The origin of Fabrizio Salani's "AG" monagram

[eggyk]

Actually, it looks like the 2004 edition is simply a selection from Renoir (as the angry commenter mentioned), so it likely does not contain our "Design 5", only the similar "Design 1".

(The page layout I can glance in this image is exactly that of Renoir).

Sorry that i'm bumping the thread again but I believe it's important. 

The ebay seller who posted that image also shows another page, which is also identical to the original renoir. 

This is getting slightly interesting, as the ISBN numbers for both the 2004 and 2012 version are the same, which should mean that it's simply a reprint and shouldn't include any difference in content. If the 2004 edition doesn't contain it, the 2012 edition shouldn't either. 

Both versions contain 768 monogram designs in them, with 64 pages. It's very unlikely that they would have put any effort in to replace a design on one of the pages, considering they are lazily (re-re-)reprinting the exact plates from renoir (down to the exact shading). Who would they bother doing that for, and why? As for the CD-ROM, it states in the book that there are 768 images, so there shouldn't be an extra design hiding there either. 

This is looking more and more like a modern redesign by this specific company than an old unknown seal. The only place that it seems to exist is the UK company's website, although only at 25mm size (did they ever supply 0.6 inch/15mm, like the seal?) 

All of the aspects of the design are found in other monograms in the same collection: 

   
   

Above is me sloppily attempting a composite of the designs. Note that the top curve of the AG and the right side of AT are too close to eachother. My first instinct is to drop the right side further down, or to straighten the top of the G, which is exactly what we see in our AG seal. Another sloppy attempt by me to lower the AT loop:
   

A competent individual could blend these designs together with ease, such as someone in a custom seals business.


You could say that this still doesn't prove that it is modern, but I have scoured the internet for every menion of renoir, every collection of monograms, and I haven't come across this exact design once. I have come across most of the others multiple times. Each aspect of the design appears to clearly be in renoir's style, yet renoir never published this design. 

So either: Renoir secretly copied these from a mysterious older source, yet did not publish this specific design, and then the UK company gained access somehow to this hidden, unpublished design. 
or: Renoir designed these monograms, published all of his designs, which were copied by dover multiple times, and the UK company then blended some together in order to bulk out their inventory. 

The only other option is that the UK company copied the blended design from a different source that they did not disclose.

Edit: Or I've missed it somewhere, or it's not online anywhere. Though at some point I have to tell myself that i've searched enough and that it isn't there. Otherwise I would have to search forever on the small hope that it's hiding somewhere.