Signature of Gustave Dore

Gustave Dore is very well known illustrator.


Dore made many illustrations for journals. Below is just one example. It is in, Baynes, Robert Hall. The Illustrated Book of Sacred Poems, which was published in parts by Cassell, Petter and Galpin in 1867. Each part had blue paper wrappers.  On the lower paper wrapper of part VI of Sacred Poems, Cassell  chose to publicise a forthcoming publication entitled: Cassell llustrated Book of Fables, which was to be illustrated by Dore. He created an illustration, which shows us a fisherman by the waterside. It has the caption: "The little fish and the fisherman".The initial "G" of his signature is likely to be obscured by the spine curvature. A full description of the paper covers of The Illustrated Book of Sacred Poems is in the British Library bookbindings database 

 

Monogram of Paul Gray

The monogram "PG" , illustrated below, is the frontispiece of Tom Hood's Jingles and Jokes...This is likely to be that of Paul Mary Gray, whose life is more fully described in the Library Ireland website.


Hood, Thomas, the Elder. Jingles and jokes for the little folks. Illustrated by C.H.Bennett [i.e. Charles Henry Bennett],  W. Brunton [i.e William Brunton], Paul Gray, and T. Morten [i.e Thomas Morten]. London: Cassell, Petter and Galpin, Ludgate Hill, E.C. [1865]. The illustrations are signed with the monograms or the signatures of Paul Gray, Thomas Morten, William Brunton, Charles Henry Bennett. They are signed: “Linton” or “Linton Sc.” [i.e William James Linton]. 


This copy is in the De Beaumont collection, British Museum, P & D 1992,0406.129. 

Another copy of this work is at the British Library shelf mark  11648cc40. You can view a full description of the cover design by John Leighton for this work at the British library database of bookbindings at:

 http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/bookbindings/KeywordSelection.aspx

Another copy with the same design on paper covers is at the British Library shelf mark 12807f53.

All these three copies have a wonderful, humorous cover design by John Leighton.

Monograms of Tom Hood (2)

Wikipedia has some details of Tom Hood (1835-1874). 


The copy shown below is in the British Library at shelf mark 12808bb29.   A full description of the cover design will be in the British Library database of bookbindings.

Tom Hood also illustrated this work, also written by his sister, Frances Broderip. 

Broderip, Frances Freeling. My Grandmother's budget of stories and songs. With illustrations by her brother, Thomas Hood. London: Griffith and Farran, successors to Newbery and Harris, Corner of St. Paul's Churchyard, 1863.

The plates are hand-coloured and signed with Hood's monogram "TH"; also signed "C.A Ferrier Sc." On page three of the publisher's titles at the end, the details for this work are: "Price 3s. 6d. cloth; 4s. 6d. coloured, gilt edges." Binder's ticket on lower pastedown:"/ Bound by/ Bone & Son,/ 76, Fleet Street,/ London./" [ Ball no. 17A] Below, we see the plate opposite page 52, entitled: "The Old toad and the wheat-ear". Hood's monogram is in the bottom right hand corner.  


  

 

Monograms of Tom Hood (1)

Wikipedia has some details of Tom Hood (1835-1874).

The copy shown below is in the book by Broderip, Frances Freeling. Funny fables for little folks. With Illustrations by her Brother, Thomas Hood. London: Griffith and Farran, Successors to Newbery & Harris, Corner of St. Paul's Churchyard, 1860.

 A full description of the cover design is in the British Library database of bookbindings, at shelf mark 12807bb12.

 Broderip, Frances Freeling. Funny fables for little folks. With Illustrations by her Brother, Thomas Hood. London: Griffith and Farran, Successors to Newbery & Harris, Corner of St. Paul's Churchyard, 1860.

The plate opposite page 24 has a good example of Tom Hood’s monogram. The ilustration is entitled: "The pot and the kettle".  This is reproduced below as well as a close up. On page 4 of the publisher’s titles bound at the end, this work is described as: “By Frances Freeling Broderip (Daughter of the late Thomas Hood). Illustrated by her Brother. [i.e. Tom Hood.] Super Royal 16mo. Price 2s. 6d. cloth; 3s. 6d. coloured,  gilt edges.”  Edges speckled with red ink. Yellow endpapers and pastedowns. Binder's ticket on lower pastedown: "/ Bound by/ Burn./ 37 & 38/ Kirby St./" [Ball 20A.] 

Monograms of Charles Henry Bennett

Charles Henry Bennett (1829-1867) was an illustrator and caricaturist of comic genius. 

To view more about him and some of his illustrations in books, you can start with the wiki article.

Simon Houfe, in The Dictionary of British Book Illustrators and Caricaturists 1800-1914. Woodbridge, Antique Collectors Club, 1978, p. 232, states; “His earliest work is signed with an owl and a ‘B’ in its beak for a phonetic pun on Bennett.”

Below are a couple of examples of Bennett’s monograms. 

The first image below is on the front cover of Nine lives of a cat.  (You can view the full picture and a description of the design in the British Library database of bookbindings.)

You can see the the ‘C’ and the ‘B’ conjoined with the middle initial, the ‘H’. This monogram appears on many of Bennett’s illustrations. 

 The second example is on the spine of Quarles’s Emblems. A hugely elaborate all over design on both covers and on the spine, (British Library shelf mark 1347f11), here we see the joined monograms of Bennett and of William Harry Rogers. This is the only example I have so far encountered of two monograms being blocked together. 

The rebus of Walter Crane

Well known in his lifetime as an illustrator of children's books, there is plenty of information on the web about 
Walter Crane 


There are several versions of a rebus used by Crane. The one illustrated here is the figure of the crane, with the capital "W" below it. This engraving, entitled: "King Bag and his bag", is the frontispiece plate of the work by Heraclitus Grey, pseud. [i.e. Charles Marshall] King Gab’s Story Bag, and the wonderful stories it contained. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, [1869]. You can see Crane's rebus printed in the right hand corner of the illustration. The book is in the De Beaumont collection, Prints & Drawings, the British Museum (1992-0406-122).