Skip to main content

This site is in danger of going away; please consider the Donate link above...

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.

70.—Border of cherubs climbing in trees

Classical full-page border with goddess

Simon de Montfort: Knight on his Horse

11. Seal of Gusion.

Buckingham Palace

Heralds’ College

Indian Civet, Fossa, Genet

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique green

The old tollbooth in Canongate, Edinburgh

The Cow Doctor

Vintage endpaper border with flowering vine

Sir Isaac Newton

Gold endpaper

Faust

53.8.—IHS

Mephistophiles

Faust, detail from title page

Frontispiece: A bride’s dream

Dark Passion Flowers

On the Terrace

Usk Bridge

Usk Bridge, Monmouth, Coloured from aon old painting

Armillary Sphere, Scanned Version

733.—Oxford Cathedral.

Mount Edgcombe

Our Father Who Art In Heaven

Historiated decorative initial capital letter M in Blue

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

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

Fig 36. — A staircase of the catacombs

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

Fig. 37. — Tunnel in the Catacombs of Rome

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

Initial letter I with Transitional Capital

Full-page border with hearts and moons

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

Floriated initial capital letter “S”

Front Cover

Her mirror was the smooth water of the tide pool

Front Cover

Free clip-art: Victorian border of twigs and leaves

Franciscan Monk Going Down Staircase

God and my Divine Right: Royal Crest

Endpaper: gold leaf with central British royal coat of arms

The Magical Circle of King Solomon

An Egyptian Priest and Scribe

An Owl in the Pope’s Council

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

Scrollwork Border from page 227

A Display of Manuscripts on Reading Desks.

Title Page

Summary of the Law, in gold

Names of Angels and Days (overview)

A genteel wheelchair in Paris

Cherub with grin and cloven hoofs

Title Page

2.—Stonehenge. – Restored Plan.

Plate XIV—Chinese Dragon

Front Cover, Art of Decorative Design

Plate XVIII.—Stylized Chinese Dragon

Portrait of King Henry the Eighth

Plate XXIV.—Knowledge Is Power

Fig. 86.—Curves.

And then began a murder, grim and great

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, Black and White

Gibeon

Cupid with a Butterfly

December Night (Dezembernacht)

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

The Irmin Column in the Cathedral of Hildesheim

Taymouth Castle

Rustic postcard border of interleaved twigs and vines

The Virgin Mary

Old Bologna (1850s)

Isaak Newton [Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton]

Battle in the Sacred Linden Groves

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

Initial letter V with a mermaid

Front Cover, Bohemia Part Two

Title Page, Bohemia Part Two

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique brown

Battle of Knights

Full-page border of repeated vine leaves

Votivkirche, Vienna

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

Avenue of Sighs

Christmas Still Life

The Seranade

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

A schoolroom in Tunisia

Llanthony Priory, Valley of the Honddu

Adrift from The Snow Queen

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

The giants tore up trees

Dark brown fantasy watercolour border

initial letter R with small girl

Decorative initial (drop cap) D

Leicester Hospital, Warwick

Scheuerfest - Spring Cleaning

Monroe Colliery Co.

Purple Victorian Vine-leaf Border

Title Page

Mellon’s Baby Food with baby and roses

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

Peasant Girl of Pays de Vaud—Type.

Front Cover

Land of the Semites. Desert and Caravan.

Knight, Death and the Devil (1513)

Chaldee Woman

Rustic floral border with trellis and grapevines

Cheerful double-page spread vintage colour border

Early Victorian Border from Book Cover

Cheerful full-page vintage colour border

Engraving of smiling urchin boy carrying sack and vegetables

Nazareth, Palestine

[Ancient] Greek Marble Mosaics 1: Olympia

Klara Küry as Maya in The Greek Slave

Full-page border with roses, black and white

The thoughts of my spirit seek you

Victorian vine-leaf page border

Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam

A Reminiscence

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