⏳ PRINTED ON DEMAND — Please allow 3–4 weeks for delivery

This book is printed one copy at a time when you order it. There is no warehouse shelf of these — your copy goes on the press after you check out. Hardcover binding takes longer than paperback. Please allow 3–4 weeks from order to delivery.

About this book

Lewis F. Day looked at letters the way a jeweler looks at gems — as ornament — and his 1902 Lettering in Ornament is the record of that vision. This decorative lettering classic explores the alphabet as a design element: illuminated initials, monograms, heraldic lettering, and ornamental alphabets meant to enrich books, metalwork, textiles, architecture, and every surface a designer touches.

Day was a leading voice of the Arts and Crafts movement — a designer, writer, and teacher who believed ornament should be principled, not merely pretty. His book surveys how letters have been decorated across the centuries and how the modern designer can do it well: initial letters for the book page, ciphers and monograms for personal and commercial use, and lettering composed as part of a larger ornamental scheme. It is as much a design philosophy as a pattern book.

For today's illuminators, monogram artists, hand letterers, and graphic designers, this 1902 volume is a rich sourcebook. The examples spark ideas for wedding monograms, book decoration, signage with period character, and tattoo lettering with genuine historical roots. Sign painters restoring Victorian and Edwardian work will find its ornamental vocabulary directly useful.

Whether you design with letters or simply love the alphabet as art, Day's Lettering in Ornament rewards repeated browsing. A 1902 treasure for anyone who believes a letter can be beautiful as well as legible.

Details: 6×9" hardcover (case laminate), black and white interior, cream paper.

⚠️ Please read before ordering — about print quality

This is a print-on-demand reprint of a scanned historical document. The pages were scanned from an original 1902 printing, and the print quality of your book reflects the condition of that original scan.

What that means in plain terms: you may see faded text, uneven inking, age spots, show-through from the back of pages, and other imperfections that were in the 1902 original or introduced by the scanning process. These are preserved as-is — they are not printing defects, and they are not something we can fix.

We are not responsible for the condition of the original source material. If you want a pristine modern typeset book, this isn't it. If you want the actual 1902 book with all its character intact, you're in the right place.

Printed on demand by IngramSpark. One copy at a time — no inventory, no waste.