Monogram Necklaces & Coasters

Available in round or square pendants. Listed in alphabetical order.

Old English Initial I/J Necklace by bethd821

The English language was first written in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc alphabet from the 5th century. The alphabet was brought to what is now England by Anglo-Saxon settlers. There are very few examples of this old alphabet that has survived. Just a few inscriptions and fragments can be found.

Christian missionaries introduced the Latin alphabet and began to replace the Anglo-Saxon around the 7th century, although they paralleled each other for quite some time. In the year 1011, a writer named Byrhtferd ordered the Old English alphabet for numerological purposes. He listed the 24 letters of the Latin alphabet (including the ampersand) first, then added 5 additional English letters.

The English alphabet continued to evolve until the 16th century when the letters u and j were introduced as distinct from v and i. The letter w also received the status of an independent letter. Thus our modern English alphabet contains 26 letters.

Gothic Letter I or J Necklace by bethd821


Gothic Letter U or W Necklace by bethd821

Gothic Letter V or Y Necklace by bethd821

Blackletter was a script used throughout Western Europe from about 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be used in the German language until the 20th century. Fraktur is a notable script of this type. It has also been used to refer to Old English, but should not be confused. Old English predates blackletter by many centuries.

As the populace became more literate, the demand for books in many different subjects increased. The original Gothic script, referred to as Carolingian, was time consuming and labor intensive to produce. By the mid-12th century, a clearly distinguishable form of the script was being used. The term Gothic was first used to describe this script in 15th century Italy by Renaissance humanists. They believed the script to be barbaric and gothic was its synonym.

Fraktur is a form of black letter that became the most common typeface by the mid 16th century. Its use was so common that many forms of blackletter are referred to as Fraktur.

Gothic Letter I or J Coaster by bethd821


Gothic Letter U or W Coaster by bethd821

Gothic Letter V or Y Coaster by bethd821

Calligraphy is often called the art of fancy lettering and is a type of visual art. Modern calligraphy can be described as a functional hand lettering with inscriptions and designs. It is also said to be where the abstract expression of the handwritten mark may or may not compromise the legibility of the letters.

Calligraphy continues to flourish in wedding and event invitations, font design, hand-lettered logo design, religious art, cut stone inscriptions and memorial documents. It is also used for images for film and television, testimonials, birth and death certificates, maps, and other works requiring writing.

The principle tools for calligraphy are pens and brushes. Pens are flat-balled or round-nibbed. More simple works have been done with felt-tip and ballpoint pens. These works don't involve angled lines.

Even Mayan hieroglyphs are considered a type of calligraphy. Mayan calligraphy is written in Latin letters. Most of the Mayan archaeological sites in Mexico have glyphs in their structures. The Dresden Codex is one of the few examples of Mayan calligraphy to have escaped the destruction of the Spanish conquistadors and survived to present day. These stone carved monuments are known as "stele".

Even graffiti shares common attributes to calligraphy. It is being considered an expressive form of writing style. It still is considered vandalism, but also fulfills the expression of style, culture and identity.

Calligraphy Letter I or J Necklace by bethd821

Calligraphy Letter I or J Coaster by bethd821