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UPDATE! Free downloads every week are now here. Check it out: Monogram Mondays.

Monograms are a popular and traditional design element that can be applied and cut on anything from a firearm to a ring to an iPod. However, putting those three and four letters together can be quite a job in and of itself.

To help out the engraving artists who might want a little assistance in this area, GRS is bringing a new Free Download section to the website. The section will feature a free download once every week from a wonderful book in the public domain: Monograms in Three and Four Letters Suitable for Engraving, Painting, Piercing, Embroidering, Carving, etc. This book is by heraldic engraver J. Gordon Smith and was published circa 1903.

D.J. Glaser (owner of the Smith book) had suspected the fine quality of the print and paper was due to the artist and publisher using hand-engraved copper plates for the printing. Recently, thanks to a search on Google Books, an advertisement from 1903 was found that confirmed his thoughts.

The ad in the August 1, 1903 Publisher's Weekly, page 222, states the volume has "650 monograms of every possible combination of initials and Christian names; the whole engraved on copper plates and printed on fine plate paper." Check out a scan of the ad, with highlights, on Google Books.

James Ehlers, who is the professor of Engraving Arts at Emporia State University, recently created a monogram for GRS using a monogram from plate 23. Here you can see the original monogram ("P.L.G."), the copper plate engraved by Ehlers, as well as a print of the plate (click the image to view the full version).

The new Free Downloads section is scheduled for release in March and will start with a beautiful monogram from plate 1 of the book. To get you started with engraving monograms, you can download the monogram from plate 23 that James Ehlers used for his GRS monogram: