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Geometric fret borders

A repeated geometric band can frame a memorial panel without becoming another line of lettering. In “Frets and Guillochis,” James Page explains how to organize a band before adding detail: keep the open ground and the drawn strips in balance, and let the angular turns meet cleanly. He warns that a narrow space can become confused if the pattern is packed too tightly.

Read the band as a repeated path

Section titled “Read the band as a repeated path”

The first unnumbered plate compares several right-angled fret bands. Their differences come from the sequence of turns and the width of the open intervals; the plate does not number or separately caption the patterns.

Several historical border bands repeat straight, right-angled paths with different spacing and turns.
Page's unnumbered plate of angular fret examples, Archive PDF p. 235. The explanation begins on printed p. 156 / PDF p. 232 and continues on printed p. 157 / PDF p. 241. No separate draughtsman or individual pattern caption is supplied. Open the full-resolution plate.

Page also shows bands that leave open compartments or combine an angular repeat with a curved detail. The historical examples demonstrate variation in a bounded strip; the source does not assign symbolic meanings to these individual forms.

A plate of horizontal geometric bands, including repeated angular paths, open compartments, and small curved ornaments.
Page's unnumbered examples include continuous bands and forms with open or ornamented compartments. Archive PDF p. 239; the chapter's text on printed pp. 157-159 / PDF pp. 241-243 explains the division and combination principles. No individual draughtsman is named. Open the full-resolution plate.

Try a present-day memorial panel study

Section titled “Try a present-day memorial panel study”

This is a modern paper exercise, not a historical monument-shop instruction or a stone-cutting specification:

  1. Set the wording and its clear field first. Add a narrow border zone outside that field on a tracing sheet.
  2. Divide the band evenly in pencil, then test one simple angular repeat. Compare it with a version that leaves a quiet space at the center.
  3. Look at each sketch beside the wording and from a few steps away. Keep the border only if the pattern stays subordinate and the text remains easy to read.

Page describes fret patterns as suitable for limited border uses such as a cornice, rim, or small band. The memorial-panel exercise is a present-day editorial application; his drawings do not set a monument’s dimensions, materials, or fabrication method. For a shaped frame rather than a flat repeating band, see profiles and panels.

Source and image credit

Section titled “Source and image credit”

James Page, Guide for Drawing the Acanthus, and Every Description of Ornamental Foliage, London: Bernard Quaritch, re-printed 1886. The title leaf prints “I. Page,” ornamental draftsman and designer; the preface says he undertook the work as author, engraver, and printer. The chapter “On Frets and Guillochis” is printed pp. 156-159 (Archive PDF pp. 232, 241-243); selected unnumbered illustration plates are Archive PDF pp. 235 and 239. Neither plate gives individual pattern captions or names a separate draughtsman. Archive item rights metadata is U.S.-only evidence and is not a worldwide determination. See the Page source record.