Monogram

Monograms are European devices related to ciphers and siglia. They may be a single letter like Napoleon's 'N' or like those of classical rulers and ancient towns, or they may be two or more letters intertioned. Such interlaced monograms may be constituted by the initials of a person's name or by all the letters of short names or words. The Sacred Monogram is the Chi-Rho of Constantine's standard representing the first two Greek letters of the word, Christos. Monograms used as proprietary marks were employed by publishers and printers (e.g. colophons), painters (e.g. Durer's 'AD'), potters and ceramicists, masons and stone carvers, engravers, goldsmiths and other metalworkers and jewellers. All these kinds of trade monograms can be compared in its artistory to the illumination of initial letters in European manuscripts and to Chinese jade seals. Monograms of commercial importance are now found on articles of clothing (disigner jeans, neckties, kerchiefs, handbags, etc, some of which represent Parisian Fashion houses); on cosmetics; on sports cars and on other luxury items. Some logos incorporating corporate initials or names are monograms.