rough all the modifications of his signature which we have
been able to discover, this characteristic is maintained--the D being
invariably the smaller, and, as it were, the subordinate letter. Very
often, one of the letters--generally the initial of the surname--is
enclosed within the lines of the other. This peculiarity is also
observable in Albert Duerer's signature; and we only know one single
instance, among the numberless ones that occur, in which he has not
maintained it.

In progress of time, it became fashionable to combine, not the
initials merely of the name, but sometimes the most important letters,
sometimes even all the letters, of the full name. Many of the
monograms thus constructed would prove a puzzle even to the most
accomplished decipherer, especially those in which the whole of the
letters are not given, but only the most striking of them, and these,
as very frequently occurs, not in their natural order. Sometimes the
artist combined with the initials of his name that also of his place
of birth or residence. It need scarcely be said that, especially in
the earlier period, when the place of birth formed almost an
invariable adjunct of the name, this practice also existed, even when
the signature was given at full length.

A difficulty is sometimes created by the discovery of the letter
V--very frequently smaller than the other letters of the
monogram--between the initials of the artist's name. It occurs in the
signatures of Flemish or German artists, and represents the _van_ or
_von_, which, in the usage of these countries, was the characteristic
of nobility. It is seen in the monogram of Esaias van de Velde, and is
introduced rather curiously in that of Adrian van der Venne, who lived
through the greater part of the seventeenth century. In this
interesting monogram, the small v is inserted in the head of the large
one, so as to form a figure not unlike one of the masonic emblems.

Sometimes the identity of the initial letter of the surname with that
of the Christian name gives rise to a curious device in their
combination. Thus, the signature of Francis Floris, a German engraver,
who died about the middle of the seventeenth century, reverses the
former of the two FFs, placing them back to back, with the down stroke
common to both letters; while that of Francis Frederic Frank, in which
the same letter is three times repeated, drove the ingenuity of the
artist to a still more curious combination--t