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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.

The Counsel (a Scotch Terrier)

Frontispiece: Don’t Cry

Tortured with feet to the fire

11. Seal of Gusion.

Zeus and Europa

Poppies and Tiger Lillies

Menu Card 1: Court Jester

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique green

Menu Card 3: Celler Master

Menu Card 4: Waitress

Menu Card 2: Chef

Sir Isaac Newton

Initial Letter I With Art Nouveau Swirls

Venus danced for Apollo

Chapterhead with Boy’s Head

53.8.—IHS

Sacrificial Rites of the Ancient British Druids

English Manufacturing

Helen and Paris

Dark Passion Flowers

Title page, The Defence of Guenevere

That wall of stone

Front Cover

Armillary Sphere, Scanned Version

Jesus and Moses

145.—Leading a Horse

Foliated initial capital letter S, coloured

Historiated decorative initial capital letter M in Blue

Oval frame, scalloped

Tailpiece with peacock

Front Cover With Alice

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

Foliated Initial Letter S

Tailpiece of hunting paraphernalia

Convolvulus Tricolor

Full-page border with hearts and moons

70.—Border of cherubs climbing in trees

Classical full-page border with goddess

Simon de Montfort: Knight on his Horse

Floriated initial capital letter “S”

Buckingham Palace

Heralds’ College

Indian Civet, Fossa, Genet

Free clip-art: Victorian border of twigs and leaves

The old tollbooth in Canongate, Edinburgh

The Cow Doctor

Gold endpaper

The Magical Circle of King Solomon

Vintage endpaper border with flowering vine

Mephistophiles

Scrollwork Border from page 227

Faust, detail from title page

Faust

Frontispiece: A bride’s dream

Names of Angels and Days (overview)

On the Terrace

Usk Bridge, Monmouth, Coloured from aon old painting

Usk Bridge

2.—Stonehenge. – Restored Plan.

733.—Oxford Cathedral.

Mount Edgcombe

Our Father Who Art In Heaven

Portrait of King Henry the Eighth

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

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, Black and White

Fig 36. — A staircase of the catacombs

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

Initial letter I with Transitional Capital

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

Title Page

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

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

The Virgin Mary

Front Cover

Her mirror was the smooth water of the tide pool

Front Cover

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

Franciscan Monk Going Down Staircase

God and my Divine Right: Royal Crest

Endpaper: gold leaf with central British royal coat of arms

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique brown

An Egyptian Priest and Scribe

An Owl in the Pope’s Council

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

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

A Display of Manuscripts on Reading Desks.

Title Page

Summary of the Law, in gold

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

A genteel wheelchair in Paris

Cherub with grin and cloven hoofs

Fig. 86.—Curves.

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

Front Cover, Art of Decorative Design

Plate XXIV.—Knowledge Is Power

Title Page

Decorative initial (drop cap) D

Plate XIV—Chinese Dragon

Plate XVIII.—Stylized Chinese Dragon

And then began a murder, grim and great

Purple Victorian Vine-leaf Border

Gibeon

Cupid with a Butterfly

December Night (Dezembernacht)

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

The Irmin Column in the Cathedral of Hildesheim

Taymouth Castle

Rustic postcard border of interleaved twigs and vines

Knight, Death and the Devil (1513)

Old Bologna (1850s)

Isaak Newton [Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton]

Initial letter V with a mermaid

Early Victorian Border from Book Cover

Battle in the Sacred Linden Groves

Title Page, Bohemia Part Two

Front Cover, Bohemia Part Two

[Ancient] Greek Marble Mosaics 1: Olympia

Battle of Knights

Full-page border of repeated vine leaves

Votivkirche, Vienna

Victorian vine-leaf page border

Avenue of Sighs

Christmas Still Life

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