Die Bücher-Ornamentik Der Renaissance (Vol. I.) (page 2/4)

The title page has been printed in two colours, and includes an ornate decorative border, which I also made available as separate images in green-brown (most like the original), black (easiest to re-use) and red (because people seem to like red pictures the best). [more...]

Ornate border from 1878 Title Page (black version)

This is the ornate decorative border from the title page of this book; it features cherubs or putti (naked boys with wings) holding up giant urns or vases; mermaids and mermen; angels, vines, flowers and leaves, all in one border or frame! Although the border is probably from a medieval/mediaeval or renaissance source, it would of course [...] [more...]

Printer’s Flower from Title Page

Ths ornament is on the title page.

Book cover, Ornamentik Der Renaissance (Vol. I.)

This ornamental book cover, with its baroque border, is marked Munich (München) 1922; presumably the book was either rebound or reissued in 1922. [more...]

Ornate border from 1878 Title Page (green/brown version)

This is the ornate decorative border from the title page of this book; it features cherubs or putti (naked boys with wings) holding up giant urns or vases; mermaids and mermen; angels, vines, flowers and leaves, all in one border or frame! Although the border is probably from a medieval/mediaeval or renaissance source, it would of course [...] [more...]

Ornate border from 1878 Title Page (red version)

This is the ornate decorative border from the title page of this book; it features cherubs or putti (naked boys with wings) holding up giant urns or vases; mermaids and mermen; angels, vines, flowers and leaves, all in one border or frame! Although the border is probably from a medieval/mediaeval or renaissance source, it would of course [...] [more...]

Chapter head: cherubs playing games

Cherubs playing games with hoops and a spear or arrow, in a chain-link border. Used as a page decoration at the start of the foreword of the book. [more...]

Antique/Vintage Chain-link Border (coloured)

This full-page border is made up of circles linked together like a chain, with a woodcut engraved shaded background. I used orange red and black; the original woodcut is printed in plain black, with no ink (white) where I have the red and orange. [more...]

Plate 3, Page with foliated border from 1478

A reproduction of a page from a book printed at the office of Erhart Ratdolt in Venice in 1478, Pomponii Melle Cosographie de situ orbis liber primis. [more...]

Plate 62, Dance of Death Alphabet (overview)

Plate 62 is Holbein’s Dance of Death alphabet. I am making the individual letters available at higher resolution; this image is just a place to put the notes and to let you get a feel for the whole alphabet. [more...]

62a.—Initial capital letter “A” from Dance of Death Alphabet

This decorative initial letter “A”, or drop cap, is from an alphabet designed by Hans Holbein the Younger and dating from 1523. It features a skeleton banging a drum (or tabor) with a bone, and also playing a fife, followed by another skeleton waving a banner, or possibly playing a trumpet. Some commentators say they are marching through a graveyard [...] [more...]