Skip to main content

This site may be going away; please consider donating.
A huge thank you to all who donate; 2026 September Web hosting: 10%

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

Destroction of Printing Presses in Mayence

Chapterhead for Opening of Chapter One of Homer’s Odyssey

Withdrawal from Troy

11. Seal of Gusion.

Front Cover, Homer’s Odyssey

Title page from Homers Odyssey

Inside the Imperial Palace, Delhi

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique green

Pentagram of Solomon

Decorated. Stoke Golding. Leicestershire.

257.—Harrowing and Sowing (Bayeux Tapestry.)

Sir Isaac Newton

The Royal Porter dressed for an event

Border with cherubs, arrow piercing hearts, flowers and leaves

Emperor of Germany Three Days at the Pope’s Gate

53.8.—IHS

At the Wine Festival

Mazeppa

Lions in a Cage

Dark Passion Flowers

Lion Face, detail from Lions in a Cage

Initial Letter W With Demon and Woman and Crescent Moon

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

Armillary Sphere, Scanned Version

Front Cover, Volume Three of Modern Art

Harvest-time

Border with flowers

Historiated decorative initial capital letter M in Blue

Penrhyn Castle

Jesus with raised hand: holy admonition

owl from full-page border

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

Angel with thurible from full-page border

Coucy Castle, Bird’s Eye Drawing with labels

Full-page border with flowers, vines, figures

Full-page border with hearts and moons

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

A giant wooden statue of a warrior with shield and sword

Front Cover, Pied Piper of Hamelin

Floriated initial capital letter “S”

Into the cellar, into the dungeon!

Chilren on the beach, with full-page border

Sounding the irons

Free clip-art: Victorian border of twigs and leaves

London Driving

The founding of Paris

Thomas William Crackfort is cut into six pieces

The Magical Circle of King Solomon

Decorated Initial letter C with holly

Old College, Warwick Lane, London

Portrait of Sir Christopher Wren

Scrollwork Border from page 227

Haunted Chest of Drawers

He blew out his lantern

Names of Angels and Days (overview)

Man with hand in darkness

Christmas Choir

Bibury, Arlington Row

2.—Stonehenge. – Restored Plan.

In the Forest Cathedral

Full-page border, hillside path through ruined castle

Ornament with Roses

Portrait of King Henry the Eighth

Danaë

Family with barefoot boy

Barefoot boy guzzles beer

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, Black and White

Lady Justice (Justitia)

The Dragon of Putrefaction

castle medallion with ribbons

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

Strawberry Season (Erdbeerenzeit)

Córdova: The Door of the Mosque

Chiquon and Cochegrue, from Count Dracula

The Virgin Mary

Cupid’s Hunting Fields

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

Don Quixote in his Study

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

Reconciled

Queen Dagmar of Denmark

An Orphan Family’s Christmas

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique brown

Bookplate without name

Art Nouveau Bookplate

Effect of the League

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

Three Queens

Chapel of St. John’s College, Cambridge

Coucy Castle, Bird’s Eye Drawing

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

87.—Designs for Window Heads

Constantinople Firemen

Initial letter J with piper and rats

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

Prisoner Chained in the Dungeon

Imploring the moon from th castle courtyard

Happy New Year!

Decorative initial (drop cap) D

Owl border

The new chain of office for the Mayor of Wiesbaden

A Workshop for Stafe Costumes: The Chiseling

Purple Victorian Vine-leaf Border

Hexagram of Solomon

First tube train passengers

Omnibus Carriage

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

The Thames Subway at Tower-Hill

The insects look upon a giant dam

Queen Alice Knocking at the Door

Knight, Death and the Devil (1513)

Birth of the League

At Laundry

When the angel blew the other trumpet

Early Victorian Border from Book Cover

Front Cover

Tomb of Hiram.

Packing a Trunk

[Ancient] Greek Marble Mosaics 1: Olympia

Nazareth

The First Lesson

M. Scevola se abrasa voluntariamenta la mano.

Victorian vine-leaf page border

Friebs with cherubs and grotesque fountain

Cartouche by Gravelot

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