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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.

Cairo, from the East

Inside a feudal castle hall

Harvest Time

11. Seal of Gusion.

Field Worker

891.—Trapeze artist walking a tightrope or high wire

Portrait of Włodzimierz Czacki

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique green

Drawn Picture Frame

Schoolwork

Cherub with paintbrush

Sir Isaac Newton

Cherub Facing Right

Spring Song, Frühlingslied

Portrait of Ludwig Knaus

53.8.—IHS

Collared Peccary (Tayassin tayassu)

Front Cover

Alchemy Full Page Border

Dark Passion Flowers

Title Page, Musaeum Hermeticum

Naked angel with caduceus

Alchemical dragons fighting

Armillary Sphere, Scanned Version

49.—St. Sebald’s Church at Nuremberg.

84.—The Alcazar at Toledo (Begun 1548)

60.—Doorway from Church at Batalha (Begun 1385)

Historiated decorative initial capital letter M in Blue

Haigha and Hatta

The Battle

Give me a Ham Sandwich

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

Map XVII. british Isles; Showing places of greatest Historical Interest.

Map XIX. Ireland

Hymn to the Seasons

Full-page border with hearts and moons

Bless the Lord O My Soul

The front cover, with gold foil

Initial letter capital V with mountain rescue

Floriated initial capital letter “S”

Helmsman on a Vltava steamer

Title Page

157.—Uncial Gothic Letters. 14th Century.

Free clip-art: Victorian border of twigs and leaves

Front Cover

The Storming of Jerusalem by Titus

Buddhist Priest of Annam—TYPE

The Magical Circle of King Solomon

Chaldean Slaves

A Christmas-Box From China

Decorative initial letter C with holly and icicles and snow

Scrollwork Border from page 227

Indra, God of Atmosphere

The Keep, Walmer

The Stocks. Monkton

Names of Angels and Days (overview)

Title Page

Niccolò Paganini on the Fiftieth Anniversary of His Death

The Engraver

2.—Stonehenge. – Restored Plan.

The Painter

The Novel

Front cover in red and gold

Portrait of King Henry the Eighth

The Counsel (a Scotch Terrier)

Frontispiece: Don’t Cry

Tortured with feet to the fire

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, Black and White

Zeus and Europa

Poppies and Tiger Lillies

Menu Card 2: Chef

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

Menu Card 3: Celler Master

Menu Card 1: Court Jester

Menu Card 4: Waitress

The Virgin Mary

Initial Letter I With Art Nouveau Swirls

Venus danced for Apollo

Chapterhead with Boy’s Head

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

Sacrificial Rites of the Ancient British Druids

English Manufacturing

Helen and Paris

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique brown

That wall of stone

Front Cover

Title page, The Defence of Guenevere

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

Jesus and Moses

145.—Leading a Horse

Foliated initial capital letter S, coloured

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

Oval frame, scalloped

Tailpiece with peacock

Front Cover With Alice

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

Foliated Initial Letter S

Tailpiece of hunting paraphernalia

Convolvulus Tricolor

Decorative initial (drop cap) D

70.—Border of cherubs climbing in trees

Classical full-page border with goddess

Simon de Montfort: Knight on his Horse

Purple Victorian Vine-leaf Border

Buckingham Palace

Heralds’ College

Indian Civet, Fossa, Genet

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

The old tollbooth in Canongate, Edinburgh

The Cow Doctor

Gold endpaper

Knight, Death and the Devil (1513)

Vintage endpaper border with flowering vine

Mephistophiles

Faust

Early Victorian Border from Book Cover

Faust, detail from title page

Frontispiece: A bride’s dream

[Ancient] Greek Marble Mosaics 1: Olympia

On the Terrace

Usk Bridge

Usk Bridge, Monmouth, Coloured from aon old painting

Victorian vine-leaf page border

733.—Oxford Cathedral.

Mount Edgcombe

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