LUCY BURDETTE: I’m not quite sure why this topic came to me, other than as a card carrying member of the Jungle Red blog, one must always be alert for possibly interesting subjects! Maybe these spoons caught my imagination when we’d been getting ready for a party and polishing the silver? Anyway, they got me thinking about monograms. I’ve never been the kind of person who wanted to put her name on sheets or towels or articles of clothing. In fact, a number of years ago, John bought some silver knives on eBay to fill out our set. They had somebody else’s initials on them and I never liked using them. We sold them back not long after. I do like these spoons because they are a blast from the past, monograms from my maternal grandmother, my mother, and then John’s baby spoon. Don't you love the one with the little windmill?
Here’s another one that I love, because it was the class ring belonging to my grandmother, Alice May Hunziker Isleib, who attended the Patterson Normal School.
I also got a kick out of coming across this briefcase which my father presented to me when I graduated with my degree in clinical psychology. I haven’t used it in years, but it makes me smile to think of him choosing it.
Are you a monogram person?
HALLIE EPHRON: I have a friend who was divorced twice, and her maiden name and both married names started with the initial H. So her monogrammed towels conveniently lived on, marriage after marriage and continue on now that she’s once again single.
I always hated my monogram. HE. I’m not a HE. It’s even worse with my middle name: HEE. It’s not funny. So I would rather NOT have my initials emblazoned on anything I own.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: The only thing I can think of that I’ve ever had monogrammed was a lovely decorative stationery stamp–which if I ever managed to write cards and letters to people, I would still use. But no monogrammed sheets, towels, or silverware here. My maiden name initials were fine–DLD–and those from my first married name (which is still my legal and professional name) are fine, too–DLC. I have had my husband’s initials, RW, engraved on some cocktail glasses, come to think of it, although I’m not quite sure why since he’s not much for drinking cocktails!
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Aw, well, no, I guess. Do I have anything emblazoned (such a good word) with H? Just an Hermes bracelet, thank you very much, which is all the monogram I need. :-) Someone gave me rocks glasses with an H on them, that’s fun, but whatever. My initials are HPR, in some worlds, which is fine. And I do have that monogram on my suitcase, which I have to say is helpful. But it’s tiny. I wish I had things with my grandmothers’ monograms, I’d love that, but I don’t. Or my mother’s. I am not at all anti-monogram though, I think they can be very sweet.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Debs, I love the fact your initials are also the Roman number 590! I do love monograms, and I have several things of my mother’s that had hers - although since she married three times, they aren’t always the same! However, having a hyphenated name is tricky, especially if, like me, you’re a stickler for the proper form. For instance, my married name is Julia J. Hugo-Vidal, so a PROPER monogram should be J H-V J. Try fitting that onto a glass! Most places don’t even offer that level of customization.
I do have, however, the family writing paper! I got a copperplate engraving of H-V from Crane Stationery shortly after I got married, and every five or ten years I have another batch printed. Each of the kids now has a box of their own, so if they aren’t writing proper bread-and-butter notes, they can’t blame it on a lack of paper.
No monograms here . . . I'm not particularly anti-monogram but I've never really seen the need for having something monogrammed. I don't remember seeing monogrammed things when I was growing up, so I guess it's just one of those things that didn't make an impression on me . . . .
ReplyDeleteI never got into monograms either. To me they seem part of romantic Victorian era novels. I find them charming in that context, but don't relate to them in contemporary life.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see the family crest signet ring, too. Now ... I could see a whole mystery being written around that! 😊
oh good idea, Rhys???
DeleteI remember a photo on our fridge when I was growing up. It was the daughter of family friends, and her sweater had a monogram. Like Jenn, I remember being confused about the “middle” initial not being the middle initial.
ReplyDeleteI think the only things I’ve had with a monogram were some lovely linen handkerchiefs that had been my great uncle’s. The W for Wagner could be M from my last name when viewed correctly.
In my first job, we all went by our initials. It stemmed from the practice of circulating environmental articles around with the initials of the people who were supposed to see it in the upper corner. I still think of those colleagues as DAB, DET, EMC. My own, LBM, were the same as pound-mass from our engineering classes, so sometimes my boss called me that.
Your boss called you pound-mass?!
DeleteLisa, sounds exactly like the kind of thing that used to happen when women were in mostly-male work environments. Pound-mass, indeed!
DeleteNot from a monogram family. But I always thought my first 2 initials were perfect for a writer; I had them stenciled on my first- ever work parking place: B S Epstein
ReplyDeleteThe silver I use for special occasions is my Maxwell grandmother's, and the M fits me perfectly. I think that the only monogram I've ever had until recently, which is fine. My daughter-in-law's aunt in Puerto Rico does embossed metalwork (not sure if that's the right term), and she made me a bookmark with a big E on it. It's hanging in a window in my office instead of me using it in a book because I like to look at it.
ReplyDeleteThere was a CFO at the first hi-tech company I worked at, a Kurzweil speech recognition company (descendants of that software are responsible in part for you being able to talk to your remote or your Alexa or your Dragon app). The guy was named Bernie Bradstreet, and he wore very nice shirts with his monogram on the cuff. We had weekly all-company lunches, so we saw the cuff up close, and some of us joked later that Bernie's mom didn't want him losing his clothes at camp. (The dude pulled some financial shenanigans and ended up in jail. Haven't thought about him in years.)
Such an interesting topic, and one I haven't thought about before. As one with Southern parents, I grew up with monograms. I always loved them and found the mystery of the last initial in the middle intriguing. For a long time I wore a blouse of my grandmother's, monogrammed with her initials. My legal name is complicated and has a first name plus an unspellable married last name that I don't use in day to day life. Thus my initials are MSWH. It's a long and unwieldy handle that fits in no boxes, so for Medicare billing, for example, I am M-- H--, the two names I do not use. I must always clarify that I am Selden. I've initialed a lot of legal papers with MSWH, but I've never bought anything monogrammed because it seemed impossible. In my childhood, when I was MSW, my grandmother paid for a monogrammed gold ring for me at age 10. I have always worn that ring, my mother having it resized for me in my late teens. Of course the monogram has long since rubbed away.
ReplyDeleteFunny that you mention polishing silver. I have a few silver serving spoons, worn thin and monogrammed with an S. Selden is a family name, and my great-great grandfather who owned the spoons was a captain in the Confederate army. Though the son of a good, sober man, he was a wastrel who was out drinking with the boys when his last child was born and his wife died of puerperal fever. I've read the Confederate correspondence detailing his failures as an officer due to shamming sickness (hangovers) and later the legal papers when his parents-in-law, who had taken custody of all six children, tried to force him off the plantation they had paid for. He lived on to die much later in a hotel when the mosquito netting over his bed caught fire, no doubt due to smoking in bed while drunk. I always think of him and his poor wife Betty while polishing their 1850s monogrammed silver spoons. (Selden)
Oh my goodness, Selden...Your family history is always both interesting and intriguing! What a story behind your monogrammed silver spoons. The sentimental side of me loved the fact that you wore your grandmother's monogrammed blouse. How lovely!
DeleteGood story, Selden! Your family history sounds like a story waiting for a writer!
Deleteabsolutely needs to be written Selden!
DeleteOh boy...I'm probably going to be the only blogger on here who is fond of monograms or maybe in my case monogram phrases. Ever since I married my current husband years ago I became hooked on the phrase "Two Peas In a Pod" because my married last name which is Italian sounds similar to the word "peas". At least the Americanized pronunciation of my married name. So over the years I have had the phrase "Two P-Z's In a Pod" monogramed on a few things; in particular, an annual New Yorker Desk Diary's front cover and a few other personal items. It's mainly an in-house connection my husband and I share as a personal and close bond with each other. I won't get into how many times my last name is dreadfully or even humorously mispronounced or misspelled so condensing it to the letters P-Z has also become a fond nickname for the two of us. As for single initial monograms I confess to having the letter "P" on the "good towels"...you know the ones you hang on a towel rack with the implied message "do not wipe your hands on these...use the guest towels". :-) Also two beautiful coffee carafes I have used during my more formal entertainment days which as I grow older become ever more closer to casual dining. Still I love using those carafes. They keep the coffee fresh and hot and readily available on the dining room table during dessert time. I admit to also loving items that may have a certain symbolic significance to me; i.e., six small cocktail glasses I found in a sweet little antique shop called "Nesting" in Concord, MA with roosters lasered on the front of them. My mother-in-law's maiden name was Gallo which means rooster in Italian and she loved it when I used them to serve eggnog or a sweet dessert. I also love Italian Pottery and we have a lovely white rooster from Italy that sits on a kitchen shelf. It's a lovely reminder of my M-I-L's surname and her Calabria ancestry in Southern Italy. I've wandered off track here but I often think that monogrammed items, especially those artifacts passed down through family generations, may also signify "Please always remember me".
ReplyDeletegood family stories Evelyn!
DeleteThank you so much...I am a very sentimental person so I especially loved your briefcase story. I love its connection with your father and the pride and love he must have felt for you, Lucy.
DeleteBack in the 1980s I had leggings that matched a monogrammed sweater. I’m not talking about stretchy pants. I’m talking about sweaters for your calves. They were perfect with my vibram-soled hiking boots for trudging across campus in a snowstorm.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that makes me itchy, Jenn, is catalogs that sell personalized items with an apostrophe mistake.
I do have a few monogrammed items that were my parents and I use the occasionally. Every time I come across one, I feel a bit nostalgic. I was just 18 when my mother died. The last generation had more monogrammed stuff than this generation. Irwin and I haven't monogrammed anything.
ReplyDeleteUsing your initials in Japanese culture is not common. I have never seen monograms in my family's posessions.
ReplyDeleteNo monograms on Nome St. I do remember when we were naming the girls we looked at their initials. We managed to avoid HEE, but did not serve Amy (ARH) coughing sound. Now me? I love my first initial and full last name. People meet C.Hicks..and I don't have any eggs either.
ReplyDeleteRhys I would love to see your family crest signet ring!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in high school in southern California . Because we had a number of navy families who were stationed in our navy community, signet rings and mongograms were suddenly popular as were all things preppy. I thought the last name initial being in the middle was a little weird but liked it for some reason. I had a problem though in that I had no middle name - just two initials.
:)