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Vintage Pictures, Engravings and Extracts From Old Books

Over 4,200 free images from old, rare, antique and vintage books. High-resolution images for sale.

Initial Letter I With Art Nouveau Swirls

Venus danced for Apollo

Chapterhead with Boy’s Head

11. Seal of Gusion.

Sacrificial Rites of the Ancient British Druids

English Manufacturing

Helen and Paris

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique green

Front Cover

Title page, The Defence of Guenevere

That wall of stone

Sir Isaac Newton

Jesus and Moses

145.—Leading a Horse

Foliated initial capital letter S, coloured

53.8.—IHS

Oval frame, scalloped

Tailpiece with peacock

Front Cover With Alice

Dark Passion Flowers

Foliated Initial Letter S

Tailpiece of hunting paraphernalia

Convolvulus Tricolor

Armillary Sphere, Scanned Version

70.—Border of cherubs climbing in trees

Classical full-page border with goddess

Simon de Montfort: Knight on his Horse

Historiated decorative initial capital letter M in Blue

Buckingham Palace

Heralds’ College

Indian Civet, Fossa, Genet

clipart: initial letter S from late 15th century printed book

The old tollbooth in Canongate, Edinburgh

The Cow Doctor

Gold endpaper

Full-page border with hearts and moons

Vintage endpaper border with flowering vine

Mephistophiles

Floriated initial capital letter “S”

Faust

Faust, detail from title page

Frontispiece: A bride’s dream

Free clip-art: Victorian border of twigs and leaves

On the Terrace

Usk Bridge, Monmouth, Coloured from aon old painting

Usk Bridge

The Magical Circle of King Solomon

733.—Oxford Cathedral.

Mount Edgcombe

Our Father Who Art In Heaven

Scrollwork Border from page 227

clipart: initial letter P from late 15th century printed book

clipart: initial letter O from late 15th century printed book

Fig 36. — A staircase of the catacombs

Names of Angels and Days (overview)

Fig. 37. — Tunnel in the Catacombs of Rome

One Bay of the “Angel Choir,” Interior, Lincoln Cathedral

Initial letter I with Transitional Capital

2.—Stonehenge. – Restored Plan.

Title Page

Portrait of Ebeneezer Sibly, M.D>, F.R.H.S.

Front Cover

Portrait of King Henry the Eighth

Her mirror was the smooth water of the tide pool

The white horse carried the earth king’s son and the princess over the sea

Front Cover

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, Black and White

Franciscan Monk Going Down Staircase

God and my Divine Right: Royal Crest

Endpaper: gold leaf with central British royal coat of arms

Clip-art: calligraphic decorative initial capital letter R from XIV. Century No. 1

An Egyptian Priest and Scribe

An Owl in the Pope’s Council

Wooden Church, Greenstead, Essex, A.D. 1013 (as it was in 1748)

The Virgin Mary

A Display of Manuscripts on Reading Desks.

Title Page

Summary of the Law, in gold

Free clip-art: Eighteenth-century Border from Figures pour les Missels

A genteel wheelchair in Paris

Cherub with grin and cloven hoofs

Plate XIV—Chinese Dragon

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique brown

Front Cover, Art of Decorative Design

Plate XXIV.—Knowledge Is Power

Title Page

Clip-art: calligraphic decorative initial capital letter B from XIV. Century No. 1

Fig. 86.—Curves.

Plate XVIII.—Stylized Chinese Dragon

And then began a murder, grim and great

Clip-art: calligraphic decorative initial capital letter N from XIV. Century No. 1

Gibeon

Cupid with a Butterfly

December Night (Dezembernacht)

Free clip-art: Victorian border of brown twigs and green leaves

The Irmin Column in the Cathedral of Hildesheim

Taymouth Castle

Rustic postcard border of interleaved twigs and vines

Decorative initial (drop cap) D

Old Bologna (1850s)

Isaak Newton [Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton]

Battle in the Sacred Linden Groves

Purple Victorian Vine-leaf Border

Initial letter V with a mermaid

Front Cover, Bohemia Part Two

Title Page, Bohemia Part Two

Clip-art: calligraphic decorative initial capital letter D from XIV. Century No. 1

Battle of Knights

Full-page border of repeated vine leaves

Votivkirche, Vienna

Knight, Death and the Devil (1513)

Avenue of Sighs

Christmas Still Life

The Seranade

Early Victorian Border from Book Cover

A schoolroom in Tunisia

Llanthony Priory, Valley of the Honddu

Adrift from The Snow Queen

[Ancient] Greek Marble Mosaics 1: Olympia

Dark brown fantasy watercolour border

The giants tore up trees

initial letter R with small girl

Victorian vine-leaf page border

Leicester Hospital, Warwick

Scheuerfest - Spring Cleaning

Visit the full list of Recently added images and of the most popular images.

Vintage Borders and Initials

Decorative Initials and Drop Caps: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T Th U V W X Y Z
See all initials, or all alphabets, or the Decorative borders and frames

Quirky Old-Time Holiday Images

Curious Old Texts, Slang and Dictionaries

A Provincial Dictionary by Francis Grose (1790); 66 regional proverbs.
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable by E. Cobham Brewer (1894); over 17,000 entries! New 2008-02-15.
Smiley's Recipe and Housekeeping Guide, historical recipes transcribed and annotated by CatamountClyde Studios.
Canting Dictionary by Nathan Bailey (1736), a dictionary of the slang of the underworld, of thieves, gypsies and vagrants. Text complete
Dictionary of the Canting Tongue by Francis Grose (1811)
Musa Pedestris: Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes [1536-1896] edited by John S. Farmer, 1896.
The Nuttall Encyclpædia, by the Rev. James Wood (1907) (over 14,000 entries)
Oratio Dominica, or, The Lord’s Prayer in over a hundred Languages, Versions and Characters (Scripts) by Dan Brown (1713). I have scanned every page, and also an insert folded in the back, so this book is complete.
Dictionary of Proverbs by Nathan Bailey, 1721. The whole book in text and images (complete)
The Grammar of Heraldry, by Samuel Kent 1718. I have typed the first chapter on how to Blazon, etc., and will do more if requested.
Universal Etymological English Dictionary, edited by Nathan Bailey, 1736. A little under 500 entries, but very incomplete; this is a transcription I started in 1991. It is a different book than the dictionary containing the Canting Dictionary.
The Itinerary of John Leland the Antiquary edited by Thomas Hearne, 1745. 122 page images including cover and title page; I have started to transcribe names that appear in the text.
More wonderful old texts at words.fromoldbooks.org

The Pictures: Woodcuts, Engravings & Clip art

Pictures of Old Books