MONOGRAMS
AND
CIPHERS

ROYAL CIPHER

MONOGRAMS
& CIPHERS

DESIGNED AND DRAWN BY
A. A. TURBAYNE
AND
OTHER MEMBERS OF THE
CARLTON
STUDIO

LONDON T. C. & E. C. JACK
& EDINBURGH

[Pg ix]

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

In laying out this book I have put into it the experience of many yearsof actual work in the designing of Monograms, Ciphers, Trade-Marks, andother letter devices. I have given the work much careful thought inorder to present the most useful material, to give that material on agood workable scale, and in such a way that any design can be quicklyfound. By the arrangement of the designs the plates form their ownindex. On Plate II will be found combinations of AA, AB, AC; on PlateIII combinations of AC, AD; on Plate IV, AE, AF, AG, etc. A device ofMB would be looked for under the letter of the alphabet first in order,B; it will thus be found in the BM combinations on Plate XVI.

Now the letters AA have only one reading; two different letters, AB,can be read in two ways; while AAB can be read in three ways; and ABC,or any three different letters, can be placed to read in six ways.

A complete series of designs, AA, AB, BA, AC, CA, to ZZ, would run to676 devices; add to this a series with a repeated letter, which wouldbe the next in order, giving one reading only, AAB, BBA, etc., of whichthere are 650, and we get 1326 combinations. This would require, ifcarried out with nine[Pg x] designs on a plate, 147 plates. Our book was notto exceed 135 plates, and in addition to as complete a series aspossible of two-letter designs, there were to be included some platesof sacred devices, designs of three different letters, and other matterwhich would make a work of practical use.

By limiting the number of combinations containing the I and J, and theO and Q, which can easily be made interchangeable in the working, andgiving but a single reading of most of the devices containing theletters X, Y, Z, which will be the least used, I have been able topresent a good working selection of two letters and a repeated letterin 113 plates.

Three different letters, as I have stated, can be read in six ways.Take, for instance, the first three letters of the alphabet, and wehave—