Typographic Ornaments (page 1/2)

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stock block: scales, or equal-arm balance.

In an equal arm balance like this one you can compare the weights of things in the two pans; often you use a set of standardized weights in one pan and add them until the lever at the top is level, [...] [more...] [$]

Index, manicule, or pointing hand

Drawings of hands, often with arms attached, were added to mediæval manuscripts by people who used them; the hands were used to draw attention to particular passages of interest. [more...] [$]

Stock block: Child kneeling in a circular vignette

This Victorian engraving shows a boy (probably) kneeling within a circular border; he holds a boquet of flowers in one hand as he gazes at a butterly perched on his other hand. There’s a circle of [...] [more...] [$]

Chapterheads with cherubs, dragons, fish, neptune, flowers

Three separate chapterheads: one with two cherubs, or naked boys, each holding one end of a rope, or a pipe with a bulb on the end, perhaps about to squirt some giant flowers; one with a Greek male head (possibly neptune) in a circle with large fish all round; one with two dragons or wyverns having the [...] [more...] [$]

stock block: Young male servant carrying a boar’s head

This young man carries a platter of food: a roasted pig’s head with fruit or vegetables around it, on a platter. He wears a ruff round his neck, a tunic over a long-sleeved shirt, and simple shoes; presumably he also wears hose, or tights. He carries the platter level with his face. The image is circular and the space that itsn’t the food or the youth [...] [more...] [$]