https://www.fromoldbooks.org/CirclingTheYear-1870/pages/136v-christmas-initial-letter-c/

This decorative initial was used as a drop cap (dropped capital) for the word Christmas starting an 1870 article entitled “Christmas with the Poets”.

Drop caps bring attention to the start of a new section or chapter, and help people find their way by flipping through the pages of a printed book.

Print jargon: this initial is foliated and vignetted

#initial #dropCap #decoratedInitial #fobo #GIMP #GIMP3 #vintageEngraving #Christmas #xmas #holly #letterC #the_letter_c

https://www.fromoldbooks.org/JuliusWolff-PiedPiperOfHamelin/pages/001-initial-letter-j/

This decorative initial letter J (it’s _inhabited_ because it has a person in it, _historiated_ as it illustrates a scene, and was used as a drop cap, the first line of the title starting between the piper’s feet.

Probably the rodents running around on the bowl of the J are black rats, by their shape and tails; common in Europe and carried the plague.

#fobo #vintageArt #PiedPiper #dropCap #letterJ #GIMP #GIMP3 #Gimp_3 #xsane #bagpipes #music #illustration

https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Rouam-MuseeArtistiqueVI/pages/162-2-letter-a-topless-woman-francois-hermann/

It’s all very French, an “inhabited initial” by François Emile Ehrmann with a topless woman, i think in a gillotage, a resin-based etching, made by Yves & Barret based on an engraving by Tilly. A team effort! The model who sat for the picture is not named.

Yesterday i posted the crescent moon here.

Etchings tend to feature blunter line-endings than engravings on metal.

#fobo #vintageArt #toplessWoman #fobo #barefoot #initials #letterA #dropCap #French #GIMP3 #Gimp_3