32 
House & Garden 
USING CIPHERS and MONOGRAMS in DECORATION 
If If e Have Tlieyn on Lineal and Cigarette Cases Why Not on Furnitiire<^ 
Such a Use lias Historic Precedent 
COSTEN FirZ-GIBBON 
utter 
ong 
t h e 
Restoration, ' 
Celia 
Fiennes writing 
in her diary 
, de- 
scribed the 
floor 
of a cedar 
room 
in a certain 
great 
house she 
had 
visited, as 
“in- 
layed with 
ci- 
phers and 
the 
coronet” of 
the 
owner. 
The use of ci¬ 
phers, moiiognims 
and personal emblems in decoration is a re¬ 
source of just as much importance as the em¬ 
ployment of heraldry in the same capacity. As 
a matter of fact, the use of such ])ersonal marks 
or badges to denote ]:)Ossession or intimate as¬ 
sociation, a practice as old as civilization, 
really supplied the essence and the very foun¬ 
dation upon which the later developed and 
highly organized science of heraldry was built. 
Decorative Marks 
These personal marks or badges are capalde 
in their own way of imparting no less deco¬ 
rative interest than heraldic blazonings and 
they may be treated with almost endless va¬ 
riety. Furthermore, they may in a manner 
convey an even greater degree of intimate in¬ 
dividuality, for whereas armorial bearings, as 
commonly employed, may properly be used by 
several persons or by a whole family, a cipher, 
monogram or personal emblem, as a rule, can 
apply to but one person. 
d'hen, too, while heraldry is a fixed science. 
The cipher of William 
Caxtonjhe old printer 
subject to dehnite laws and restrictions, so that 
the individual has no choice at all in the 
matter of the arms he is entitled to bear, there 
is absolute liljerty of selection wdth reference 
to ciphers, monograms and emblems and the 
only limitations are the letters to be used, in 
the case of monograms, and the ingenuity of 
the designer, so far as all three forms of indi¬ 
vidual marks are concerned. 
Until well into the 19th Century the use of 
ciphers, personal emblems and monograms 
formed a not inconsiderable item of our deco¬ 
rative heritage. It was not until the brum¬ 
magem ^dctorian era of ready-made, mechani¬ 
cal materialism that they w^re practically all 
thrown into the discard, along with most other 
things of real decorative character and value, 
saving monograms to a limited extent, which 
were retained as appropriate and strictly utili¬ 
tarian embellishments for household linen, 
wearing apparel, table silver, or small articles 
of personal use such as pocket-knives or cuff 
links; a few distinctive emblems, like IMer- 
cury’s caduceus to be used for military insignia 
and kindred purposes; and, in everyday com¬ 
mercial life the tobacconist’s Indian and the 
striped barber’s pole, which latter would proba 
bly have been banished as not “'genteel” had 
its origin been more generally known, for the 
age that cast nearly everything that was worth¬ 
while out of doors or hid it in the attic was 
not kindly disposed toward symbolism. 
Symbolism in Decoration 
But symbolism is at the ver}' root of deco¬ 
rative design and the propensity toward sym 
holism is deeply implanted in human nature 
The world-old habit of putting a distinguish¬ 
ing mark upon one’s personal possessions de- 
veloi)ed in a logical way with distinctly deco¬ 
rative intent as civilization progressed and. 
quite aside from the heraldic connection al¬ 
luded to, it manifested a purely commercial 
tendency which resulted in the devising of 
what were to all 
intents and pur¬ 
poses trade marks. 
During the Re¬ 
naissance period 
and subsequent 
{Cont. on page 68) 
(Right) The printer’s 
device used by Plantin 
Crowned salamander emblem used as over¬ 
mantel decoration in Chateau Bois 
Cipher and portrait of the printer, 
Plantin, which appears on his ivork 
Crowned porcupine, emblem of Louis XU, 
flanked by his and Anne’s initials 
