This ornate capital S appears in The Book of Days by Robert Chambers, 1864.

Here's the imp of the overturned goblet, doubling as an ornate capital S, from The Oxford Thackeray.  This should also be of interest: How to Believe in Your Elf.

The devil whispers a great secret to a cow, from Blasts From the Ram's Horn, 1902.

From The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter by Ambrose Bierce, 1892.

Here are two classic Egyptian symbols as letters (from Un Tour de Méditerranée, de Venise à Tunis, par Athènes, Constantinople et le Caire by Paul Jousset, 1893), but did you know we uncovered a way to decode Egyptian symbols in the letters of any name?  We share the discovery in the The Egyptian Secrets in Your Name. Our system includes an exclusive technique for automatically reciting an Egyptian poem as you gaze upon the letters of anyone's name (seriously), as if channeling a spirit from antiquity.  We only belatedly learned that our system was hailed as one of the top mentalism innovations of 2012 ... but you don't have to be a magician to use it, and it's actually not a trick.

The sun as an egotist, from Oculus Hoc Est by Christoph Scheiner, 1619.

Here's an owlish capital M from Blasts from The Ram's Horn, 1902.

This ornate capital G reminds us of Number 2's signature spherical chair in The Prisoner series.  From Loose Rein by Wanderer and illustrated by G. Bowers, 1887.

From Blasts from The Ram's Horn, 1902.

Contrary to popular belief, dropped H's don't fall but rather fly.  From La Morale Merveilleuse by P. Christian, 1844.

Here's an ornate capital A from La Morale Merveilleuse by P. Christian, 1844.

From Blasts from The Ram's Horn, 1902.

On bended knee before the W, from Blasts from The Ram's Horn, 1902.  This might be why:

From The Baby's Museum by Uncle Charlie, 1882.

"Nothing unusual," from Across Country by Wanderer and illustrated by Georgina Bowers, 1882.

An ornate capital O from The Virginians by William Makepeace Thackeray, 1858.

Ornate capitals have physical counterparts.  For example, this is the U of Ulram Chapel as it appeared before 1876.  It is preserved in Holderness and Hullshire Historic Gleanings, 1886.

"Charlie ... gestured with his head to the letter."
—S. L. Richardson, All The Way (2008)

The illustration of the giant letter P is from Punch, 1857.

John Leech sketched this for a tale about a clown who had to crack jokes in a circus while his wife was in her dying agonies after fatally missing her footing on a leap from a standing position on horseback; the rip in the hoop is meant to suggest the initial letter I of the story.  From Cornhill magazine, 1864.