Greek inscription on a bronze 
 tablet in the museum at Naples, where the engraver 
 has evidently begun by boring holes at the points 
 where the lines of his letters are to end, omitting, 
 however, to do so where, as in the case of the bar 
 of an A, the grooved lines already cut were all the 
 help he wanted thus clearly showing the practical 
 purpose of the little cells at the ends of the longer 
 strokes. 
 
 Penmanship is writ large upon the initials of 
 the Gothic scribes and in many of the engraved 
 initials founded upon penwork (125). The 
 
152 
 
 I2Q' BRONZE GRAVE TABLET. NUREMBERG. 
 
 flourishes of the late German capitals inevitably 
 suggest the writing master. Letters of the same 
 type engraved on copper (126) have a perceptibly 
 different flavour. Again, the flourishes into which 
 the Gothic letters painted on majolica and His- 
 pano- Moresque pottery go off, are traces no 
 longer of the pen but of the brush. You may set out 
 to do with the brush what was first done with the 
 pen ; but you end in doing it rather differently. 
 
 One feels also that the letters in the sign of 
 'Don Alfonso (19) owe something of their cha- 
 racter to the fact that they are penned in out- 
 line and the background filled in solid ; and that 
 those in the Flemish and German brasses (127, 129) 
 are influenced by the fact that they are grounded 
 
 130. ICELANDIC MATCHBOX. 
 
153 
 
 131. FRETTED IVORY PLAQUES. PORTUGUESE. 
 
 out. Letters of about the same period cut in 
 stone (128) have quite a different look. So also 
 the white letter upon a black ground, with its 
 background of thin foliage, etc., in certain wood- 
 cut initials (149, etc.) is plainly not altogether 
 unaffected by the fact that the white parts repre- 
 sent the cutting away of the wood. In like manner 
 the square-cut characters on the Icelandic match- 
 box (130) remind one of the knife with which 
 they were cut; and one can see, in the rendering 
 of Lombardic capitals in Gothic glass painting 
 (51), that they were scratched with a point out 
 of a layer of pigment on the glass. The letters 
 AUDEO, SPERO (131) have a certain Portu- 
 guese character, but the character of fretwork is 
 more emphatically marked in them than that of 
 nationality ; and the cyphers which form so frequent 
 a feature upon old key-bows (107, 108) are, as 
 it were, translated into pierced and engraved metal. 
 The name on the Italian comb-case (132) tells, not 
 only that it belonged to a de Boen, but that it was 
 chased on leather. 
 
154 
 
 132. CUT LEATHER. ITALIAN. 
 
 In event of an artist not duly observing the 
 character proper to material, it has a way of 
 retaliating. The inscription, for example, on the 
 beautiful French lock opposite (133), is too 
 much of a tour-de-force in piercing ; the letters 
 are over frail for chiselled iron, with the result 
 that the inscription is in a lamentably ruinous 
 condition. The iron has here its obvious revenge 
 upon the designer. 
 
 Character, then, and it may be ornamental 
 character, comes of allowing material and the way 
 it is worked to have a hand in shaping it ; and 
 the ornamentist is not merely safe in following the 
 lead thus given to his invention, but foolhardy 
 in not following it. Further, his own personality, 
 presuming him to have one, will find expression 
 in his rendering of no matter what alphabet by no 
 matter what method it will be just as much his 
 handwriting as though he had written it with a 
 fountain pen upon a sheet of cream-laid note^ 
 Furthermore, the exigencies of composition will 
 
155 
 
 133- GOTHIC IRON LOCK-PLATE. 
 
 suggest innumerable modifications of the letters 
 as they appear in the copy-book, and an artist were 
 no artist if he did not venture upon them. It would 
 be absurd for a designer n^t to prolong the tail of a 
 
156 
 
 letter if he wanted it to till a space, or otherwise 
 to assert the rights of art, as explained above in 
 reference to handwriting. In the word STEN- 
 CILLING (134), the heads of C and G and the 
 tails of E and L are lengthened with a view, not 
 only to artistic effect, but to the strengthening of 
 the stencil plate. 
 
 It is when artistic devices make clearly for 
 workmanlikeness, and workmanlike expedients for 
 artistic effect, that the design of lettering (as of all 
 ornament) proves thoroughly satisfactory. 
 
 There is, however, scope for ornamental letter- 
 ing beyond this. The designer is, in strict justice, 
 at liberty in many cases deliberately to make his 
 letter-shapes ornamental ; though the right is in 
 these days of matter-of-fact so grudgingly allowed 
 to the artist that it might almost as well be denied 
 him. The wider tolerance in this respect in days 
 before type-printing led to the devising of delightful 
 lettering (123). 
 
 There are two ways of designing ornamental 
 lettering. The one is to compel the letters into 
 the shape of ornament. This was the idea of the 
 Byzantine and other primitive illuminators. But 
 as early as the sixth or seventh centuries writers 
 began to be diverted from the path of ornament 
 pure and simple by the unnatural or is it only too 
 natural ? delight in torturing the forms of birds, 
 beasts, fishes and imaginary monsters into some- 
 thing which might do duty for lettering. The 
 
157 
 
 134- STENCIL PLATE. 
 
 most beautiful of the interlacing initials in Irish 
 and Anglo-Saxon manuscripts of the eighth, ninth 
 and tenth centuries are not those which break out 
 incontinently into heads and legs, in the wild 
 endeavour to persuade one that this ingenious 
 strapwork is something more than ornament. 
 Such effort ends at times in being something less. 
 Still, the men were bent upon making the beasts 
 or monsters of their imagination into letters. 
 The creatures formed the letter and were not 
 added to it. 
 
 So it was with early Gothic lettering, and, in 
 fact, with all writing until the days of letterpress. 
 Not till then did letter forms become fixed. Work- 
 ing with his own hand, the man was free, not 
 merely to follow his temperament, but to give way 
 to his mood, so that in the work of even the 
 steadiest-going writer there was a chance always 
 of freshness and a possibility of something new. 
 And the scribe, being in the habit of dealing freely 
 with letter forms, found fess difficulty in playing 
 
158 
 
 ornamental pranks with them, in making, if need 
 were, letters which were unmistakably ornamental, 
 ornament which was unmistakably lettering. 
 
 With the advent of printing, and the inevitably 
 fixed type of the founder, a blight of uniformity 
 spread from the printer to the scribe : the ideal of 
 freedom declined ; but, so long as the Gothic spirit 
 lingered, designers would still at times sport with 
 the shape of a letter. What a variety of shapes a 
 single letter takes (135) in even printed initials of 
 the days when printing was yet young ! 
 
 In the case of handwriting the artist was con- 
 trolled only by his own taste, which, until the 
 time when late German penmanship went off into 
 an hysteria of incoherent flourishes, seldom failed 
 him : there is, we may say, no standard type of 
 Lombardic lettering; but, with all its variety of 
 proportion and shape, it seldom goes far astray 
 from fitness or beauty. This applies to the main 
 outline of the letter. Lombardic and Gothic 
 capitals generally allowed of very considerable 
 variation in the parts of the letter, in the thicken- 
 ing of the curved lines, in the curving of the 
 relatively straight all of which made for orna- 
 ment. The next step in that direction was to 
 play with the lines of contour, to fret the 
 outline as it were, and slightly to foliate it, but 
 at first only so slightly as barely to interfere 
 with it. At junctures, too, where two lines met 
 (159), a loop was often substituted for the point, 
 
159 
 
 and this loop developed at times into a very effec- 
 tive ornamental feature. It had been, it will be 
 remembered, from the time of the Keltic scribes, 
 a practice to elaborate the letter by interlacing, 
 
 135. VARIETIES OF THE LETTER A FROM EARLY 
 PRINTED BOOKS. 
 
 and some of the most charming letters of the six- 
 teenth century depend upon interlacing for their 
 ornament (144, 145). 
 
 The slight foliation of the terminations of the 
 letters develops finally into free, and it may be 
 florid, growth, which, according to its degree and 
 
i6o 
 
 136. LETTERS GROWING INTO ORNAMENT. 
 
 kind, may be considered either as part of the 
 letter, or as ornament associated with it (62, 136); 
 it is often difficult to say which. 
 
 The other way of designing ornamental letters 
 might be regarded as a carrying further of the 
 idea of foliation ; but it carries it so far that it 
 enters a new province. It amounts in the end to 
 clothing the letter with ornament, or compelling 
 ornament, more or less, into the shape of a letter. 
 Even the human figure has been tortured in this 
 way (137) ; but it has never yet been made into 
 satisfactory lettering, though artists of ability have 
 tried their hands at it. 
 
 A singularly beautiful specimen of florid foliated 
 lettering is the name-plate of Israel van Meckenen 
 (66), to which more detailed reference is made on 
 page 99. 
 
 In the initials by Cranach (156) the scrollery 
 compelled into letter-form begins to be inco- 
 herent ; one feels the want of a simple outline ; 
 and yet more so in those of Matthias Gereon 
 (168). The simpler A of the Fran9ois ler period 
 (133) makes more sober ornament, but has also 
 
too much the effect of having been put together. 
 The ebullition of ornament out of the slender 
 lines of the italics in illustration 105 is rather 
 sudden, but it is directed by a sense of grace. In 
 
 the letters of the 
 word REGINA 
 on the Prayer- 
 book of Mary 
 Tudor (139), the 
 ornament is in 
 part very ob- 
 viously added to 
 the letter; it is 
 as if the gold- 
 smith had first 
 made his letters 
 and then belted 
 them. Such 
 added ornament 
 has generally the 
 appearance of 
 an excrescence ; 
 here it is judi- 
 ciously employed, and results, for once, in adequate 
 decoration. 
 
 The abuse of ornamental lettering is patent to 
 every one. Marvels of ugliness have been per- 
 petrated in its name. So little is lettering esteemed 
 among us nowadays that it is usually left to the 
 incompetent hands of draughtsmen, who look upon 
 
 137. GROTESQUE WOODCUT. 1464. 
 
 L.O. 
 
 M 
 
1 62 
 
 ornament as a convenient means of disguising 
 faults of penmanship or draughtsmanship. 
 
 As to the use of ornamental lettering, there is 
 
 w/ 
 
 **'*" 
 138. FRENCH WOOD CARVING. FRANCOIS I ER . 
 
 plenty of room for divergence of opinion; but, 
 admitting that in serious inscription ornament 
 may be for the most part out of place, it has its 
 place in lettering, and a very useful one. The 
 artist's calling is not of such a grave and lofty 
 
139- PRAYER BOOK OF QUEEN MARY. 
 
 M 2 
 
i6 4 
 
 nature that he may never descend from the 
 heights of academic design and indulge in the 
 frivolity of ornament if so it be considered. The 
 potter plays with his brush, the needlewoman with 
 her thread; to the worker work becomes play; and 
 his playfulness touches, if only because it is a sure 
 sign of enjoyment in the work, a sympathetic chord 
 in us, and wins our approbation. 
 
 
 
 140. FRIVOLITY IN 
 LETTERING. 
 
XII. INITIAL LETTERS. 
 
 To many the idea of Lettering in Ornament 
 will suggest at once the thought of Initial Letters, 
 for the most part, though not necessarily, dis- 
 tinguished by ornament their essential peculiarity 
 being that they do distinguish themselves, in 
 whatever way, from the surrounding text. 
 
 It is in books, manuscript or printed, that 
 initials are most useful. There is less occasion for 
 them in mural and decorative inscriptions, where 
 even distinctive capitals are not always necessary. 
 In fact, with the one exception of black-letter, 
 inscriptions are happiest all in capitals. The 
 minuscule was not adopted for architectural or 
 monumental purposes until a period when design 
 was fast losing its dignity : it belongs to parch- 
 ment and paper ; and with it are associated the 
 capital and the initial. 
 
 The ostensible purpose of an initial letter, it is 
 a truism to say, is to mark a beginning, the point 
 at which the reader is to begin, or to begin anew. 
 The term " versal " is only another name for what 
 is practically the same thing, the letter, namely, 
 to which the officiating priest shall turn. The 
 
i66 
 
 decoration of this letter is by way of signal or 
 reminder. 
 
 The initial heads the chapter as the capital 
 heads the sentence. It is writ large and beautiful 
 by way of emphasis, more or less ; and by strict 
 rights the letter should be glorified in proportion 
 to the importance of its position. Logically, as 
 well as artistically speaking, there is no reason 
 why several series of initials should not be used, 
 with varying emphasis, upon a single page ; but 
 it would not seem to the printer worth his while, 
 and it would sorely tax the judgment of the 
 compositor. 
 
 An initial, however, is not emphatic according 
 merely to its size. In common speech a word is 
 more effectually emphasised by a pause before its 
 utterance than by shouting it. And the notion 
 of pause explains and justifies a certain disregard 
 of immediate legibility in the initial. There, if 
 anywhere, the artist may give loose to his fancy. 
 Ornament which elsewhere might be distracting is 
 here attractive, literally of use, that is to say, in 
 calling attention to the letter (141). A pause 
 before the reader begins or resumes his parable is 
 not without dramatic effect, and a letter must be 
 indeed entangled with ornament if during that 
 respite it has not plainly distinguished itself. 
 
 There are occasions, again, w^here it may be 
 taken for granted that the reader expects a 
 certain letter, in which case there is no need to 
 
141. INITIALS BY ISRAEL VAN MECKENEN. 1489. 
 
1 68 
 
 make it easy to read. On the other hand, where 
 easy reading is essential, as for example in an 
 advertisement, an initial not over-involved in 
 ornament may, by its detachment from the text, 
 confuse the reader as in the case of a placard in 
 which the word ELECTION caught the eye; it 
 turned out to refer to a S election of popular songs, 
 but the initial S was so far removed from the word 
 to which it belonged that the eye was satisfied 
 without it. Where (as in this instance) the letters 
 following the initial make of themselves a word, it 
 is all the more necessary to bring them close up to 
 it, that no such error may be possible. 
 
 The illuminator has it all his own way with 
 regard to initials (169). He is a sort of free 
 lance in the field of caligraphy, not bound to keep 
 closely within the ranks which a draughtsman 
 subject to the conditions of printing must observe. 
 Not in the matter of colour only, but of form also, 
 he has a scope denied to the wood engraver. It 
 lies within his discretion to enrich initials with 
 ornament, to glorify them with gold and colour, 
 to encroach at pleasure upon the written text, 
 which he can accommodate to his wildest lines. 
 But his discretion is not seldom at fault. His 
 very freedom is a temptation, to which, at the 
 bidding of his pen (always ready to run away with 
 his judgment), he has from first to last been apt to 
 yield, giving us, perhaps, beautiful initials which 
 are far from resulting in a beautiful page to the 
 
i6 9 
 
 142. FROM AN ILLUMINATED CHOIR BOOK AT SIENA. 
 
 making of which there goes a dignity inseparable 
 from reticence and self-control. 
 
 The air of wild gesticulation so characteristic of 
 a certain class of illuminated initials is enough 
 of itself to convict them of extravagance. They 
 presume, too, on the mere grounds that they are 
 put in by hand, to sprawl over the page as though 
 it were theirs. It is all of a piece with the incli- 
 nation of the illuminator to look upon the margin 
 of a book as a fair field for his exploits. It is not 
 to be wondered at if, in the scarcity of parchment 
 and paper, the mediaeval artist seized' upon the 
 margins of the books \vhich came within his 
 grasp. His excuse will serve us, however, no 
 longer. Let us have initials, by all means, and 
 borders too, for that matter, but let them be 
 
170 
 
 planned to fall within the margin, which is the 
 fitting and the necessary frame alike for type and 
 manuscript. Encroachment upon the margin is 
 less pardonable than ever in print, where it has 
 the appearance of being an afterthought which 
 it is not. 
 
143' WOODCUT INITIALS. FRENCH. 
 
 XIII. ORNAMENTAL INITIALS. 
 
 An initial is distinguished from the text by its 
 size always, often by its colour. Even where in 
 mediaeval books the letter itself is not in all the 
 colours of the illuminator's palette, it is commonly 
 in vermilion or ultramarine, or set in a filigree of 
 ornament in one or other of those colours. 
 
 It was from the first a foregone conclusion that 
 initials should be ornamental. In the beginning 
 the ornament \vas in the letter itself, not merely 
 associated with it in the form of accompaniment 
 or background (143). The scribe designed it 
 more or less anew, took liberties with it, modified 
 its shape in the direction of ornament, made 
 pattern of it, played with it (144, 145), and was 
 not content merely to play about it, as became 
 eventually the custom of draughtsmen more 
 interested in picture than in design. 
 
 Printers' initials hardly ever depended for deco- 
 rative interest upon the letter only, however 
 
172 
 
 It was not enough for 
 
 ornamentally rendered, 
 them that the shape of it was ornamental, 
 there nkist needs be ornament or foliage also, 
 interlacing with it, or forming, it might be, a rich 
 background to the letter (144, 145). Eventually, 
 with the Renaissance, when letter shapes became 
 more definitely fixed, ornament was confined 
 entirely to the background (146). 
 
 Colour is, of course, the exception in printed 
 books. But even in black and white one gets 
 
 144. WOODCUT INITIALS. FRENCH. 
 
 as nearly as possible its equivalent by means of 
 ornament which, according to its density, tells 
 lighter than a solid black letter or darker than a 
 letter merely in outline, and gives a patch of com- 
 paratively solid print, calculated to call more 
 peremptory attention to it than a naked letter 
 of the same proportions would do. 
 
 This froth of ornament about a letter may 
 be regarded as a sort of danger signal, no 
 more to be mistaken than the foam about a rock 
 not otherwise clearly distinguishable. A haze 
 
173 
 
 145- WOODCUT INITIALS. FRENCH. 
 
 of ornament, on the other hand, in which the 
 letter is lost to view, is in itself a danger. 
 
 Still, in the case of a letter big and heavy 
 enough to hold its own, a tint of ornament is 
 useful, in softening its lines and mitigating what 
 might, but for it, have been a harsh and brutal 
 contrast between its blackness and the white 
 paper (147). 
 
 It has the further use of doing away with the 
 blank imprinted area about it which otherwise 
 would tell as a gap in the type ; and may readily 
 be designed to give (and naturally is designed to 
 give) a compact right-lined device ranging con- 
 veniently with the lines of the text. Except where 
 the letter itself takes square lines (which it cannot 
 
 146. WOODCUT INITIALS. ITALIAN. 
 
174 
 
 147- WOODCUT INITIALS. GERMAN. 
 
 always be made to do), something of the kind seems 
 to be almost necessary. We get by means of such 
 ornamental framing to the initial a rectangular 
 patch of print which there is no overlooking ; and 
 within this, attention once called to it, the form 
 of the letter is promptly perceived. Moreover, 
 such uniform patches break the page more 
 pleasantly than initials of varying contour would 
 be likely to do. 
 
 Upon this customary tune of a letter involved 
 in ornament, or set in a framework or against a 
 background of ornament, very interesting varia- 
 tions were played throughout the sixteenth 
 century. At times such ornament was made to 
 follow closely the lines of the letter (177), at 
 times to contrast with them (173, 174), at 
 times apparently to take little or no account of 
 them (164) ; but apparently only ; for the very 
 test of an artist's capacity for such design is that 
 
148. WOODCUT INITIALS. FRENCH. 
 
 he takes the letter shape into due consideration, 
 and accommodates the design of his ornament to 
 it. His idea may be only to fill up the interstices 
 with pattern, or to compose contrasting lines, or 
 to correct perhaps the inevitable lines of the letter 
 itself; but, whatever his idea, he must make that 
 the starting point of his design. The devices of 
 the ornamentist in the way of pattern subsidiary 
 to initial lettering are more in number than it 
 would be possible to enumerate. It must suffice 
 to mention a few of them. 
 
 The end in view is, usually, by means of ornament, 
 to get a broken background, against which the 
 letter is sufficiently relieved, dark on a lighter tint, 
 or light upon a darker ; and it is possible, of 
 course, by the strength or delicacy of the pattern, 
 to give almost any tint to the ground, by its 
 monotony or variety to give almost any degree 
 of evenness or unevennessof tint. It is a wide 
 
7 6 
 
 149. WOODCUT INITIALS BY G. TORY. 
 
 range from solid black ornament to pattern in 
 outline only, from mere diaper to vigorous 
 arabesque or foliage, to say nothing of eventual 
 picture. 
 
 A heavy letter against a lighter background of 
 ornament was naturally the first to occur to the 
 artist (147). But he did not stop there. Letters 
 in outline relieve themselves quite enough against 
 a more solid scrollwork, as may be seen in a French 
 alphabet of which two letters are here repro- 
 duced (148), where the niello-like enrichment gives 
 importance to otherwise modest initials, even if 
 if it does not make them easier to read than they 
 would be without it. This is a case, by the 
 way (others occur in 147, 149), in which the 
 rectangular shape is clearly enough marked without 
 aid of enclosing outline. 
 
 The feat of making black letters clear themselves 
 
177 
 
 150. WOODCUT INITIALS. ITALIAN. 
 
 against a black ground is not so simple ; but it is 
 satisfactorily accomplished in sundry Greek initials 
 printed at Venice (150). The letter-shapes are 
 simply emphasised by a double outline of white, 
 and the ground patterned with well-fitting orna- 
 ment, which not merely reduces it to the value of 
 a tint, but, by the way its detail follows the shape 
 of the interstices, helps to define the form of the 
 letter. In the case of black letters upon a ground 
 in theory black, but so closely covered with white 
 ornament as to give merely a grey tint, there was 
 no difficulty at all in giving force to the black 
 letter. 
 
 151. WOODCUT INITIALS. ITALIAN. 
 
 L.O. 
 
i 7 8 
 
 152. WOODCUT. FRENCH. 
 
 An alternative to this, 
 which suggested itself 
 almost from the first 
 to engravers, was to let 
 the initial stand out 
 white upon the ground of 
 black (151), whichmight 
 or might not be reduced, 
 by means of white 
 pattern on it, to a tint 
 (152). This filigree of 
 white ornament (143, 
 
 J 5 2 > T 53) served also (like the fine white dots with 
 which the black between was often speckled) the 
 very practical purpose of disguising any lack of 
 solidity in the printed patch of black, very likely 
 to occur in printing with hand-presses vaunt 
 them as we may. Moreover, the simplest thing 
 for the engraver to do, was to Cut fine lines of 
 ornament in his wood 
 block (154), and he did 
 it, to very .decorative 
 purpose. Such work 
 affords perhaps the first 
 instance of white-line 
 engraving, the inven- 
 tion of which is attri- 
 buted to Bewick. He, 
 no doubt, cultivated it 
 further, but the orna- 53. WOODCUT. FRENCH. 
 
xyg 
 
 154- WOODCUT INITIALS. FRENCH. 
 
 mentists were before him in the field, and had 
 done good work before he entered it. 
 
 The one uniformly unsatisfactory way of relieving 
 a letter against its background is to shade it, whether 
 by merely thickening the outline on one side of it, 
 or by throwing half of it in shadow, as though it 
 stood up upon the page. Theoretically the shading 
 makes the letter "stand out"; but it does not 
 make it more easily readable ; it simply vulgarises 
 it. It looks as if in the initials D. I. (155) the 
 rather clumsy outline, black against a background 
 of lines giving a half tint, were meant to suggest 
 relief. 
 
 If it is desirable to reduce the volume of white 
 in an initial too assertive on its dark ground, a 
 simple expedient is to introduce into it a central 
 line of black, as frequently was done (154). 
 This may suggest perhaps ihe idea of incising, but 
 
 N 2 
 
i8o 
 
 155. WOODCUT INITIALS. 
 
 does not pretend to give the effect of incision. It 
 is odd that many an old engraver should have 
 hesitated between two such opposite opinions, 
 and, in the same series of letters, have rather 
 vulgarised some (153) by shading them and 
 treated others (152) quite tastefully. 
 
156. WOODCUT INITIALS ATTRIBUTED TO LUCAS CRANACH, 
 
 XIV. PICTORIAL INITIALS. 
 
 The initials of the sixteenth century printers, as 
 will be seen by the illustrations to this as well 
 as to the preceding chapter, are not so much 
 designed by the artist as decorated by him. It 
 is not the letters which he has invented, but the 
 ornament round about them. That may not, 
 strictly speaking, be following the traditions of 
 the days before ; but men have a right to initiate, 
 if they like, a practice of their own ; and these 
 men, it must be allowed, founded a tradition 
 according to which most excellent work was 
 thenceforth done. 
 
 The practice of designing not the initial letter 
 but its decoration, certainly meets the condition, 
 nowadays more insisted* upon than ever, of 
 
182 
 
 legibility. When little or no liberty is taken with 
 accepted letter-forms, there is the less danger (if 
 any) of their becoming unreadable. But artists 
 have presumed upon this, seeing no reason, where 
 it was only the background of the letter which was 
 to be designed, why they should not do with it 
 precisely as they pleased, and introduce into it 
 animals, figures, landscapes or whatever it came 
 into a man's head to draw^ (157, 158, 159). And, 
 
 157. WOODCUT INITIALS. 
 
 indeed, it is hard to set a limit to the fancy of the 
 artist. Only, when he goes so far as to lose sight 
 of the fact that it is a background he is designing, 
 he is plainly at fault. 
 
 The best men never quite did this, or they 
 would not have been the best. A great designer, 
 such as Holbein for example, designed his figures 
 to compose with the letter ; but he would have 
 been freer without having to consider any such 
 arbitrary shape. Who would not rather have that 
 artist's " Dance of Death " (161) without any 
 such encumbrance as the initials to which the 
 
158. WOODCUT INITIALS WITH ANIMALS. 
 
 pictures are adapted. The grim episodes in 
 miniature are not the best possible background to 
 the letters, and the letters certainly do not help 
 the pictures. It would have been in every way 
 better to print them as illustrations in the place 
 of initials, with perhaps a modest capital following 
 a device not yet, so far as I know, followed by 
 the printer. In the case of a Holbein, one accepts 
 the graphic illustration, mixed up as it is with 
 lettering, as something better worth having than 
 merely appropriate ornamental design. The point 
 is, that it is not ornamental. In the hands of 
 lesser artists it is less and less excusable according 
 to their personal insignificance. 
 
 The later and more pictorial the work, the 
 more surely the letter becomes a blot upon the 
 
 159- WOODCUT INITIALS. 
 
1 84 
 
 picture, seen through it always at a disadvantage ; 
 but the blame is the artist's, who did not take 
 heed of what he had to do did not really design, 
 but only drew. His figures appear to be trying 
 to get out of the way of the letter, or the letter 
 looks as if it had been planted in front of them. 
 For the purely pictorial initial there is no excuse. 
 A picture may be more beautiful or more expres- 
 sive than any mere letter, and it may answer just 
 
 iGO. WOODCUT INITIALS ATTRIBUTED TO HOLBEIN. 1532. 
 
 as well to mark a beginning. In that case, let 
 us by all means introduce pictures in the place 
 of initials ; it is hard to see the force of dis- 
 figuring them by clapping letters in front of 
 them. 
 
 The relationship between picture and design 
 has long been what politicians would call strained ; 
 and, as picture emancipates itself from tradition, 
 the stress becomes always greater. It is easy to 
 imagine lettering that might accompany a picture 
 by, let us say, Mantegna, none which would not 
 clash wdth one by Sir Joshua, , not to mention 
 more recent luminaries in whose light his fame 
 
161. HOLBEIN'S " DANCE OF DEATH." 
 
 grows dim. Happily, the modern picture is 
 independent of lettering; it has been left to the 
 advertiser (who is not easily put to shame) to print 
 across it, or on the foreground, or on the sky behind, 
 his name and the description of the wares he has 
 to sell. Why not? it may be asked, if Sir E. 
 Burne-Jones and the old Assyrians are justified. 
 The answer is simple : it all depends upon the 
 scheme and treatment of the picture. The letter- 
 ing, which is an integral part of the composition, 
 adorns a picture ; that which is not, is a blemish 
 upon it. The picture must be such that without 
 the lettering it would be incomplete. 
 
 The designers even of the sixteenth century 
 often hesitate between the graphic and the 
 
 162. "DANCE OF DEATH ".INITIALS. GERMAN. 
 
i86 
 
 decorative motive, and especially between the use 
 of arabesque ornament and of figures. They are 
 most completely happy with ornament, but they 
 are happy also with " putti," as the Italians called 
 them, not children precisely, but robust little 
 would-be baby forms playing about, and always 
 playfully presented. Perhaps it is because they 
 are so entirely the children of the artist's brain 
 
 163. WOODCUT INITIALS. GERMAN. 
 
 that he is so fond of them. Some of the best of 
 these boy figures are attributed to Holbein (160). 
 They measure only about two inches across, but 
 it would be difficult to find, except perhaps in 
 Greek coins of the finest period, larger treatment 
 of design in little. 
 
 Another fine alphabet (163) is ascribed to 
 Diirer. on what authority I know not, perhaps 
 because the letters are evidently the work of a 
 strong man not endowed with any very subtle 
 
i8 7 
 
 164. WOODCUT INITIALS, WITH MEDALLION HEADS. 
 
 appreciation of beauty. It is in the spirit of the 
 Italian Renaissance that Godfrey Sykes designed 
 an alphabet (167) not precisely of initials : the 
 letters are meant to spell inscriptions for the 
 decoration of the refreshment room at the Victoria 
 and Albert Museum, and were executed in glazed 
 majolica white figures on a yellow ground : the 
 modelling of the figures can be better appreciated 
 in the larger version of the letter S (166). The 
 artist w r as one who, following in the steps of 
 Alfred Steverfs, went back for inspiration to a 
 source it is the fashion with us to neglect just 
 now by which neglect our modern design is 
 greatly the sufferer. 
 
 In the initials of the elder Cranach (156) one 
 
 165. WOODCUT INITIALS, WITH ARCHITECTURAL 
 BACKGROUND. 
 
may trace the influence of the goldsmith. They 
 might almost have\been designed to be beaten in 
 gold. The excess of ornament the outline of 
 the letter is well-nigh rost in arabesque may be 
 taken as indication of the lingering spirit of 
 Gothic art, by this time ultra-florid. It is only 
 at the beginning of the period that the artists of the 
 Renaissance elaborated 
 the simple Roman form 
 in this way. 
 
 The admirable paint- 
 ing alike of ornament 
 and figure in certain illu- 
 minated initials does not 
 make them by any means 
 types of what initials 
 should be. The choir 
 books in the Piccolomini 
 Library at Siena are 
 justly famous for the 
 rare beauty of their illu- 
 mination. The pictures 
 
 are perfect miniatures ; but, framed in mon- 
 strously big initials (142) quite out of scale w r ith 
 the picture, they are miniatures misplaced. The 
 
 i art of design is in putting things in their places, 
 
 1 and giving them their right value. 
 
 The somewhat impractical idea of framing 
 pictures within enclosing letters has never yet 
 been satisfactorily carried out ; but it appears to 
 
 l66. MAJOLICA LETTER BY 
 GODFREY SYKES. 
 
167. ALPHABET BY GODFREY SYKES. 
 
 UNIVERSITY \ 
 
 r\ OF w // 
 
i go 
 
 have haunted the designers of initials. Most 
 persistent attempts at picture-frame initials were 
 made in 1555 by Mathias Gereon, who designed 
 letters and pictures to be framed by them, which, 
 as may be seen opposite (168), were interchange- 
 able, the same letter D serving as border to two 
 separate pictures. The limits of these little picture 
 blocks, to be inserted in larger blocks, are plainly 
 pronounced by the square lines the pictures take. 
 The expedient of designing letters which will 
 frame any subject, and subjects which will fit 
 any letter, promises economy, no doubt ; but it 
 does not fulfil all the conditions of composition : 
 the letter has sometimes to be sacrificed to the 
 picture. In the case of Gereon's S, for instance, a 
 most important section of the initial is eliminated 
 to make room for it. In the series of which 
 examples are here given the printer, indeed, 
 appears to have felt that his initials did not speak 
 for themselves, and has introduced accordingly a 
 little explanatory letter that there might be no 
 mistake about it (168). A more practical, but at 
 the same time quite commonplace, device is that 
 of American printers, who use sometimes, by way 
 of cheap initial, a border or frame of ornament 
 within which movable capitals in large type can 
 conveniently be adjusted; but this has not even 
 the merit of novelty; Plantin was' guilty of it 
 before them. 
 
 The excessive elaboration of the forms of letters 
 
igi 
 
 l68. WOODCUT INITIALS BY MATTHIAS GEREON. 1555- 
 
 indulged in by the men infected with late Gothic 
 mannerisms, would more than account for artists 
 of severer temper imbued with the spirit of the 
 early Renaissance determining not to tamper with 
 the Roman character, but to emphasise an initial 
 of the accepted and perfected shape merely by 
 ornament round about it. That is not to say 
 theirs is the best or the only way. The letter must 
 arrest attention : it has no other cause or excuse. 
 The easiest way of doing that is to dress it in 
 ornament, as we distinguish an officer by gold 
 lace on his coat, or, if he is very important, by 
 cocks' feathers in his hat. But a man accustomed 
 to command distinguishes himself by his bearing, 
 without regimental finery, and so a finely-designed 
 letter with no trimmings dignifies the head of the 
 column. Alas, that this so seldom happens now ! 
 There is, it need hardly be said, no comparison 
 
IQ2 
 
 between the difficulty of inventing a form which 
 shall be at once accepted for the familiar sign and 
 have at the same time a character of its own, of 
 designing, in fact, a new letter, and of devising 
 more or less fitting ornament about an old one. 
 
 l6cj. INITIAL. 
 
I7O. WOOD-CARVING FROM THE BEDCHAMBER OF 
 HENRI II. AT THE LOUVRE. 
 
 XV. LETTERING AND ORNAMENT. 
 
 It is only natural to assume that lettering, 
 conveying as it necessarily must a meaning, is 
 introduced into ornament only on that account. 
 The ornamentist, who has experience of its use in 
 many an emergency of design, knows better. It 
 has happened to him so often to find that lettering 
 just met a want in design (lettering which but for 
 reasons of composition it w 7 ould never have 
 occurred to him to introduce), that he .does not 
 for a moment doubt that, difficult as it may be to 
 others to believe it, an appreciable amount of the 
 lettering in ornament is addressed in the first 
 
 L.o. O 
 
194 
 
 place to the artistic sense, and only in the second 
 to the understanding. 
 
 It goes almost without saying, that lettering 
 introduced for reasons of art must satisfy the 
 mind, just as lettering introduced for purposes of 
 explanation must at the same time flatter the eye. 
 It is the business of the artist, having assured 
 himself that lettering is what he wants in his 
 design, to find a good excuse for it ; and, with a 
 little wit, he may alight on words so absolutely 
 to the point, that it never occurs to those who 
 have not penetrated the mysteries of the workshop 
 to doubt that they were part of his original scheme, 
 if not its starting-point. My own opinion, based 
 upon personal practice, is, that many a time the 
 modest lettering which takes a subsidiary but not 
 unimportant place in design was, I will not say 
 an afterthought, but a happy thought, which 
 occurred to the artist in the course of developing 
 his idea ; and that it was suggested quite as much 
 by the feeling that it was wanted there for effect 
 as by the thought that its meaning would give 
 interest to the design. 
 
 And this applies not merely to ornamental 
 lettering. The very unlikeness of plain letters to 
 the usual forms of ornament makes them exception- 
 ally useful in design, as a foil and contrast to it. 
 Without obtruding themselves, they give point to 
 pattern. It is a common experience in design to 
 feel the need of intervals in one's ornament, places 
 
171. CEILING OF THE SALLE DE^DIANE AT FONTAINEBLRAU. 
 
 O 2 
 
ig6 
 
 of rest to the eye, too important to be treated as 
 background, and in a sense prominent, but not 
 calling for much enrichment. The cartouche, 
 which plays such a prominent part in wood-carving 
 of the period of Henri II., is an outcome of that 
 need, affording as it does a broad surface of wood 
 (not on the same plane with the ground, but itself 
 another ground) which by its position demands 
 decoration, and even decoration which, though it 
 must not attract, shall not be insignificant. The 
 design, in fact, leads up to such points in a way 
 which would logically almost imply a figure com- 
 position or some such enrichment ; but artistically 
 that would be too rich ; what is wanted is some- 
 thing simple, which will not disturb the breadth 
 of surface. Lettering, as may be seen (170, 
 171), seems just to fill the place. It may be so 
 simple in its lines and so flat in treatment that it 
 barely disturbs the breadth of surface ; and yet, 
 when attention is attracted to it, as in such a 
 position it must eventually be, the sense of fitness 
 is not shocked by any inadequacy of detail. In 
 the same way the cypher O I C (no) just 
 sufficiently fills a space which it is absolutely 
 necessary to keep broad, and yet could not well 
 be left bare. The fact, of course, that an artist 
 could rely upon the vanity of his patron to 
 appreciate the introduction of his cypher, did 
 not make him the less ready to avail himself of 
 the device. 
 
197 
 
 So with the scroll or label, ostensibly designed 
 always to accommodate inscription, and actually 
 shaped for its accommodation, we cannot doubt 
 
 172. ENGLISH GOTHIC PAVING TILES. 
 
 that at times the inscription was first thought of 
 only as an excuse for the ornamental label : it is 
 even used at times without the excuse of lettering 
 (157). A case in point is the elaborate design of 
 H. S. Beham (41). Again, 4t w r ould probably not 
 
ig8 
 
 have occurred to the designer to introduce the 
 royal motto in connection with the cypher at the 
 end of this chapter (the instinct of the designer is 
 to make his cypher self-sufficient) had he not felt 
 the need* of the lines of the scroll to help him in the 
 emergency of combining rather awkward letters. 
 
 If, on the one hand, it can seldom be asserted 
 positively that lettering is introduced for orna- 
 ment's sake, neither, on the other, can we always 
 be .sure that the most absolutely appropriate 
 lettering was introduced solely or primarily on 
 account of what it tells us. It is just as likely 
 that the letters on the old English encaustic tiles 
 (172) were thought of as appropriate filling for 
 the spaces in the band, as that the band was 
 
 A CHURCH IX SOMERSETSHIRE. 
 
174- PEW-ENDS FROM A CHURCH IN SOMERSETSHIRE. 
 
 devised to take them. The mottoes in the 
 stained glass window illustrated (8) may very well 
 have been thought of only as a kind of quarry- 
 pattern. It is more likely that letters were hunted 
 up to fill the shields in the Gothic stall-ends from 
 a Somersetshire church (173, 174) than that 
 the shields were devices provided for given letters. 
 One or two shields perhaps were wanted to bear 
 certain emblems ; that suggested other shields, for 
 which symbolic filling had to be found. Even in 
 the case of an inscription, such as that on the 
 background of the embroidered stole (n), it is 
 quite within possibility that it arose, more out of 
 the idea of breaking the monotonous surface of the 
 gold, than out of a desira to impart information. 
 
 / / 
 
200 
 
 The problem offered to the artist is, in the one 
 case, to find words so appropriate, and, in the 
 other, to reduce them so absolutely to ornament, 
 that we neither know nor ask how the design 
 came about, but are content that he has solved 
 the problem, and, in so doing, given us a thing of 
 beauty. 
 
 It can hardly be said that the use of lettering 
 in ornament, whether in the form of plain inscrip- 
 tion, or of pattern built upon the alphabet, is 
 sufficiently appreciated by modern designers. 
 
 Lettering recommends itself to the designer in 
 that, when it comes to design and not mere 
 inscription, he can do with it so nearly as he will. 
 By nature it asserts itself somewhat ; its lines, 
 whatever the character, are inclined to distinguish 
 themselves plainly enough from foliage or scroll- 
 work, from animal or human form, with which 
 they may be associated. But there are number- 
 less ways of keeping it in its place, indeed in the 
 precise subordination the artist may desire ways 
 of distributing the lettering, of shaping its outline, 
 of treating its surface, of entangling it with orna- 
 ment any one or more of which may safely be 
 followed. 
 
 Allusion has been made already to the breaking 
 up of words capriciously, and to colouring the 
 letters at will (67). They may be made to alter- 
 nate with ornament, as in the Hispano-Moresque 
 plate opposite (175), a very usual plan; or it 
 
201 
 
 may be not words but cyphers in themselves 
 none too intelligible, which alternate with symbolic 
 ornament. That occurs in the collar of the Saint 
 
 175. SPANISH EARTHENWARE DISH PAINTED IN BLUE 
 AND LUSTRE. 
 
 Esprit worked into the embroidered cloth of which 
 a portion is here given (176). The design of the 
 collar is adapted also to the border of the cloth, 
 where the larger scale of the design makes it more 
 easy to appreciate how ingeniously the artist has 
 
202 
 
 combined his steady and even rigid cyphers with 
 the dancing flames which figure again in the diaper 
 on the field of the cloth. Similar use is made of 
 the cypher in a delightfully simple piece of actual 
 goldsmith's work in the Louvre, in which alternate 
 links are formed of a cypher D E. The distribution 
 of the separate letters of a word according to the 
 artist's fancy is another cunning way of sufficiently 
 removing it from bald announcement. There is 
 no possible mistaking the meaning of the letters 
 studding at precise intervals the velvet binding of 
 Queen Mary's Prayer-book (139) ; and yet the 
 word " Regina " does not shout at you. 
 
 Even straightforward lettering, following the 
 plan, for example, of a Greek fret in the French 
 encaustic tile (177), and making with the sudden 
 patch in the centre most excellent ornament, would 
 never thrust its meaning upon one, even were it 
 upon examination readable, which, in this par- 
 ticular instance, it can hardly claim to be ; nor yet 
 the inscription upon the English tile pattern (14). 
 If it was the intention of the artist to announce 
 something in his design, the tidings reach but few ; 
 if it was ornament he meant, there is no mistake 
 about that. 
 
 The disguise of lettering in the form of mono- 
 grams and cyphers has been alluded to already. 
 One looks upon the cyphers tooled upon le Gascon's 
 book cover (in) less as lettering than as diaper. 
 Even the crowned L sprinkled over the bindings 
 
176. EMBROIDERY AT THE HOTEL CLUNY. 
 
204 
 
 for Louis XIII. asserts itself less emphatically 
 than it would if it occurred singly, and were not 
 used as an ornamental repeat. 
 
 The form of lettering can, it is evident, be easily 
 modified to the degree at which it is quite unin- 
 
 177. OLD FRENCH PAVING TILF. 
 
 telligible ; the main difficulty of the designer is in 
 making ornamental letters which shall not be 
 enigmatical. The foliation of the letter-shape is 
 itself enough to transform it absolutely. But 
 departure from the normal shape should be in the 
 direction of beauty. That is hardly the case in 
 the black letter which grows out into truncated 
 
205 
 
 178. FROM THE BACK OF AN OLD GERMAN WOODEN SEAT. 
 
 branches in the words "Jesus" and "Maria" 
 (178, 179), a rustic notion which crops up con- 
 tinually in late ^German Gothic, but it is never 
 happy. 
 
 It is seldom very desirable to break the surface of 
 lettering with enrichment, unless indeed the idea 
 is to merge it in ornament, to devise a mystery of 
 richest scrollery out of which, as you dwell upon 
 it, the words grow gradually into significance. 
 Van Meckenen did that perfectly in the scroll- 
 work which (66), as at last it dawns upon you, 
 spells his name. He designed also some very 
 elaborate initials (141), in which both the 
 thickness of the letters and the background 
 
 179. FROM THE BACK OF AN O^D GERMAN WOODEN SEAT, 
 
206 
 
 enclosed by them is overrun with florid foliage, 
 growing in some cases through from letter to 
 background ; but so compact is the ornament, so 
 closely does it accommodate itself to the spaces of 
 one or the other, that, though there is only a 
 narrow line of demarcation between the two, the 
 shape of the letters is quite clearly enough 
 defined. They are a 
 triumph of florid orna- 
 mental design. 
 
 Another case in which 
 the surface of lettering 
 is more or less orna- 
 mentally treated occurs 
 in ribbon letters, and 
 in black letter designed 
 somewhat after the 
 fashion of strapwork, 
 turning over at the ends. 
 The more simply this is 
 rendered, the better as a rule it is, but the turn- 
 over is not always so conscientiously designed as 
 it might be. Something of the kind occurs also 
 in Icelandic lettering (71) ; but the rendering of 
 the turnover is there more abstract. An equally 
 abstract and singularly happy treatment occurs 
 in the Arab rendering of Gothic letters (44). 
 In the jewel by Holbein (15), what would in 
 the case of solid gold letters have been obtrusive- 
 ness, is skilfully avoided by fretting out great part 
 
 l8o. DEVICE OF A H AND 
 A CROSS EMBROIDERED IN 
 COUCHED GOLD THREAD. 
 
l8l. OLD PAINTED ROOF DECORATION, NORFOLK. 
 
208 
 
 of the body of the letters, not representing them 
 in outline, but leaving just enough of the metal to 
 give shapes not immediately suggestive of letters. 
 
 In the gold couching on page 206, the A and ft 
 are cunningly interwoven with the cross. A 
 
 fe. 
 
 A 
 
 l82. FLINT INLAY FROM A CHURCH IN NORFOLK. 
 
 severer use of monogram and cypher, in a way 
 which yet does not call undue attention to them, 
 is shown in the painting upon the roof of Sell 
 church (181). 
 
 A monogram from another old Norfolk church 
 (182) shows how the form may be quieted by the 
 
way it is executed. The ground of the building 
 stone is cut away and broken flints are inlaid. But 
 though the cement jointing makes a sort of outline 
 
 183. WOOD-CARVING FROM AN OLD SCOTTISH CASKET. 
 
 between the black and the white, it is not con- 
 tinuous; and where there is no background of 
 flint it is left to the eye to make it good. 
 
 The confusion of letteritig with a background 
 L.O. p 
 
210 
 
 of ornament is easily effected. It is curious how 
 absolutely the crowned letters are kept quiet by 
 the strapwork and floral emblems associated 
 with them in the carving of the pear-tree casket 
 illustrated (183). So, too, in the sampler of 
 cutwork (184) the letters lose themselves in the 
 geometric pattern-stitching in which they are set ; 
 and yet, notwithstanding the square lines of both, 
 the natural result of drawing the threads, how 
 plainly they detach themselves from it when you 
 look at the work ! 
 
 It is a common Oriental practice, as in the 
 mirror-back illustrated (74), to involve letters 
 in ornament w r hich, by its comparatively equal 
 weight, prevents them from asserting themselves, 
 whilst at the same time its broken outline and 
 modelled surface prevent confusion with the 
 sweeping lines and flat face of the inscription. 
 In like manner the ornament behind the texts in 
 the plaster-work of the Alhambra is fretted all 
 over with pattern so that it may not compete 
 on equal terms with it. Elsewhere, as in old 
 Damascus tiles, colour fulfils much the same 
 function as carving. White letters are prevented 
 from standing out stark on a rich blue ground by 
 patterning it over with ornament in paler blue. 
 Much the same thing is seen in sixteenth century 
 initial letters (152, 153, 154), where the white 
 pattern on the ground, according to its strength 
 and weight, just greys the ground, or helps, if need 
 
212 
 
 be, to restore the balance of the composition. It 
 will be seen (185) that the hard effect of flat, 
 sharp-cut letters may be greatly softened by a 
 mere filigree of fine, close, evenly distributed 
 ornament upon the ground, which by its very 
 busy-ness dazzles the sight and so seems to 
 blur their outlines. 
 
 Countless other ways of bringing lettering into 
 focus in design will suggest themselves to the 
 artist. It would be impossible to enumerate them 
 all ; and there is no need to do so ; for they are 
 devices not in the least degree peculiar to 
 lettering, but in general use among artists for the 
 purpose of subordinating one feature in ornament 
 to another. Indeed, very much of what is here 
 said applies, not exclusively to lettering in orna- 
 ment, but to the ornamental treatment of all 
 manner of arbitrary forms. It is one of the 
 difficulties besetting the discussion of any side 
 issue of ornament, that it is practically impossible 
 to refrain from wandering continually off into the 
 broader question of design, taste, art in short 
 so true it is that art is one. In theory. In prac- 
 tice the arts are many ; and what is called general 
 training in art is at most bare preparation for the 
 pursuit of the least among them. 
 
 Hence the occasion, or at all events the excuse, 
 for books dealing in detail, as this does, with quite 
 a subsidiary branch of ornamental design. They 
 will not teach the artist his trade, nor save him 
 
214 
 
 V* 
 
 the labour of design ; but they may at least 
 prevent his going far astray ; and even the 
 theories he is least prepared to accept may start 
 him on some not unprofitable train of thought 
 upon which, but for timely provocation, it would 
 never have occurred to him to embark. 
 
 It is "in that hope that the present book is 
 written ; not with any desire to impose the con- 
 victions of the writer upon others, but with the 
 belief that the plain statement of what may be 
 no more than the personal opinions of a worker 
 of many years' experience will be helpful to 
 workmen. 
 
 l86. DEVICE OF LABEL, CROWN 
 AND V.R. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ACCOMMODATING lettering 
 
 to labels 82 
 
 ADDED ornament . . . . 161 
 
 ALBI 78 
 
 ANIMALS 156, 182 
 
 ARAB lettering .. 101, 102, 104 
 
 BALANCE . . . . 120, 126, 212 
 
 BANDS of inscription 58, 60, 
 
 87, 198 
 
 BEHAM (Hans Sebald) 86, 197 
 
 BIRDS 156 
 
 BLACK on black . . 176, 177 
 
 BLACK LETTER . . 51, 53, 54, 68, 
 
 204 
 
 BLOIS 94 
 
 BOOKBINDINGS 138 
 
 BOOKS 21 
 
 BORDERS 68 
 
 BRASS 51 
 
 BRASSES 55, 80 
 
 BREAKING up inscriptions 86 
 BROKEN background . . 175 
 
 BRUGES . . 42 
 
 BRUSH 152 
 
 BURNE-JONES 9 
 
 CALIGRAPHY 
 CAPITALS . 
 
 30, 31, 32, 1 68 
 
 54 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CARPET 86, 88 
 
 CARTOUCHE . . . . 125, 196 
 CHINESE CHARACTER . . 106 
 CIRCULAR DISCS . . . . 70 
 COINS .. . . 71, 72, 80, 150 
 COLOURING (variety of) . . 92, 
 96, 140, 168 
 
 COMBINATION of letters . . 124 
 
 ,, of types . . 62 
 
 CONFUSION ..136, 137, 209, 
 
 210 
 
 CONJOINED LETTERS 107 et seq. 
 
 CONSTRUCTION 38 
 
 CONTRACTIONS 107 
 
 COVERS 26 
 
 CRAFT (its influence on 
 design) .. ..111,112,146 
 
 CRANACH 187 
 
 CROWN (Visigothic) . . . . 98 
 
 CUFIC CHARACTER . . 103, IO6 
 
 CUNEIFORM lettering . . 54 
 CURSIVE WRITING .. .. 130 
 
 CUT letters 50 
 
 CYPHERS . . 94, 99, 129 et seq., 
 196, 202, 208 
 
 DARK ON LIGHT . . . . 52 
 
 DECORATIVE LETTERING. . 57 
 
 et seq. 
 
216 
 
 PAGE 
 
 DECORATIVE VALUE of let- 
 tering i, 6, 7, 8 
 
 DIE-SUNK letters . . . . 150 
 
 DIRECTNESS . . . . . . 38 
 
 DISTRIBUTION .. 20,21,23, 
 
 3i. 44 
 
 DOORS 68 
 
 DOUBLE COLUMN . . . . 24 
 OUTLINE . . . . 177 
 
 DRAPERY 58, 65 
 
 DURER 38, 186 
 
 EMBROIDERY 80, 96, 201, 208 
 EXACTNESS 39 
 
 FELICIANO . . 
 FIGURES 
 FINISH 
 FLOURISHES 
 
 .. .- 38 
 . . 160, 182 
 . . . . 39 
 . . . . 42 
 
 FOLIATED LETTERS . . 158, 160 
 FRAMING PICTURES with 
 
 lettering 188, 190 
 
 FRETWORK 153 
 
 GEREON (Mathias) . . . . 190 
 
 GERMANS 86, 96 
 
 GODFREY (Master) . . . . 60 
 
 GOTHIC CHARACTERS 42, 52, 
 
 104, 119, 142, 157 
 
 GREEK 54, 150 
 
 GREEKS . . . . 71, 72, 74 
 
 GROUNDING-OUT 50, 51, 54, 
 
 152, 153 
 
 GUBBIO PLAQUES . . . . 82 
 
 HIDDEN MEANINGS 90 et seq. 
 
 HOLBEIN . . . . 120, 182, 186 
 
 HORIZONTAL BANDS. . .. 76 
 
 ,, LINE . . 57, 65 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ILLEGIBILITY 98 
 
 ILLUMINATORS . . 156, 168, 169 
 INDEPENDENT ORNAMENT 125 
 INFLUENCE OF TECHNIQUE 
 
 on lettering 49 
 
 INITIALS 79, 94, 157, 165 et seq. 
 
 ,, (ornamental) . . 171 
 
 et seq. 
 
 ,, (pictorial) iSielseq. 
 INSCRIPTIONS (monumen- 
 tal) 40 et seq. 
 
 INTERLACING .. 94,95,116, 
 
 118, 129, 137, 159 
 
 ITALICS . . . . 89, 137, 161 
 
 KNIFE-CUT LETTERS . . 153 
 
 LABELS . . . . 75 et seq., 197 
 LARISCH (Herr von) .. 36 
 
 LEATHER 153 
 
 LEGIBILITY 18, 19, 28, 41, 82, 
 90, no, 127, 145, 168, 182 
 
 LF. GASCON 202 
 
 LE PUY . . 34, 54, 60, 108 
 
 LETTERING plus PICTURE 9, 10, 
 
 58, 60 
 
 LIBERTIES . . 92, 96, 108, 171 
 LIGHT ON DARK. . .. 52,178 
 
 LOMBARDIC CAPITALS . . I2O, 
 153. 158 
 
 LONDON (Victoria and Al- 
 bert Museum) 62, 86, 87, 99 
 
 MANUSCRIPT . . 29, 96, 157 
 MARGINS . . . . 23, 24, 170 
 
 MASTIC 51 
 
 MATERIAL (its influence on 
 
 design) 111,112,146^5^. 
 MECKENEN . . 95, 160, 205 
 
217 
 
 PAGE 
 
 MEDALLIONS 81 
 
 MEDALS .. ..71,72,73,80 
 
 METAL 153 
 
 MILLET (J. F.) 2 
 
 MINUSCULES .. 140, 141, 165 
 MOCK LETTERING . . 2, 66, 68 
 MODELLED LETTERS . . 50 
 
 MODESTY 6, n 
 
 MODIFICATION OF LETTER- 
 SHAPES .. 32, 36, 145, 155, 
 204 
 
 MONOGRAMS . .g^, n^et seq., 
 208 
 
 MONUMENTAL INSCRIP- 
 TIONS 40 et seq. 
 
 MORRIS (Wm.).. . . 8, 19 
 MYSTERY .. .. 91,99,136 
 
 NAPLES 151 
 
 NESKHI CHARACTER.. 103, 106 
 NEWSPAPER HEADINGS . . 26 
 
 NIMBUS 65 
 
 NINEVEH 58 
 
 ORIENTAL LETTERING . . 101 
 
 ORIGINALITY 12 
 
 ORNAMENTAL INITIALS . . 171 
 et seq. 
 
 ORNAMENTAL LETTERING 49, 
 
 50, 145 et seq. 
 
 OUTLINE 52 
 
 PACCIOLI . . . , . . . . 38 
 
 PAGE (The) i, 18 et seq., 29 et 
 
 seq., 1 68 
 
 PARAGRAPHS 22 
 
 PARIS (Cluny Museum) . . 96 
 
 PEN 152 
 
 PENMANSHIP 30, 31, 151, 158* 
 L.O. 
 
 PENMANSHIP versus PRINT- 
 
 IN ^ 33,34 
 
 PICTORIAL INITIALS. .181^ seq. 
 PICTURE AND DESIGN . . 184 
 
 PIERCING 154 
 
 PLANNING i 
 
 POTTERY 66, 152 
 
 PRINTED BOOK i, 2 
 
 PRINTERS' INITIALS . . 172 
 PROPORTION 38 
 
 REPEATED ORNAMENT (let- 
 ters in) 79 
 
 REVERSIBLE DESIGNS ..118, 
 
 131, 133, 135 
 RIBBON LETTERS . . . . 49 
 
 RIBBONS .75 et seq. 
 
 ROMAN CHARACTERS 42, 52, 
 
 54, 104, 119, 120, 130, 188, 
 
 191 
 
 SCRIBE 29, 30, 151, 157, 159, 
 171 
 
 SCROLLS . . 62, 75 et seq., 81, 
 82, 197 
 
 SCROLLERY 94 
 
 SEALS . . . . 81 
 
 SETTING OUT INSCRIP- 
 TIONS . . . . 46, 47, 48 
 SEVERITY .. .. 40,41,42 
 
 SHADING 179 
 
 SIENA 188 
 
 SINGLE LETTERS . . 73, 94 
 
 SIZE 34.35.36,74 
 
 SPACING .. 34, 35, 41, 42, 52 
 SPONTANEITY . . . . 38, 39 
 
 STAINED GLASS 76 
 
 STEVENS (Alfred) . . . . 187 
 STEVENSON (R. L.) . . ..3,4 
 
 Q 
 
318 
 
 PAGE 
 
 STONE ........ 51, 153 
 
 SUNKEN LETTERS . . 52, 54 
 
 SURFACE BREAKING. . 6, 8, 63, 
 
 199 
 
 SYKES (Godfrey) . . . . 187 
 
 SYMBOLISM 13, 14, 126, 144 
 SYMMETRY . . 120, 121, 125, 130, 
 
 TABLETS ........ 44 
 
 TAPESTRY ...... 62, 78 
 
 TEXTURE ........ 140 
 
 TINT OF ORNAMENT. .172, 173, 
 
 175 
 
 TITLE PAGE ...... 25 
 
 TOLEDO 
 TOMBSTONES 
 TREATMENT 
 TURNOVER 
 
 TYPE 
 
 15, 
 
 . . 70 
 
 55 
 
 17- 125 
 
 49, 52 
 
 I, 19, 112, 113, 158 
 
 VARIETY . . 
 
 VASES 
 
 VERSAL 
 VERTICAL LINES 
 
 VlSIGOTHIC CROWN 
 
 35- 37 
 . . 66 
 .. 165 
 .. 63 
 
 WOOD 51, 153 
 
 THE END. 
 
 BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO. LD., PRINTERS, LONDON AND TONBKIDGE. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which ft 
 Renewed books are subject to ii 
 
 on the date to which RdEyrd.r-\ i -* 
 rvE.vi> LJ L.JJ 
 
 immediate recall; 
 
 JUL6 1963 
 
 
 JAN1 
 
 LD 21A-50m-4,'60 
 
 (A9562slO)476B 
 
 General Library 
 University of CalifSr i 
 
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