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Symbols, Signs and Signets
Reproducing in historical sequence 1355 signs, seals, and symbols from the simplest drawings of heavenly bodies, through the intricate heraldic devices of the Middle Ages, to modern cattle brands and hobo sign language, this book will be of immense value to the commercial artist and designer. The development of man as an artist and designer is here recorded pictorially by one of the world's foremost experts in the field of graphic art, Ernst Lehner.
This book is divided into 13 sections, each with a separate brief Symbolic Gods and Deities (Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Germanic, Incan, Aztec, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, etc.); Astronomy and Astrology; Alchemy, Magic, and Mystic (Nordic runes, magic circles, etc.); Church and Religion; Heraldry (coats of arms, badges, etc.); Monsters and Imaginary Figures; Japanese Crests; Marks and Signets (engravers, goldsmiths, armorers, stonemasons, etc.); Watermarks (fourteenth–eighteenth centuries); Printer's Marks (fifteenth–seventeenth centuries); Cattle Brands; and Hobo Signs. All the signs, symbols, and signets are pictured in black and white on strikingly laid out pages, with full explanatory notes for both lay readers and specialists.
Anyone interested in means of communication other than language will find this book fascinating and authoritative. The student and teacher in the graphic arts will find it a practical visual guide through the transformation of simple marks and signs into the complicated emblems of our time.
This book is divided into 13 sections, each with a separate brief Symbolic Gods and Deities (Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Germanic, Incan, Aztec, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, etc.); Astronomy and Astrology; Alchemy, Magic, and Mystic (Nordic runes, magic circles, etc.); Church and Religion; Heraldry (coats of arms, badges, etc.); Monsters and Imaginary Figures; Japanese Crests; Marks and Signets (engravers, goldsmiths, armorers, stonemasons, etc.); Watermarks (fourteenth–eighteenth centuries); Printer's Marks (fifteenth–seventeenth centuries); Cattle Brands; and Hobo Signs. All the signs, symbols, and signets are pictured in black and white on strikingly laid out pages, with full explanatory notes for both lay readers and specialists.
Anyone interested in means of communication other than language will find this book fascinating and authoritative. The student and teacher in the graphic arts will find it a practical visual guide through the transformation of simple marks and signs into the complicated emblems of our time.
221 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1969
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 24, 2012
This book is all about the symbols and icons. Loads of great imagery but I hate, absolutely HATE, the way it is laid out. The information tag about each symbol is listed at the beginning of the chapter and then pages of images follow, so you have to keep flipping back and forth to see what you are looking at. Very annoying.
July 9, 2017
"1355 signs, seals, and symbols from the simplest to to the most intricate all in historical sequence. This book is divided into 13 sections , Gods and deitys, Astronomy and Astrology, Alchemy Magic and Mystery, Religion, Heraldry, Monsters and Imaginary Figures, Japanese crests, marks and signets, Watermarks, Printers marks, Cattle brands and a Hobo signs.
If you have ever wondered what a sign or symbol meant, whether it was on a piece of paper, an odd piece of silverware, the bottom of a dish, inside an old book, the back of a desk, rocks beside a tree, or a vase from your granny, this may help you pin it down.
I found it fascinating, some of these seemingly insignificant signs may even save your life, and were to find a kind hearted woman, safety and a warm meal, if you are on the run, you never know!
( this was published in 1950 so I'm sure there is an undated version but I haven't seen one.)
If you have ever wondered what a sign or symbol meant, whether it was on a piece of paper, an odd piece of silverware, the bottom of a dish, inside an old book, the back of a desk, rocks beside a tree, or a vase from your granny, this may help you pin it down.
I found it fascinating, some of these seemingly insignificant signs may even save your life, and were to find a kind hearted woman, safety and a warm meal, if you are on the run, you never know!
( this was published in 1950 so I'm sure there is an undated version but I haven't seen one.)
June 16, 2018
“Symbols, Signs, & Signets: A Pictorial Treasury With Over 1350 Illustrations” by Ernst Lehner (1950) is a book as impressive as its title. Lehner’s categorization system of these phenomena does not tend toward geography, which gives the text as a whole a holistic feel. Rather, the book is organized by subjects of universal value, i.e. “Symbolic Gods & Deities”, “Astronomy & Astrology”, “Alchemy”, and the “Magic & Mystic”, to name just the first few subject matters out of thirteen. The phenomena themselves, the “Signs, Symbols, & Signets” of his title, are simplified reproductions of the images, made to be viewed in their most basic and simple form: black and white, and without embellishments of any kind save for whatever was provided by the print press.
What may be understood at first glance as an encyclopedic and thus exhaustive account is incredibly softened by Lehner’s introductions, one might call them editorials, which begin each chapter. He is sentimental about his work, and rightfully so:
“The focus of interest in this study is more special: to trace man’s evolution as an artist and designer and to do this through the signs, seals and symbols he has left as his record. Unfortunately man is a destroyer as well as a creator; and the 60,000 or more prints and the elaborate reference library it has taken the author the better part of a lifetime to assemble were destroyed in a split second by the dynamite charge of a retreating army in the last war.” (from Lehner’s note ‘To The Reader’)
Also, the Introduction to this body of work seems to instruct that this book must be *read*. The introduction, written not by Lehner but by another man by the name of Ervine Metzl, notes that symbols such as these are essential to the idea of humankind. Metzl’s ideas concerning these symbols, it is clear, is vastly different – than marks of an animal (even one of our own species) relieving himself on a piece of land to communicate what is their own territory and not another’s.
“Behind the Veil of Time, primitive man has left a record of himself in symbols created ages before he learned to write. Just as a child piles up sticks and stones to represent concepts for which he has not yet learned words, mankind in its childhood built cairns and marked trees in its first efforts of self-expression.”
What Metzl hints at, and what is later confirmed in the book, is that many of these signs, symbols, and signets rose out of a desire beyond survival and from a new kind of necessity. To interpret the foundations of this book, that necessity appears to have come from two different origins:
1. To represent experiences within the psyche and from the outside world which were (then or even now) unexplainable (for example, to whom do we pray about love, for love? Aphrodite from Roman mythology, perhaps, whose name, image, and story/mythos became a visual symbol that has lasted throughout centuries)
2. To have a *record* that would remain after death, as some kind of remembrance. Of *what* kind of remembrance requires a close study of a particular symbol: it may be to commemorate civilization (the Arms of Great Britain or the Seal of the United States, for example), it might be to signify authorship (watermarks, for example – which has a particularly interesting origin story as they were accidental occurrences at first), or ownership (branding cattle, for example). But also, the more ephemeral and transient elements: love, evil, power. To visualize these inherently *non*-visual inner worlds of humankind is what the majority of this text is about.
To go through every single page of this book is to merely *glance* at the awe-inspiring qualities of life itself. That a person would think to represent the fine line between a protective and stoic nature and the element of fierce brutality and savagery lying under the surface of that by visualizing a Griffon, an imagined animal with the body of a lion and the head of an eagle, is fascinating, to say the least. What an excellent representation of that which has only been felt, and then talked about in stories. It’s final culmination an image, an inner world now seen in plain sight, with the ability to signify power, wariness, and even comradery.
There are endless questions and analyses to be drawn out (no pun intended) from this treasury – bringing limitless potential to the minds of its readers. It is important to note that Lehner does mention, quite directly in his introduction to Printers’ Marks, that the condition and character of signs, symbols, and signets has been degraded as we enter and progress into modernity and now post-modernity:
“Printers were their own publishers. They belonged to the intellectual and upper class of their time… with the dawn of the 17th century, commercial publishers, who were not skilled printers, took over… with that unprofessional attitude on the part of this new generation of publishers one of the most artistic periods in the history of signets came to an early and inglorious end.”
What may be understood at first glance as an encyclopedic and thus exhaustive account is incredibly softened by Lehner’s introductions, one might call them editorials, which begin each chapter. He is sentimental about his work, and rightfully so:
“The focus of interest in this study is more special: to trace man’s evolution as an artist and designer and to do this through the signs, seals and symbols he has left as his record. Unfortunately man is a destroyer as well as a creator; and the 60,000 or more prints and the elaborate reference library it has taken the author the better part of a lifetime to assemble were destroyed in a split second by the dynamite charge of a retreating army in the last war.” (from Lehner’s note ‘To The Reader’)
Also, the Introduction to this body of work seems to instruct that this book must be *read*. The introduction, written not by Lehner but by another man by the name of Ervine Metzl, notes that symbols such as these are essential to the idea of humankind. Metzl’s ideas concerning these symbols, it is clear, is vastly different – than marks of an animal (even one of our own species) relieving himself on a piece of land to communicate what is their own territory and not another’s.
“Behind the Veil of Time, primitive man has left a record of himself in symbols created ages before he learned to write. Just as a child piles up sticks and stones to represent concepts for which he has not yet learned words, mankind in its childhood built cairns and marked trees in its first efforts of self-expression.”
What Metzl hints at, and what is later confirmed in the book, is that many of these signs, symbols, and signets rose out of a desire beyond survival and from a new kind of necessity. To interpret the foundations of this book, that necessity appears to have come from two different origins:
1. To represent experiences within the psyche and from the outside world which were (then or even now) unexplainable (for example, to whom do we pray about love, for love? Aphrodite from Roman mythology, perhaps, whose name, image, and story/mythos became a visual symbol that has lasted throughout centuries)
2. To have a *record* that would remain after death, as some kind of remembrance. Of *what* kind of remembrance requires a close study of a particular symbol: it may be to commemorate civilization (the Arms of Great Britain or the Seal of the United States, for example), it might be to signify authorship (watermarks, for example – which has a particularly interesting origin story as they were accidental occurrences at first), or ownership (branding cattle, for example). But also, the more ephemeral and transient elements: love, evil, power. To visualize these inherently *non*-visual inner worlds of humankind is what the majority of this text is about.
To go through every single page of this book is to merely *glance* at the awe-inspiring qualities of life itself. That a person would think to represent the fine line between a protective and stoic nature and the element of fierce brutality and savagery lying under the surface of that by visualizing a Griffon, an imagined animal with the body of a lion and the head of an eagle, is fascinating, to say the least. What an excellent representation of that which has only been felt, and then talked about in stories. It’s final culmination an image, an inner world now seen in plain sight, with the ability to signify power, wariness, and even comradery.
There are endless questions and analyses to be drawn out (no pun intended) from this treasury – bringing limitless potential to the minds of its readers. It is important to note that Lehner does mention, quite directly in his introduction to Printers’ Marks, that the condition and character of signs, symbols, and signets has been degraded as we enter and progress into modernity and now post-modernity:
“Printers were their own publishers. They belonged to the intellectual and upper class of their time… with the dawn of the 17th century, commercial publishers, who were not skilled printers, took over… with that unprofessional attitude on the part of this new generation of publishers one of the most artistic periods in the history of signets came to an early and inglorious end.”
January 9, 2021
I'm a graphic designer and this is one of my go-to books when I'm trying to find symbology inspiration for logo or branding projects for my clients. I love books that include things you aren't likely to find on pinterest and since this book is copyright 1950, there is a whole lot of that!
September 16, 2022
"I could be a symbologist that has Indiana Jones type adventures, still wouldn't change the fact I don't have a car." Ferris Bueller, probabluy
November 9, 2016
I found this book while at a tattoo shop. Pleased to say that this book has a mind blowing set of over 1300 signs, symbols, seals and a host of other interesting drawings. All are collectively categorized and charted by number so they are very easy to reference and cross reference. I eventually ended up purchasing the book for my personal library.
Great book if your into historical means of communication by right of symbolism.
Great book if your into historical means of communication by right of symbolism.
November 26, 2013
A "image" book showing the varying symbols, signs and signets including astronomy, astrology, alchemy, magic, heraldry, watermarks and even cattle brands and hobo signs. Only the symbol and the name of it is given, not a description, but still worth a browse. Good for reference material.
December 20, 2010
Short on words, but an exceptional collection of illustrations.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews