I'm slightly muddled here. I bought some slipcases from DM a few months back & was meticulous in my choice of what stamped designs should appear on what slipcase etc --if only I'd half a clue as to what I was talking about!

I was saying I didn't really like the use of the JRRT monogram on slipcases for early LR sets, for example --as this wasn't really in keeping with the era of the books themselves. (I also didn't really like the idea of Tolkien's ring device being on a slipcase intended for a RU set --as, again, this didn't really sit well with the books [or jackets in this case] that were going into it.) I felt the monogram was anachronistic.

Granted, Tolkien was using the monogram himself, and late slipcases aren't meant to look like they came with the books --(or a least I don't want them to.) But it had me thinking: when, exactly, did the monogram device start being used? For some reason (when talking to David) I kept thinking it was a HarperCollins thing (especially with them always referencing it on the copyright page) --but clearly this is rubbish, as it is on all the UK HoME jackets & Letters. Is the jacket of Letters the earliest example?

BH

As I understand it Unwin paperbacks started to use the monogram as a branding/marketing tool for Tolkien merchandise in 1990, just before Unwin Hyman was acquired by HarperCollins.

As you pointed out it had been used before this i.e. on Letters and HOME but not in the same consistent manner as from 1990.

Looking at my books, I think Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien (1979) is the first example of the monogram being used on a book.
Letters is continuing the theme.