Vintage Monogram Inspiration
July 16, 2009 · Posted in good things, inspiration, stationery, monograms by juel
One of the most inspirational blog posts for me so far has been How to Design Vintage Monograms by Vintage Glam Weddings. So, my official first day that I was absolutely 100% completely and totally done with grad school, what do I do? Oh, you know…went back to Lehigh and checked out a book on monograms. Guess I just can’t stay away from the place.
But oh.em.gee. I found the coolest book I have ever seen.
The Alphabet of Monograms by Henry Lillie. Oh, can’t find it on Amazon? Hmm, maybe that’s because ISBN numbers weren’t around in 1865. How cool was it to pull that book out of the stacks and open up the front cover to find:
Yup, 1885. Pretty neat I think. Anyway, on to the fun stuff.
While it would have been way too nice of Mr. Lillie to think of us back in the 1800’s and make us an awesome monogram, no such luck. There were, however, CK and CKJ (would work beautifully if he would take my last name :) ).
Here are a couple pages from the book: A, C, and M.
{ all images taken from Alphabet of Monograms by me }
If you want me to check if your initials are in here, let me know! I’d be happy to look.
Is anyone planning on using their (or better yet creating their own) monogram in their wedding? Are you going vintage, contemporary, art deco…? I’d love to hear your ideas!!
What a fantastic find, and what an awesome cover! It’s so fun finding treasures in the library.
I think we are going without a monogram, but if we had one, I’d make you look for our initials in that book. :)
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That’s the loveliest book I’ve ever heard of… I have a new crush. Thank you for sharing it with us. I work for the library system in Portland, but don’t see it in our collection. Will you see if my/ his initials are in there? AMF/ MTM. How would you determine what monogram to use for the wedding? Should it be the first letter of each of our names (A, M) and a large M for our last? Thanks for your help - and inspiration!
Wow, that book looks amazing! I did a quick search on Google Books and found a few more antique monogram books. You can download the whole book as a PDF! I’m definitely going hunting for mine.
http://books.google.com/books?id=0akaAAAAYAAJ (Art Monograms & Lettering, 1912)
http://books.google.com/books?id=tY3IQltS0voC (Monograms, Historic & Practical, 1869)
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Oh I LOVE these. My family’s sheets, the linen ones from my grandmother, that were so thin I put my foot through one, they were monogrammed like this…
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I’d love it if you could look and see if ACG was one of them! This book is fabulous I bet!
Thanks everyone for your comments!
@Mo - I know, it was so neat finding it and of course I had never been to that library on campus and now I can’t check books out anymore…oh well.
@ Amy - Not sure where I remember reading it but monogram etiquette for weddings is to use your first initials and new last initial ONLY for post-ceremony stuff (meaning, no invitations, no programs, but definitely ok to use for the reception and thank you notes). If you’re going to use one before, use your first initials. So it’d be cool to use A&M for all pre-ceremony and then AMM for post-ceremony. Hope that makes sense…I did find AM & AF monograms in the book. Email me at {juel at eadweddings dot com}.
@Clare - I actually found a CLR monogram in the book if by any chance your middle name starts with L? Let me know, and happy hunting!
@Amber - I found an AG, AC, and a CG, would those help? Email me to let me know…{juel at eadweddings dot com}
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What an amazing find! I’ve been searching for just this type of book in hopes to come up with a old world monogram for myself.
Would it be at all possible to search for JN or JCN? Thank you so much!!
My initials are KVP and his are JHR… so, what, JKR? J+K? If you can find anything relevant I would love to see it! What a cool book.
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So Beautiful!!! Would you look for our monogram? My fiance’s initials are JPW and mine are MRL so that would be MWJ
Hi.
I was just trying to create mine when I came across your page. My initials are PED and his are JRK. So I guess the monogram would be PKJ. I’d love to see what you find. Thank you so much!!!
I follow and also love monograms. How cool!
Are you DONE looking for people’s monograms? It was so nice of you to do so! If you have an ounce more energy to look one up, I’d love to know if you have an A and V. Thanks so much in advance! BTW, I found you googling “monograms” but in order to bookmark this page I need to find it on your website - all I see from Google is http://www.elizabethannedesigns.com/…/. Can you direct me? Thanks!
This is just what I have been looking for! I think I may have found a book that has these on cd rom so don’t have to do all of the computer scanning etc. Only prolem is, I don’t get to see what is has in it before I buy it! My daughter it getting married next spring and really wants to use something like this. Would you be willing to look up the versions of KM? I would so much appreciate it. We saw them in a store who was charging too much money and have been looking ever since. Now I have found you! Thank you in advance.
