Some decidedly captivating examples of flat scroll work are to be observed upon many business vehicles in the larger towns and cities. Many of these scrolls are laid in plain gold or aluminum, in a variety of colors, as well as in colors and gold, and very often aluminum. Frequently the heaviest parts, leaves, etc., are edged with some richly adorning color, and quite as often the veining of the leaves is traced into prominence. The accompanying eight illustrations of flat scrolls, corner, end, and center panel patterns, will, it is hoped, afford at least a helpful working idea of the possibilities of the flat scroll style of vehicle ornamentation.
CHAPTER X.
LETTERING: WAGON LETTERING AS DISTINGUISHED FROM SIGN WRITING—POINTS ON LEARNING THE ART—LAYING OUT, SPACING, OUTLINING—SHADING—PUNCTUATION—ALPHABETS: ROMAN—MODIFIED BLOCK—ORNAMENTAL—GRECIAN. DESIGNS FOR BUSINESS WAGON PANELS, ETC.
Of late years the art of sign writing, or, in the speech of the shop, lettering, has come to be so generally regarded as particularly distinct and apart from the other branches of painting, having a literature rich and diversified in its resources, that, at first thought, it would seem perfectly feasible and proper to omit from these chapters any attempt to deal with the subject. Nevertheless, upon further consideration the writer has preferred to accept the art, for the present at least, as an indivisible part of the carriage and wagon painter's shop practice; and while a thorough exposition of modern sign writing would necessarily trespass immoderately upon the space allotted to the numerous and vitally essential phases of carriage and wagon painting, and cannot, therefore, be entered into, to ignore the branch altogether might fairly be branded as too palpable an oversight to merit excuse. Happily, however, the art of sign writing has been so extensively treated upon in numerous books devoted specially to the subject, and in hundreds of exhaustive magazine articles, that it becomes necessary in this chapter to touch only upon the salient features of the work as they directly concern and apply to the interests of the carriage and wagon painter.
Roman Alphabet.
Not later than fifteen years ago the standard styles of the wagon letterer consisted of about five alphabets. The modern sign writer and letterer, encouraged and directed by the forces of recent business development, has to a large extent demolished this standard, substituting therefor what is generally accepted as up-to-date sign writing—a style that readily admits of the employment of whatever form or style of letter will best and most vividly advertise the business it is intended to herald. Complaints have been sounded in widely read publications to the effect that "it was at one time the wagon letterer's good fortune to possess an occupation and a name above that of the sign writer." "His work," we are told, "could be quickly distinguished from the ordinary letterer or sign painter by its boldness and the care given to details. These days have gone by, and we find the well-known and approved style of the wagon letterer prostituted to the idiosyncrasies of house and sign painters."
Roman Numerals.