Art Alphabets, Monograms, and Lettering (Lettering, Calligraphy, Typography) - Softcover

Bergling, JM

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0486831701 ISBN 13: 9780486831701

Publisher: Dover Publications Inc, 2019

Synopsis

Chicago-based jewelry engraver J. M. Bergling (1866-1933) created thousands of letter styles, signets, monograms, and ciphers. A noted author on the subjects of lettering and heraldic design, Bergling created books that became standard references of his era. He assembled his first book, Art Monograms and Letters,with the hopes of inspiring other etchers, engravers, sign painters, and artisans. This volume contains selected illustrations from that publication in addition to his complete Art Alphabets and Lettering,which comprises 96 pages of layouts and letter styles ranging from simple to ornate. Commercial artists, designers, calligraphers, engravers, amateurs, and professionals will prize this exclusive edition as a source of high-quality images and alphabets. This reference book features an appreciative Foreword by artist and author James Gurney, which places Bergling's works in historical context.

About this title

About the Author

J. M. Bergling (1866-1933) was a Chicago-based designer and publisher of books on the subjects of lettering, monograms, and heraldic design. His books became a standard reference for engravers and sign painters.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Art Alphabets, Monograms & Lettering

By J. M. Bergling

Dover Publications, Inc.

Copyright © 2019 Dover Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-486-83170-1

FOREWORD

From the perspective of our era of computer-generated typography, it is difficult to appreciate the ubiquity of handmade lettering a century ago. Writing made by hand appeared not only in personal letters and postcards, but also in business correspondence, architects' plans, store windows, roadside billboards, theater lobbies, newspaper advertisements, college diplomas, engraved silverware, and even embroidered handkerchiefs.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, the art of hand lettering reached flamboyant, exuberant heights. The period known as the "Golden Age of Ornamental Penmanship" was still in full flower when John Mauritz Bergling (1866–1933) first published Art Alphabets and Lettering in 1914. He expanded his "encyclopedia of lettering" through three subsequent editions, culminating in an enlarged fourth edition of 1923. Art Alphabets, Monograms & Lettering is an exclusive volume from Dover Publications that combines the 1923 edition with specially selected pieces from Art Monograms and Lettering (tenth edition, 1920).

Art Alphabets and Lettering is one of the most sought-after of the many treasuries of designs and alphabets from that period, not only because of the high standards of Bergling's examples, but also because of the wide range of practical applications that he addressed.

In Bergling's day, the field of artistic writing spanned the work of many specialists: engravers, engrossers, architects, show card writers, and commercial artists. He took care to consider the appropriate spirit for each kind of communication, ranging all the way from a sober commemoration of a retirement from an insurance company (page 42) to a playful poster for a college dance (page 60).

Bergling was an authority in all these disciplines. As a boy, he emigrated with his father from Sweden, working in San Jose, California, and Chicago, Illinois, where he built his reputation as an engraver for watch cases and jewelry. He became one of the foremost practitioners of the art of the monogram, a popular graphic form where an individual's three initials are woven together into a clever artistic design. He produced three other design collections: Art Monograms and Lettering, Ornamental Designs and Illustrations, and Heraldic Designs and Engravings.

Art Alphabets and Lettering is Bergling's crowning achievement, culling the best specimens from his many years as a leading engraver and pen artist. To make room for more samples, Bergling eliminated the introductory text typically found in comparable books, such as Ames' Compendium of Practical and Ornamental Penmanship by Daniel T. Ames (1883) and Studies in Pen Art by William E. Dennis (1914). In such guidebooks, the text would have explained the theory and practice behind the alphabets. The modern reader might want to know at least the basics of the practical knowledge that Bergling took for granted.

For everyday penmanship, the steel dip pen had largely replaced the quill pen, which was made from a prepared primary flight feather of a goose or turkey. However, the quill pen was — and still is — the preferred tool for certain kinds of elegant writing and was the primary instrument for letterers before the nineteenth century. Steel pen nibs in Bergling's day were available in a range of degrees of flexibility, and many of them are still available today. The nibs fitted into a pen holder and were dipped into an inkwell of India ink, which was waterproof, or a water-soluble ink such as Higgins Eternal.

The collection begins with script alphabets, notable for their flowing connected letters, such as American Round-hand and Spencerian on pages 2 and 3. These models provide excellent guides for handwriting applications where a graceful elegance is required. The Spencerian alphabet was invented by Platt Rogers Spencer (1800–1864). It became standard in the United States between 1850 and 1925, after which it was replaced by the simpler Palmer method that was taught in schools up until recently.

Businesspersons were expected to convey their integrity and confidence by means of pen skills, culminating in a confident flourished signature. To achieve this kind of writing, penmanship instructors stressed the importance of good posture. First, the pen artist must take the proper position, seated in a straight chair with both feet flat on the floor, the back held straight. The pen is held, not in the tight grip of most beginners, but in a relaxed manner, the arm with its large muscle below the elbow resting lightly on the table.

"Whole arm" or "off hand" capitals, with their elaborate looping flourishes, are made without penciling the letterforms in advance. Their flowing grace requires a great deal of practice. They are written with broad movements of the arm, swinging easily from the shoulder. Fingers, wrist, and arm cooperate to create fluid movements. Each part of the flourish uses a smooth continuous stroke. By contrast, small letters should be rhythmically created with controlled finger movements.

Ideally, these scripts should be executed on a smooth cotton rag paper over lightly ruled guidelines drawn with a hard pencil. The slant of the letters should be absolutely uniform. The slant can be ruled lightly with an adjustable triangle set to a fixed slope and resting on a T-square or parallel rule. Most scripts require a slant of between fifty-two and fifty-four degrees from horizontal, or the three-quarter angle diagrammed on page 32. An oblique pen holder angles the nib to the right, allowing a better wrist position.

In settings where script writing needs to be larger and more precisely considered, it can be constructed by drawing the letters first in outline and then filling them in with a brush or pen, as shown on pages 30 and 31. In general, it is a good idea for the student to begin constructing letters larger and at a slow speed. With improving skill, the execution typically becomes smaller in scale and more rapid. It is advisable to try for accuracy and quality first and then for speed.

The pen-based script alphabets, with their German and French variants, derive from the models produced by engravers in the eighteenth century, requiring the artist to incise a series of fine lines into a copperplate with a sharpened steel tool called a "burin." The position of the tip of the burin is shown in the drawings on page 32. This copperplate engraver's alphabet also can be constructed with the flexible steel pen nib. Each weighted or shaded stroke broadens on the pulling downstroke. Whichever tool is used, this thick-and-thin copperplate style is slow to execute, making it more suitable for headings and superscriptions than for everyday handwriting.

Bergling includes broad pen alphabets familiar to modern calligraphers such as "Black-Stone" (page 20), "Mixed Roman Text" (page 86), and the single-stroke Roman and Italic alphabets (page 88). Informal round-tipped alphabets such as those on page 87 can be achieved with a Speedball "Style B" pen nib.

The Roman alphabets shown on pages 14, 72, 73, and 74 are the oldest and most universal in this collection. The Italian Renaissance capitals on page 72, which in turn derive from those carved into Trajan's Column in Rome, deserve careful study because they are the basis for many subsequent variations. Note the circular outside shapes of the C, G, O, and Q; the narrowness of the S; the nearly midline crossbars on the E, F, and H; and the serifs (the small spurs or feet at the top and bottom of ascenders). Achieving the nuances of classic Roman capitals is difficult with single stroke construction using a lettering brush or a broad pen, but the example on page 85 shows an attractive alphabet that can be constructed rapidly with a broad pen or flat-tipped brush.

Most traditional alphabets have a consistent distribution of thick and thin lines. Typically, letterforms are drawn with greater thickness on the vertical ascender, compared to the horizontal crossbar, a byproduct of pen technique. Novel effects can be achieved by using a constant thickness throughout the letter (pages 65, 69, 70, 76, 87, 91) or by reversing the normal relationship of thick and thin lines (pages 59, 68, 90).

Being "modern" or "artistic" or "up-to-date" became an obsession in Bergling's day. He revels in eccentric departures from the staid rhythms of traditional alphabets. He includes Art Nouveau features, such as curving ascenders (pages 54, 66, 67), curlicue serifs (pages 50, 69, 76), or crossbars placed high or low (pages 50, 51, 55, 56, 58, 64, 65). Thanks to his experience weaving letterforms into monograms, Bergling was especially adept at interlocking ascenders and descenders (pages 24, 25, 59, 60, 61). Some of these ideas were revived by underground comic artists in the 1960s, such as R. Crumb, who took a strong interest in both the music and the phonograph sleeve design of Bergling's era.

Printing technology was rapidly changing at the threshold of the twentieth century. Photoengraving and photolithography allowed lettering to be printed directly from the original pen work. This opened up a range of possible effects and liberated graphic design from the relatively labored and mechanical look of set type and hand engraving. The photomechanical processes also made reproduction possible at a size smaller than the original.

These technological changes encouraged the growth of extravagant drawing-based alphabets, such as "Rustic" (page 26) and "Leaf Cipher-Letters" (pages 22, 24). Highly embellished initial capitals can be hand-drawn with a pen or brush, using inks of various colors or tinted shades. Some of the ornamental initial alphabets are presented with a variety of stylistic treatments, such as "Ornamented French Script" (page 16) and "Ornamental Initials" (page 94).

"Old English" (page 33) remains the standard for formal settings, such as diplomas, but it is difficult to execute well, especially if speed is required. It succeeds best with a steady rhythm and even spacing, using a square cut nib. Sometimes good results can be achieved by executing all the vertical strokes first, followed by the diamond shaped feet. A pointed pen adds the finishing touches, sharpening the corners and serifs and completing the hairline strokes on the capitals and on the lower case a and r. Examples with and without retouching appear on page 34.

Two other forms of artistic writing, less familiar today, are "engrossing" and "show card" writing. Engrossing was a particularly lavish type of decorative lettering used on resolutions, certificates, testimonials, memorials, and manifestos. The examples shown are by Patrick W. Costello (1866–1935), whose engrossing work was notable for being executed in limited tones of Payne's gray or umber. Originals were as large as twenty-two–by-twenty-eight inches, often illustrated with flags, portraits, flowers, or other pictorial devices. They reflect a culture that placed a premium on congratulatory or memorializing messages, usually presented publicly to formally recognize individual achievements.

Bergling invited his colleague William H. Gordon to demonstrate show card writing, a more casual advertising form (pages 82–91). Painted signboards of the nineteenth century tended to use only uppercase letters, but they were gradually replaced by signs made with both uppercase and lowercase. The letters in Gordon's alphabets are formed quickly and without much preliminary drawing, using specialized brushes with opaque water-based media. Practitioners in this field were called "writers" rather than "letterers." Whether employing the brush or the pen, the student should start by thoroughly understanding the construction before attempting too much speed.

By the time Bergling's books appeared, typewriters already had been standardized and were coming into common use for business communications. Fountain pens and then ballpoint pens became established by the mid-twentieth century. The Golden Age of Ornamental Pen Work was disappearing. I hope that with the aid of this exclusive treasury of art from Dover Publications, a new generation of designers can rediscover artistic lettering and adapt it to contemporary uses.

James Gurney March 2019

(Continues...)

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Edition details

• Publisher: Dover Publications Inc
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0486831701
• ISBN 13: 9780486831701
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128