The job of identifying and authenticating signatures on artwork is hard enough when trying to verify renowned artists let alone the less eminent ones. Working as an art researcher for the past 40 years, multimedia artist and sculptor, John Castagno, has published 16 other titles replicating the signatures, monograms and initials of artists. His research in this field seems unrivalled and covers indiscernible signatures and monograms of artists from different countries and art genres. The Signatures and Monograms series is aimed at art collectors, museums, galleries and libraries as a reference source.
Old Masters II follows on from the 1996 publication of Old Masters: Signatures and Monograms, 1400‐Born 1800, the first volume of which identified some 2,700 signature examples of more than 1,700 artists while the second has over 1,100 signature examples of more than 800 artists. Old Masters II expands the time period covered from the earlier work to artists active during the early nineteenth century and has used the cut off date of artists born no later than 1820. Old Masters and Old Masters II are designed to be used together but can also be used individually and offer “the user a unique source for verifying a signature style or discovering who an artist is who signed a work with a monogram, with a common last name signature or with an alternative surname”.
The work is split into three main sections; Monograms and Initials, Common Surname Signatures, and Alternative Surname Signatures. The first section, Monograms and Initials, is arranged in alphabetical order by surname. Under each artist's name are the dates of birth and death where known or date(s) of activity. There is also an abbreviation of the sources consulted by the author that can be checked against the List of Abbreviations and Sources section at the beginning of this volume. Thoroughly researched by Castagno, in a number of cases some entries feature variations on the signature if known. The section on Monograms and Initials is alphabetically arranged by the order of the letters in the monograms or initialled signatures and not by the artists' surname. There is a brief but useful explanation of the differences between monogrammed, initialled and conjoined initials on the first page of this section. The last section looks at Alternative Surname Signatures and features artists who “signed their works with pseudonyms, nicknames, first and/or middle names, or with partial last names”. This chapter is arranged in signature alphabetical order not by artist surname. Because of the layout, the Index of Artists at the back of the book is very useful to cross‐reference and find the artists you want.
At £59.95 Old Masters II: Signatures and Monograms: A Directory might seem expensive but considering its content and uses this may be a very small price to pay.
