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

Title page from Homers Odyssey

Withdrawal from Troy

Front Cover, Homer’s Odyssey

11. Seal of Gusion.

Inside the Imperial Palace, Delhi

Pentagram of Solomon

Decorated. Stoke Golding. Leicestershire.

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique green

257.—Harrowing and Sowing (Bayeux Tapestry.)

The Royal Porter dressed for an event

Border with cherubs, arrow piercing hearts, flowers and leaves

Sir Isaac Newton

Emperor of Germany Three Days at the Pope’s Gate

At the Wine Festival

Mazeppa

53.8.—IHS

Lion Face, detail from Lions in a Cage

Lions in a Cage

Initial Letter W With Demon and Woman and Crescent Moon

Dark Passion Flowers

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

Front Cover, Volume Three of Modern Art

Harvest-time

Armillary Sphere, Scanned Version

Border with flowers

Penrhyn Castle

Jesus with raised hand: holy admonition

Historiated decorative initial capital letter M in Blue

owl from full-page border

Angel with thurible from full-page border

Coucy Castle, Bird’s Eye Drawing with labels

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

Full-page border with flowers, vines, figures

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

A giant wooden statue of a warrior with shield and sword

Full-page border with hearts and moons

Front Cover, Pied Piper of Hamelin

Into the cellar, into the dungeon!

Chilren on the beach, with full-page border

Floriated initial capital letter “S”

Sounding the irons

London Driving

The founding of Paris

Free clip-art: Victorian border of twigs and leaves

Thomas William Crackfort is cut into six pieces

Decorated Initial letter C with holly

Old College, Warwick Lane, London

The Magical Circle of King Solomon

Portrait of Sir Christopher Wren

Haunted Chest of Drawers

Scrollwork Border from page 227

He blew out his lantern

Man with hand in darkness

Christmas Choir

Names of Angels and Days (overview)

Bibury, Arlington Row

In the Forest Cathedral

Full-page border, hillside path through ruined castle

2.—Stonehenge. – Restored Plan.

Ornament with Roses

Danaë

Family with barefoot boy

Portrait of King Henry the Eighth

Barefoot boy guzzles beer

Lady Justice (Justitia)

The Dragon of Putrefaction

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, Black and White

castle medallion with ribbons

Strawberry Season (Erdbeerenzeit)

Córdova: The Door of the Mosque

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

Chiquon and Cochegrue, from Count Dracula

Cupid’s Hunting Fields

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

The Virgin Mary

Don Quixote in his Study

Reconciled

Queen Dagmar of Denmark

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

An Orphan Family’s Christmas

Art Nouveau Bookplate

Bookplate without name

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique brown

Effect of the League

Three Queens

Chapel of St. John’s College, Cambridge

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

Coucy Castle, Bird’s Eye Drawing

87.—Designs for Window Heads

Constantinople Firemen

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

Initial letter J with piper and rats

Prisoner Chained in the Dungeon

Imploring the moon from th castle courtyard

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

Happy New Year!

Owl border

The new chain of office for the Mayor of Wiesbaden

Decorative initial (drop cap) D

A Workshop for Stafe Costumes: The Chiseling

Hexagram of Solomon

Omnibus Carriage

Purple Victorian Vine-leaf Border

The Thames Subway at Tower-Hill

First tube train passengers

The insects look upon a giant dam

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

Queen Alice Knocking at the Door

Birth of the League

At Laundry

Knight, Death and the Devil (1513)

When the angel blew the other trumpet

Front Cover

Tomb of Hiram.

Early Victorian Border from Book Cover

Packing a Trunk

Nazareth

The First Lesson

[Ancient] Greek Marble Mosaics 1: Olympia

M. Scevola se abrasa voluntariamenta la mano.

Friebs with cherubs and grotesque fountain

Cartouche by Gravelot

Victorian vine-leaf page border

The Temptation

Letter A With Topless Woman

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