“L” you will at once recognize as Gothic, and that also, you see, goes back farther than the fifteenth century. Now, does not that suggest to you that in modern designing there may be much recourse to antique styles? Recognizing this, you will grasp our idea in publishing these different Ls. We do not say any special one, like our initial “L,” could be of immediate use to you; but we do say that, in the hands of a clever designer, every one could serve as a basis on which to build a style of design.
ooking at these initials from this point of view, they offer various suggestions. Here, for example, are more natural forms, but not in the Japanese styles. A close observer of nature might be able to engrave a somewhat clumsier, {218} but none the less interesting, initial of this kind, while he could not draw a Japanese-like design with the grace of Auriol.
eaves and flowers are not the only motives at the designer’s service. Here is a little street vista in which the suggestion of buildings is nicely brought out, yet the lines are by no means exact. If one or two lines have been cut away in the process of engraving, we hardly miss them; and if a few more should be cut away from the design as it is, they would not be missed. A style of designing in which free lines are used in this way has its value, though we should not advise one to found a study of drawing upon such principles.
ines in themselves, as well as nature’s forms, may be used. This “L” is little more than a repetition of Arabic design; again in our example of Holbein’s book-cover design we see an echo of Moorish and Grolier designing, which were Arabic in character.
ike the former initial “L,” this one depends upon lines for its ornamentation. These are curved lines instead of straight ones, and where, as in the upper part, it resembles the Holbein cover, it is in a measure Moorish; but where, as along