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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 Keep, Walmer

The Stocks. Monkton

Title Page

11. Seal of Gusion.

Niccolò Paganini on the Fiftieth Anniversary of His Death

The Engraver

The Painter

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique green

The Novel

Front cover in red and gold

The Counsel (a Scotch Terrier)

Sir Isaac Newton

Frontispiece: Don’t Cry

Tortured with feet to the fire

Zeus and Europa

53.8.—IHS

Poppies and Tiger Lillies

Menu Card 1: Court Jester

Menu Card 2: Chef

Dark Passion Flowers

Menu Card 3: Celler Master

Menu Card 4: Waitress

Initial Letter I With Art Nouveau Swirls

Armillary Sphere, Scanned Version

Venus danced for Apollo

Chapterhead with Boy’s Head

Sacrificial Rites of the Ancient British Druids

Historiated decorative initial capital letter M in Blue

English Manufacturing

Helen and Paris

That wall of stone

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

Front Cover

Title page, The Defence of Guenevere

Jesus and Moses

Full-page border with hearts and moons

145.—Leading a Horse

Foliated initial capital letter S, coloured

Oval frame, scalloped

Floriated initial capital letter “S”

Tailpiece with peacock

Front Cover With Alice

Foliated Initial Letter S

Free clip-art: Victorian border of twigs and leaves

Tailpiece of hunting paraphernalia

Convolvulus Tricolor

70.—Border of cherubs climbing in trees

The Magical Circle of King Solomon

Classical full-page border with goddess

Simon de Montfort: Knight on his Horse

Buckingham Palace

Scrollwork Border from page 227

Heralds’ College

Indian Civet, Fossa, Genet

The old tollbooth in Canongate, Edinburgh

Names of Angels and Days (overview)

The Cow Doctor

Vintage endpaper border with flowering vine

Gold endpaper

2.—Stonehenge. – Restored Plan.

Faust, detail from title page

Faust

Portrait of King Henry the Eighth

Mephistophiles

Frontispiece: A bride’s dream

On the Terrace

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, Black and White

Usk Bridge

Usk Bridge, Monmouth, Coloured from aon old painting

733.—Oxford Cathedral.

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

Mount Edgcombe

Our Father Who Art In Heaven

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

The Virgin Mary

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

Fig. 37. — Tunnel in the Catacombs of Rome

Fig 36. — A staircase of the catacombs

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

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

Initial letter I with Transitional Capital

Title Page

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique brown

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

Her mirror was the smooth water of the tide pool

Front Cover

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

Franciscan Monk Going Down Staircase

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

God and my Divine Right: Royal Crest

Endpaper: gold leaf with central British royal coat of arms

An Egyptian Priest and Scribe

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

An Owl in the Pope’s Council

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

A Display of Manuscripts on Reading Desks.

Decorative initial (drop cap) D

Title Page

Summary of the Law, in gold

A genteel wheelchair in Paris

Purple Victorian Vine-leaf Border

Cherub with grin and cloven hoofs

Title Page

Fig. 86.—Curves.

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

Plate XXIV.—Knowledge Is Power

Plate XVIII.—Stylized Chinese Dragon

Front Cover, Art of Decorative Design

Knight, Death and the Devil (1513)

Plate XIV—Chinese Dragon

And then began a murder, grim and great

Gibeon

Early Victorian Border from Book Cover

Cupid with a Butterfly

December Night (Dezembernacht)

The Irmin Column in the Cathedral of Hildesheim

[Ancient] Greek Marble Mosaics 1: Olympia

Taymouth Castle

Rustic postcard border of interleaved twigs and vines

Old Bologna (1850s)

Victorian vine-leaf page border

Isaak Newton [Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton]

Initial letter V with a mermaid

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