Skip to main content

This site may be going away; please consider donating.
A huge thank you to all who donate; 2026 August Web hosting: 100%

Vintage Pictures, Engravings and Extracts From Old Books

Over 4,400 free images from old, rare, antique and vintage books. High-resolution images for sale. M

Chapterhead for Opening of Chapter One of Homer’s Odyssey

Withdrawal from Troy

Front Cover, Homer’s Odyssey

11. Seal of Gusion.

Title page from Homers Odyssey

Inside the Imperial Palace, Delhi

Pentagram of Solomon

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique green

Decorated. Stoke Golding. Leicestershire.

257.—Harrowing and Sowing (Bayeux Tapestry.)

The Royal Porter dressed for an event

Sir Isaac Newton

Border with cherubs, arrow piercing hearts, flowers and leaves

Emperor of Germany Three Days at the Pope’s Gate

At the Wine Festival

53.8.—IHS

Mazeppa

Lions in a Cage

Lion Face, detail from Lions in a Cage

Dark Passion Flowers

Initial Letter W With Demon and Woman and Crescent Moon

Hexenschlaf (Witch’s Sleep, or, Burning a Witch)

Front Cover, Volume Three of Modern Art

Armillary Sphere, Scanned Version

Border with flowers

Harvest-time

Penrhyn Castle

Historiated decorative initial capital letter M in Blue

Jesus with raised hand: holy admonition

owl from full-page border

Angel with thurible from full-page border

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

Coucy Castle, Bird’s Eye Drawing with labels

Full-page border with flowers, vines, figures

2113.—James I.’s Cradle. (From a Print inNichols’s Progresses.)

Full-page border with hearts and moons

A giant wooden statue of a warrior with shield and sword

Front Cover, Pied Piper of Hamelin

Into the cellar, into the dungeon!

Floriated initial capital letter “S”

Chilren on the beach, with full-page border

Sounding the irons

London Driving

Free clip-art: Victorian border of twigs and leaves

The founding of Paris

Thomas William Crackfort is cut into six pieces

Decorated Initial letter C with holly

The Magical Circle of King Solomon

Old College, Warwick Lane, London

Portrait of Sir Christopher Wren

Scrollwork Border from page 227

He blew out his lantern

Haunted Chest of Drawers

Man with hand in darkness

Names of Angels and Days (overview)

Christmas Choir

Bibury, Arlington Row

In the Forest Cathedral

2.—Stonehenge. – Restored Plan.

Full-page border, hillside path through ruined castle

Ornament with Roses

Danaë

Portrait of King Henry the Eighth

Barefoot boy guzzles beer

Family with barefoot boy

Lady Justice (Justitia)

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, Black and White

The Dragon of Putrefaction

castle medallion with ribbons

Strawberry Season (Erdbeerenzeit)

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

Córdova: The Door of the Mosque

Chiquon and Cochegrue, from Count Dracula

Cupid’s Hunting Fields

The Virgin Mary

The Catapult, Painted by E. J. Poynter, R.A.

Don Quixote in his Study

Reconciled

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

Queen Dagmar of Denmark

An Orphan Family’s Christmas

Bookplate without name

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique brown

Art Nouveau Bookplate

Effect of the League

Three Queens

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

Chapel of St. John’s College, Cambridge

Coucy Castle, Bird’s Eye Drawing

87.—Designs for Window Heads

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

Constantinople Firemen

Initial letter J with piper and rats

Prisoner Chained in the Dungeon

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

Imploring the moon from th castle courtyard

Happy New Year!

Owl border

Decorative initial (drop cap) D

The new chain of office for the Mayor of Wiesbaden

A Workshop for Stafe Costumes: The Chiseling

Hexagram of Solomon

Purple Victorian Vine-leaf Border

The Thames Subway at Tower-Hill

Omnibus Carriage

First tube train passengers

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

The insects look upon a giant dam

Queen Alice Knocking at the Door

Birth of the League

Knight, Death and the Devil (1513)

At Laundry

When the angel blew the other trumpet

Front Cover

Early Victorian Border from Book Cover

Tomb of Hiram.

Packing a Trunk

Nazareth

[Ancient] Greek Marble Mosaics 1: Olympia

The First Lesson

M. Scevola se abrasa voluntariamenta la mano.

Friebs with cherubs and grotesque fountain

Victorian vine-leaf page border

Cartouche by Gravelot

The Temptation

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