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.

Buddhist Priest of Annam—TYPE

Chaldean Slaves

A Christmas-Box From China

11. Seal of Gusion.

Decorative initial letter C with holly and icicles and snow

Indra, God of Atmosphere

The Keep, Walmer

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique green

The Stocks. Monkton

Title Page

Niccolò Paganini on the Fiftieth Anniversary of His Death

Sir Isaac Newton

The Engraver

The Painter

The Novel

53.8.—IHS

Front cover in red and gold

The Counsel (a Scotch Terrier)

Frontispiece: Don’t Cry

Dark Passion Flowers

Tortured with feet to the fire

Zeus and Europa

Poppies and Tiger Lillies

Armillary Sphere, Scanned Version

Menu Card 4: Waitress

Menu Card 2: Chef

Menu Card 3: Celler Master

Historiated decorative initial capital letter M in Blue

Menu Card 1: Court Jester

Initial Letter I With Art Nouveau Swirls

Venus danced for Apollo

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

Chapterhead with Boy’s Head

Sacrificial Rites of the Ancient British Druids

English Manufacturing

Full-page border with hearts and moons

Helen and Paris

Front Cover

Title page, The Defence of Guenevere

Floriated initial capital letter “S”

That wall of stone

Jesus and Moses

145.—Leading a Horse

Free clip-art: Victorian border of twigs and leaves

Foliated initial capital letter S, coloured

Oval frame, scalloped

Tailpiece with peacock

The Magical Circle of King Solomon

Front Cover With Alice

Foliated Initial Letter S

Tailpiece of hunting paraphernalia

Scrollwork Border from page 227

Convolvulus Tricolor

70.—Border of cherubs climbing in trees

Classical full-page border with goddess

Names of Angels and Days (overview)

Simon de Montfort: Knight on his Horse

Buckingham Palace

Heralds’ College

2.—Stonehenge. – Restored Plan.

Indian Civet, Fossa, Genet

The old tollbooth in Canongate, Edinburgh

The Cow Doctor

Portrait of King Henry the Eighth

Gold endpaper

Vintage endpaper border with flowering vine

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, Black and White

Faust

Faust, detail from title page

Mephistophiles

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

Frontispiece: A bride’s dream

On the Terrace

Usk Bridge, Monmouth, Coloured from aon old painting

The Virgin Mary

Usk Bridge

733.—Oxford Cathedral.

Mount Edgcombe

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

Our Father Who Art In Heaven

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

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

Decorative clip-art Victorian border, antique brown

Fig. 37. — Tunnel in the Catacombs of Rome

Fig 36. — A staircase of the catacombs

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

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

Initial letter I with Transitional Capital

Title Page

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

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

Her mirror was the smooth water of the tide pool

Front Cover

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

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

Front Cover

Franciscan Monk Going Down Staircase

God and my Divine Right: Royal Crest

Decorative initial (drop cap) D

Endpaper: gold leaf with central British royal coat of arms

An Egyptian Priest and Scribe

An Owl in the Pope’s Council

Purple Victorian Vine-leaf Border

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

A Display of Manuscripts on Reading Desks.

Title Page

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

Summary of the Law, in gold

A genteel wheelchair in Paris

Cherub with grin and cloven hoofs

Knight, Death and the Devil (1513)

Plate XVIII.—Stylized Chinese Dragon

Title Page

Plate XXIV.—Knowledge Is Power

Early Victorian Border from Book Cover

Plate XIV—Chinese Dragon

Front Cover, Art of Decorative Design

Fig. 86.—Curves.

[Ancient] Greek Marble Mosaics 1: Olympia

And then began a murder, grim and great

Gibeon

Cupid with a Butterfly

Victorian vine-leaf page border

December Night (Dezembernacht)

The Irmin Column in the Cathedral of Hildesheim

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