https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Aubrey-HistoryOfEngland-Vol2/pages/438-Border-of-twigs/

A Victorian engraved full-page border drawn to look like twigs. This originally contained portraits of King Henry VIII of England and his six (sequential) wives - https://fromoldbooks.org/r/5/pages/438-King-Henry-VIII-and-His-Six-Wives/

Henry had to have a legitimate heir in order to prevent another War of the Roses.

Borders like this are great for menus, weddings, name cards, jam labels, all sorts.

#fromOldBooks #vintageArt #border #clipArt #rustic #fullPageBorder

Desecration!

Rušení posvŕtných hájů lípových, or, Disruption of sacred linden groves.

It seems a bunch of yobbos have invaded a sacred ritual held in a clearing in a forest.

The treatment of light and shade is exquisite in this 1884 engraving, published in a book “Bohemia: oint work of Czech writers and artists”, by František Adolf Šubert, lead, and František Adolf Borovský, co-editor.

#pagan #ritualMagic #druids #fromOldBooks #engraving #vintageArt

https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Subert-Cechy-Vol2/pages/056-spirit-battle/

https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Subert-Cechy-Vol2/pages/131-initial-letter-v-with-mermaid/

A decorated letter V for a dropped capital, formally an inhabited initial, from an 1884 book about Vltava in Bohemia (Czechia). The V has a mermaid in it, & fishes & an eel swim about her. She’s naked (do mermaids wear clothes?).

Decorated initials are used in print at the start of a chapter, or at the start of a section without a title so you can find it easily.

#fantasyArt #fantasy #mermaid #initial #letterV #typography #initialLetter #fromOldBooks #woman

https://www.fromoldbooks.org/GorsseJacquin-CadetsDeGascogne/pages/000-title-page-detail-knights-melee/

Battle of Knights

Drawing by (i think) Hugo Vogel (1855-1934)

Men are being nasty to one another, as men are wont to do, some on foot and some riding horses, in this close mêlée or fight. It’s a vignette from the titel page of “Gaskonští Kadeti” (1906) by Henri de Gorsse and Joseph Jaquin, a Czech edition of the French Les Cadets de Cascogne, a swashbuckling novel in the spirit of Star Trek.

#fromOldBooks #engraving #vintageArt #fight #battle #war #soldiers #knights

https://www.fromoldbooks.org/ModerneKunst-15/069-ghost-in-the-forest/

“Avenue of Sighs” or “Leaf Walk”, from a painting by Ferdinand Keller (1842 – 1922), known for his paintings of mystical views of nature. With hidden creatures and faces.

Reproduced in Moderne Kunst in Meister-Halzschnitten, Vol. XV (1901), 230x320mm/9x12inches.

#fromOldBooks #vintageArt #art #painting #spooky #forest

A Christmas Gift from 1901

The waiter in his top hat has quite the platter, not to mention a basket of bottles of wine. Amazon delivery was never this good.

Chromolithograph (i think) from 1901 German magazine Moderne Kunst, vol 15 by Edward Cucel (1879-1954 so no commercial use until January). Picture was approx A4 sized.

https://www.fromoldbooks.org/ModerneKunst-15/pages/077-top-hat-waiter-game-bird-feast/

#christmas #foodHamper #fromOldBooks #vintageArt #vintage #engraving #colour #color

https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Lloyd-Familienbuch-V/pages/105-musician-on-the-wall/

A man in top hat and tails plays the flute outside a bedroom window, standing on the top of a wall. Vintage engraving ‘The Serenade” from Lloyd’s 1857 family book (Illustrirtes Familienbuch zur Unterhaltung & Belehrung häuslicher Kreise).

The book describes him as a dreamy youth.

From a painting by G. Neumann & engraved by Heinrich Petersen (1806-1870)

#fromOldBooks #vintageEngraving #engraving #romantic #romance #courting #courtship #love #moonlight #valentinesDay

A schoolroom in Tunisia (1883)

The boys are learning to read Arabic and to recite the Koran in this 1883 engraving from a drawing by Edmund Berninger (1843 - 1910).

Scanned from El Mundo Ilustrado - https://www.fromoldbooks.org/ElMundoIlustrado-1897/pages/281-schoolroom/ that i bought when i had an unexpected night in Lisbon on W3C business in 2017.

#education #children #teaching #crossLegged #dark #stone #boys #pupils #school #arabic #tunisia #fromOldBooks #engraving

https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Cassell-TheBritishIsles/pages/v2s2-000-frontispiece-llanthony-priory/

A photograph of the ruins of Llanthony Abbey published in 1905 using a proprietary photogravure process from the Rembrandt Intaglio Printing Co.

The abbey ws built around 1200CE by Augustinian monks, and closed at the Dissolution by King Henry VIII; it was abandoned, and eventually used as a farm.

#romanticRuin #fromOldBooks #vintagePhotograph #sepia #stoneBuilding #llanthonyPriory #HondduValley #Wales #Cymru #Welsh

A full-page border that surrounded a page in “The Art of Illuminating As Practised in Europe from the Earliest Times” by W R Tymms (London, UK, 1860). A fabulous book i bought at Geoffry Aspin’s bookshop in Hay-on-Wye in the 1980s.

I made versions in different colours; you can also use the Colour tab on the Web page to change colour. It’s one of the most popular images i’ve posted.

https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Tymms-Illuminating/pages/p27-border-antique-green/

#fromOldBooks #victorianArt #ornateBorder #border #fullPageBorder #decorative