Antiques: The motto: Pretty words and pictures

With the holiday season officially launched, spreading good cheer is the order of the day. Naturally, this is an ideal time for giving, or collecting, vintage printed mottoes.

Positive quotes have always been part of American life, from Bible verses ("Love thy neighbor") to Ben Franklin's exhortations in Poor Richard's Almanack ("Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise").

Initially, such words of wisdom were stitched onto quilts and samplers. When bright chromolithography was perfected in the 19th century, printers cranked out greeting cards and pictures.

What dealers and collectors call mottoes are verses on a theme - friendship, motherhood, patriotism - surrounded by colorful graphics, printed and framed for presentation. The motto's popularity peaked in the 1920s and 1930s, and many examples are dated.

One oft-sold motto was a work by Arthur Chapman (1873-1935), a writer and columnist for the Denver Republican, who wrote poetry and novels with cowboy themes. Chapman's most famous poem, "Out Where the West Begins," made many an East Coast gent think about the open range.

Reportedly, a copy hung in the office of the secretary of the interior, and it was widely sold as a framed motto with a scenic background.

It reads in part:

"Out where the handclasp's a little stronger,

"Out where the smile dwells a little longer,

"That's where the West begins . . . "

Philadelphia businessman Spencer Penrose (1865-1939) was so inspired that he ventured out to the Rockies, where he made a fortune in copper and gold mining. He settled at Colorado Springs and built the famous Broadmoor Hotel in 1918. The beautiful resort still stands between the mountains and a reflecting lake, and Chapman's poem has a prominent place in the lobby.

Not long ago, I found a copy in an antiques mall and gave it to a friend who had just built a vacation house on the prairie.

Giving mottoes as gifts gets to be a habit. My best friend informs me that she has received two mottoes from me on the subject of friendship. The most recent had a bold blue background and truly syrupy lines.

Seekers can often find a cluster of mottoes in a dealer's booth. Look for bright, unfaded colors and the original period frame. Prices usually range from $45 to $65, with few over $100.

Mottoes also can be found on eBay and at online antiques sites. I recently came across a wide selection offered by In Spirit Antiques at

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, a collecting Web site. These included "A Nurse's Prayer" with appropriate illustrations, as well as a framed printed version of a paean to motherhood, "My Madonna" by poet Maurine Hathaway.

Many companies produced and signed these gift items, but one of the more prolific was Buzza Co., founded in Minneapolis in 1907.

Not long ago, I found a friendship motto in its original presentation box by Gibson Art Co., the greeting-card firm founded by brothers in the lithography business who immigrated to Ohio from Scotland.

My favorite motto has no author attached, but its cheerful sentiments greet guests to my home:

"We dedicate this house of ours unto good cheer.

"Laughter, and Love, and Hope, and Joy shall revel here.

"Its swinging doors to Care and Strife shall open never.

"Gladness shall reign supreme and high, and reign forever."

This Buzza motto, dated 1925, has excellent art deco graphics. Several ladies make music with a jester and harlequin, while two blue guys - Care and Strife, presumably - are left out in the cold. The 7-by-10-inch print sums up my sentiments exactly.

Though students of popular literature may revel in the mushier verses, the trick is to find better quotes with the very best illustrations. An unusual motto is simply called "Allah's Prayer."

It begins:

"I pray the prayer the Easterns do.

"May the Peace of Allah abide with you.

"Wherever you stay, wherever you go,

"May the beautiful palms of Allah grow."

A striking 1920s graphic takes up most of the print. An Arab kneels on his prayer rug by a fire at a small oasis with palms and classical ruins, his camel nearby.

Think back past modern conflicts and prejudice to the 19th century, when the "Orientalism" movement romanticized the Middle East in general and Bedouin culture in particular. This motto is a less expensive version of the mosque and seraglio paintings that hang in museums.

Last month, I discovered a larger-format version of mottoes in the display of an Illinois dealer at a Nashville antiques show. She had discovered a group of inspirational posters for the classroom in a teacher's estate. They were suitable for framing and priced at only $35 each.

The prints, by Educational Publishing Corp. of Darien, Conn., had strong holiday themes, including Washington's prayer for peace from Valley Forge and a familiar Thanksgiving poem by Henry Alford.

The latter, illustrated with pumpkins, cornstalks, and a bit of snow, reads:

"Come ye thankful people, come,

"Raise the song of harvest home!

"All is safely gathered in

"Ere the winter storms begin."