I have been turning over the "IS" in one of the damaged Elvish decals in my brain, having known some french in high school, and I'm pretty sure it must be the last two letters of "DEPUIS" = "since", so the Elvish Shield Logo is probably titled, "Depuis 1883" - "since 1883".
http://www.ece.ubc.ca/
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA, USA