Diálogo sobre la historia de la pintura en México
This 1889 Mexican dialogue on painting history by José Bernardo Couto was printed by the Secretaría de Fomento press in Mexico City, and this picture is a bookplate rather than an illustration from the text. It is a bold dark-blue woodcut-style ex libris with a banner reading EX LIBRIS and Latin motto, a hand holding a pen over a cross, scales, and a pair of goblets. A designer could take its strong symmetrical framing, banner lettering, and emblematic layout as a model for a compact, high-contrast monogram label.
