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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.

Foliated initial capital letter S, coloured

Oval frame, scalloped

Tailpiece with peacock

11. Seal of Gusion.

Front Cover With Alice

Foliated Initial Letter S

Tailpiece of hunting paraphernalia

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique green

Convolvulus Tricolor

70.—Border of cherubs climbing in trees

Classical full-page border with goddess

Sir Isaac Newton

Simon de Montfort: Knight on his Horse

Buckingham Palace

Heralds’ College

53.8.—IHS

Indian Civet, Fossa, Genet

The old tollbooth in Canongate, Edinburgh

The Cow Doctor

Dark Passion Flowers

Gold endpaper

Vintage endpaper border with flowering vine

Faust

Armillary Sphere, Scanned Version

Mephistophiles

Faust, detail from title page

Historiated decorative initial capital letter M in Blue

Frontispiece: A bride’s dream

On the Terrace

Usk Bridge, Monmouth, Coloured from aon old painting

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

Usk Bridge

733.—Oxford Cathedral.

Mount Edgcombe

Full-page border with hearts and moons

Our Father Who Art In Heaven

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

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

Floriated initial capital letter “S”

Fig 36. — A staircase of the catacombs

Fig. 37. — Tunnel in the Catacombs of Rome

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

Free clip-art: Victorian border of twigs and leaves

Initial letter I with Transitional Capital

Title Page

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

The Magical Circle of King Solomon

The white horse carried the earth king’s son and the princess over the sea

Her mirror was the smooth water of the tide pool

Front Cover

Scrollwork Border from page 227

Front Cover

Franciscan Monk Going Down Staircase

God and my Divine Right: Royal Crest

Names of Angels and Days (overview)

Endpaper: gold leaf with central British royal coat of arms

An Egyptian Priest and Scribe

An Owl in the Pope’s Council

2.—Stonehenge. – Restored Plan.

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

A Display of Manuscripts on Reading Desks.

Title Page

Portrait of King Henry the Eighth

Summary of the Law, in gold

A genteel wheelchair in Paris

Cherub with grin and cloven hoofs

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, Black and White

Plate XVIII.—Stylized Chinese Dragon

Fig. 86.—Curves.

Title Page

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

Plate XXIV.—Knowledge Is Power

Plate XIV—Chinese Dragon

Front Cover, Art of Decorative Design

The Virgin Mary

And then began a murder, grim and great

Gibeon

Cupid with a Butterfly

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

December Night (Dezembernacht)

The Irmin Column in the Cathedral of Hildesheim

Taymouth Castle

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique brown

Rustic postcard border of interleaved twigs and vines

Old Bologna (1850s)

Isaak Newton [Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton]

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

Battle in the Sacred Linden Groves

Initial letter V with a mermaid

Title Page, Bohemia Part Two

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

Front Cover, Bohemia Part Two

Battle of Knights

Full-page border of repeated vine leaves

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

Votivkirche, Vienna

Avenue of Sighs

Christmas Still Life

Decorative initial (drop cap) D

The Seranade

A schoolroom in Tunisia

Llanthony Priory, Valley of the Honddu

Purple Victorian Vine-leaf Border

Dark brown fantasy watercolour border

Adrift from The Snow Queen

The giants tore up trees

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

initial letter R with small girl

Leicester Hospital, Warwick

Scheuerfest - Spring Cleaning

Knight, Death and the Devil (1513)

Monroe Colliery Co.

Title Page

Early Victorian Border from Book Cover

Mellon’s Baby Food with baby and roses

Chaldee Woman

Peasant Girl of Pays de Vaud—Type.

[Ancient] Greek Marble Mosaics 1: Olympia

Front Cover

Rustic floral border with trellis and grapevines

Land of the Semites. Desert and Caravan.

Victorian vine-leaf page border

Cheerful full-page vintage colour border

Cheerful double-page spread vintage colour border

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