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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.

Indra, God of Atmosphere

The Keep, Walmer

The Stocks. Monkton

11. Seal of Gusion.

Title Page

Niccolò Paganini on the Fiftieth Anniversary of His Death

The Engraver

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique green

The Painter

The Novel

Front cover in red and gold

Sir Isaac Newton

The Counsel (a Scotch Terrier)

Frontispiece: Don’t Cry

Tortured with feet to the fire

53.8.—IHS

Zeus and Europa

Poppies and Tiger Lillies

Menu Card 2: Chef

Dark Passion Flowers

Menu Card 4: Waitress

Menu Card 1: Court Jester

Menu Card 3: Celler Master

Armillary Sphere, Scanned Version

Initial Letter I With Art Nouveau Swirls

Venus danced for Apollo

Chapterhead with Boy’s Head

Historiated decorative initial capital letter M in Blue

Sacrificial Rites of the Ancient British Druids

English Manufacturing

Helen and Paris

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

That wall of stone

Front Cover

Title page, The Defence of Guenevere

Full-page border with hearts and moons

Jesus and Moses

145.—Leading a Horse

Foliated initial capital letter S, coloured

Floriated initial capital letter “S”

Oval frame, scalloped

Tailpiece with peacock

Front Cover With Alice

Free clip-art: Victorian border of twigs and leaves

Foliated Initial Letter S

Tailpiece of hunting paraphernalia

Convolvulus Tricolor

The Magical Circle of King Solomon

70.—Border of cherubs climbing in trees

Classical full-page border with goddess

Simon de Montfort: Knight on his Horse

Scrollwork Border from page 227

Buckingham Palace

Heralds’ College

Indian Civet, Fossa, Genet

Names of Angels and Days (overview)

The old tollbooth in Canongate, Edinburgh

The Cow Doctor

Gold endpaper

2.—Stonehenge. – Restored Plan.

Vintage endpaper border with flowering vine

Faust, detail from title page

Mephistophiles

Portrait of King Henry the Eighth

Faust

Frontispiece: A bride’s dream

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, Black and White

On the Terrace

Usk Bridge, Monmouth, Coloured from aon old painting

Usk Bridge

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

733.—Oxford Cathedral.

Mount Edgcombe

Our Father Who Art In Heaven

The Virgin Mary

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

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

Fig. 37. — Tunnel in the Catacombs of Rome

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

Fig 36. — A staircase of the catacombs

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

Initial letter I with Transitional Capital

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique brown

Title Page

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

Her mirror was the smooth water of the tide pool

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

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

Front Cover

Front Cover

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

Franciscan Monk Going Down Staircase

God and my Divine Right: Royal Crest

Endpaper: gold leaf with central British royal coat of arms

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

An Egyptian Priest and Scribe

An Owl in the Pope’s Council

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

Decorative initial (drop cap) D

A Display of Manuscripts on Reading Desks.

Title Page

Summary of the Law, in gold

Purple Victorian Vine-leaf Border

A genteel wheelchair in Paris

Cherub with grin and cloven hoofs

Plate XXIV.—Knowledge Is Power

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

Front Cover, Art of Decorative Design

Plate XIV—Chinese Dragon

Title Page

Knight, Death and the Devil (1513)

Fig. 86.—Curves.

Plate XVIII.—Stylized Chinese Dragon

And then began a murder, grim and great

Early Victorian Border from Book Cover

Gibeon

Cupid with a Butterfly

December Night (Dezembernacht)

[Ancient] Greek Marble Mosaics 1: Olympia

The Irmin Column in the Cathedral of Hildesheim

Taymouth Castle

Rustic postcard border of interleaved twigs and vines

Victorian vine-leaf page border

Old Bologna (1850s)

Isaak Newton [Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton]

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