Housemarks (superimposed & combined letters, heraldry)

Question

I am trying to typeset three housemarks from a manuscript (see also images):

• V + R superimposed
• A + B combined
• A and H + S combined

However, it's turning out to be harder than I thought. I have the below V+R so far, but the horizontal alignment is off (though I have halign=center?!), and it just plain looks bad.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tcolorbox}
\usepackage{relsize}
\usepackage{stackengine}
\usepackage{ebgaramond}

\begin{document}

\begin{tcolorbox}[
        width=1cm,
        height=1cm,
        bean arc,
        sharp corners=north,
        halign=center,
        valign=center,
    ]
    \stackinset{c}{-1pt}{c}{-5pt}%
        {\upshape\larger[2] V}%
        {\upshape R}
\end{tcolorbox}

\end{document}

Answer 1

You could do this

But the results are at best "variable" it would be better really to forget that they are letters and just draw the paths directly using tikz, otherwise you are always going to get weird artefacts from rotated serifs etc.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{graphicx}

\begin{document}


\fbox{\begin{picture}(10,10)
\put(5,5){\makebox(0,0){\scalebox{1.5}[1]{V}}}
\put(5,5){\makebox(0,0){\scalebox{.9}[1]{\itshape R}}}
\end{picture}}
\quad
\fbox{\begin{picture}(10,10)
\put(3,5){\makebox(0,0){A}}
\put(6.5,5.5){\makebox(0,0){\rotatebox{20}{B}}}
\end{picture}}
\quad
\fbox{\begin{picture}(10,10)
\put(2.5,5){\makebox(0,0){I}}
\put(2.5,5){\thicklines\line(1,0){4}}
\put(7,5){\makebox(0,0){S}}
\end{picture}}


\end{document}

Answer 2

This is mostl a comment on David Carlisle's answer, but it is a bit bit long...

If you want to use existing letters for your AB, I would recommend slanting the A instead of rotating the B. This avoids getting rotated serifs and the B looks more natural:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\leavevmode
\setbox0\hbox{A}%
\pdfsave
\pdfsetmatrix{1 0 0.35 1}%
\box0\expandafter\kern\the\dimexpr-\wd0\relax\relax
\pdfrestore
\kern.43em
B
\end{document}