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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.

Inside a feudal castle hall

Harvest Time

Field Worker

11. Seal of Gusion.

891.—Trapeze artist walking a tightrope or high wire

Portrait of Włodzimierz Czacki

Drawn Picture Frame

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique green

Schoolwork

Cherub Facing Right

Cherub with paintbrush

Sir Isaac Newton

Spring Song, Frühlingslied

Portrait of Ludwig Knaus

Collared Peccary (Tayassin tayassu)

53.8.—IHS

Front Cover

Alchemical dragons fighting

Title Page, Musaeum Hermeticum

Dark Passion Flowers

Alchemy Full Page Border

Naked angel with caduceus

49.—St. Sebald’s Church at Nuremberg.

Armillary Sphere, Scanned Version

84.—The Alcazar at Toledo (Begun 1548)

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

The Battle

Historiated decorative initial capital letter M in Blue

Haigha and Hatta

Give me a Ham Sandwich

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

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

Map XIX. Ireland

Hymn to the Seasons

Bless the Lord O My Soul

Full-page border with hearts and moons

The front cover, with gold foil

Initial letter capital V with mountain rescue

Helmsman on a Vltava steamer

Floriated initial capital letter “S”

Title Page

157.—Uncial Gothic Letters. 14th Century.

Front Cover

Free clip-art: Victorian border of twigs and leaves

The Storming of Jerusalem by Titus

Buddhist Priest of Annam—TYPE

Chaldean Slaves

The Magical Circle of King Solomon

A Christmas-Box From China

Decorative initial letter C with holly and icicles and snow

Indra, God of Atmosphere

Scrollwork Border from page 227

The Keep, Walmer

Title Page

The Stocks. Monkton

Names of Angels and Days (overview)

Niccolò Paganini on the Fiftieth Anniversary of His Death

The Engraver

The Painter

2.—Stonehenge. – Restored Plan.

The Novel

Front cover in red and gold

The Counsel (a Scotch Terrier)

Portrait of King Henry the Eighth

Frontispiece: Don’t Cry

Tortured with feet to the fire

Zeus and Europa

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, Black and White

Poppies and Tiger Lillies

Menu Card 2: Chef

Menu Card 4: Waitress

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

Menu Card 3: Celler Master

Menu Card 1: Court Jester

Initial Letter I With Art Nouveau Swirls

The Virgin Mary

Venus danced for Apollo

Chapterhead with Boy’s Head

Sacrificial Rites of the Ancient British Druids

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

English Manufacturing

Helen and Paris

That wall of stone

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique brown

Title page, The Defence of Guenevere

Front Cover

Jesus and Moses

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

145.—Leading a Horse

Foliated initial capital letter S, coloured

Oval frame, scalloped

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

Tailpiece with peacock

Front Cover With Alice

Foliated Initial Letter S

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

Tailpiece of hunting paraphernalia

Convolvulus Tricolor

70.—Border of cherubs climbing in trees

Decorative initial (drop cap) D

Classical full-page border with goddess

Simon de Montfort: Knight on his Horse

Buckingham Palace

Purple Victorian Vine-leaf Border

Heralds’ College

Indian Civet, Fossa, Genet

The old tollbooth in Canongate, Edinburgh

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

The Cow Doctor

Vintage endpaper border with flowering vine

Gold endpaper

Knight, Death and the Devil (1513)

Faust, detail from title page

Mephistophiles

Faust

Early Victorian Border from Book Cover

Frontispiece: A bride’s dream

On the Terrace

[Ancient] Greek Marble Mosaics 1: Olympia

Usk Bridge, Monmouth, Coloured from aon old painting

Usk Bridge

733.—Oxford Cathedral.

Victorian vine-leaf page border

Mount Edgcombe

Our Father Who Art In Heaven

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