Free vintage illustration of a weaving loom (late 1800's)

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This cool piece of machinery is an antique industrial weaving loom (circa late 1800's).

Free Vintage Illustration of a Victorian "Gentleman"

The illustration above is the coarse, comic character Sir Harry of Nonsuch House from the satire Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour, published in 1853. Mr. Sponge was the creation of Robert Smith Surtees, a sportswriter and author who had tried his hand at law before inheriting Hamsterley Hall in Durham and retiring into the life of a "gentleman of leisure."

Free Vintage Illustration of... a ROCKETMAN!

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Okay, not really a rocketman, burning out his fuse up here alone - it's an illustration of a proposed swimming apparatus from an 1881 patent application. But I'll never tell anyone if you want to use him as an illustration of someone who is hiiiiiiiigh... as a kite...

 

I had to link to the Shatner video. I just had to. The power of Kirk compels me.

Edward Gorey is today's Google Doodle!

Speak of the devil on your blog, and he appears - as a Google Doodle! Cult favorite illustrator and writer Edward Gorey is the most recent Google Doodle as today would have been his 88th birthday - he was born on February 22nd, 1925. Fun fact: Gorey only attended art school for one semester, leaving the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1943. The Washington Post has a fun tribute to Gorey and his "playful macabre" up on their Comic Riffs blog, along with links to their ten favorite Google Doodles.

Free Vintage Illustrations of Maids, Servants, and a Man Cleaning House

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Pearline Soap had one of early advertising's great carpet-bombing-style campaigns, with Pearline ads appearing in newspapers and on (gorgeous) advertising trade cards quite pertinaciously from 1877 to 1907. The company was also one of early advertising's great disaster stories: in 1907, they decided that Pearline was such a household name that they no longer needed to advertise. Within a few years after they dropped their advertising campaign, Pearline was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, their salvation coming only when they were bought out by Proctor and Gamble in 1914. 

The "pretty maids, all in a row" above are from an 1890 ad - their buckets originally spelled out "Pearline," but I've worked a little Photoshop magic to make them more suitable for arts and crafts. 

This domestic goddess from a turn-of-the-last-century Pearline ad appeared next to the reassuring text "Simple - any servant can use it." Because, you know, Pearline users were mostly living Upstairs Downton Abbey-like lives of ease and leisure then, right? 
Here she is in more line-drawing fashion:

How about a MAN cleaning house? We don't see that often in ads ("or in real life!" I sense some of you tacking on in your heads).

But it only looks like he's about to get to scrubbin' - the copy from this 1894 ad reads, "Why can't a man's wife use Pearline for cleaning house, and let him keep comfortable?" Well, why not, indeed? Wives can be SO inconsiderate sometimes!

Free Vintage Illustrations from The World at Home (1868)

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The illustrations here come from a fantastic 1868 book called The World at Home, or Pictures and Scenes from Far-Off Lands, which was illustrated by Mary and Elizabeth Kirby of Things in the Forest fame. I love the attention to detail in the illustrations in this book. You have to click on the header above with the camel caravan; it's gorgeous. And just look at this magnificent engraving of the Aurora Borealis:

It's like the 1868 version of Superman's Fortress of Solitude. There are some spectacular engravings of animals, including this polar bear getting ready for a seal-sized snack:

The authors seemed fascinated by the polar regions, so we also have these illustrations of a seal posing on a rock,

seals and penguins in a landscape dominated by icebergs,

and Eskimos constructing an igloo:

Whale hunts in the Bad Old Days look spectacularly dangerous:

How about some Rider Ducks?

Incidentally, if you Google Rider Duck, you end up with this gem:

I don't think I want to know. Anyway! Back to the illustrations. There are some delightful little sketches at the beginning of most of the chapters. For example, here's a beautifully-decorated capital T from one of the chapter introductions: 

And here's an illustration of two sweet little birds on some foliage, which enhanced another chapter:

Birds are all the rage in illustrations and decorating, and while I love them, every time I see a sparrow-appliqued pillow or robin-print shirt, I giggle because it reminds me of the Portlandia sketch "Put a Bird On It": "What a sad little tote bag. I know - I'll put a bird on it!"

More from this book soon!

Free vintage illustration of a snowy day in the countryside (Victorian era)

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Today I picked a wintry image that depicts a young lad delivering a pheasant and rabbit to a kitchen maid. Everything about this image - the bare trees, snow-covered arbor, shaggy horse - says brrr! This illustration was done by W.E. Marshall, so it likely dates from the 1860s or 1870s. I haven't been able to turn up much about Marshall except that he is known for his engravings of Presidents Lincoln, Washington, and Grant.

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Serendipity! I posted earlier today about Thackeray illustrating his own work in The Virginians, and then lo, as I was perusing the Webbity, I learned that Similarly Famous Dead British Author T.S. Eliot illustrated one of his works - Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (first published in 1939).  You know, the children's book that the musical Cats is based on? Here's the front, which you can click on to see in greater detail:

And here's the tuchus, which you can also click on for a better gander:

Whimsical, fun stuff. But wait! It gets better. Because the book was reprinted a few times, and the 1982 edition?  Illustrated by Edward Gorey.


This is as big an image as I could get, but clicking on it will take you to the Amazon listing, where you can see some of the illustrations from inside this edition and mebbe buy it, if you likey. I likey.

Free vintage illustration of Thackeray's The Virginians title page

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Today I prettied up the text from the title page of the first edition of William Makepeace Thackeray's The Virginians. Thackeray's novel was illustrated by ... Thackeray! Who doesn't love a multitasker? Unfortunately, I haven't been able to fer-sure find any of Thackeray's illustrations besides the one on the title page; the Gutenberg site has the full text of the novel stripped of images, and the other editions I've seen online don't ID who or where the illustrations are from. Sigh.

Want to read it (for free) on your Kindle? Click on the book below:

  

A Snowy Night Recommendation

We have just enough new snow on the ground here tonight for everything to look soft and luminescent and lovely. I am not a big fan of winter temperatures, but I do love the look of snow flurries swirling through the air.
I think that this Diana Sudyka print for an Andrew Bird show perfectly captures that snowy, wintry vibe with its black, white, and ice-blue color scheme and its star- and snow-flecked, folk art-influenced animals and churches. It's thirty dollars over at the Andrew Bird site, and I keep going back and forth on whether or not I can afford to splurge on it.    

What do you think? Does it go in the online shopping cart or not?

Free vintage illustration of a woman's portrait head

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The illustration above was originally captioned "Animal Magnetism" (whaaaaat?) and purports to show the model in a "field" of "animal magnetic attraction." Okay, whatever, you crazy old 19th century you. 

I see this image turning into the base of a gorgeous necklace pendant, don't you?  

I made you bookplates! Plus, free vintage illustration of herons on cedar branches in a swamp

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Today's contribution is an illustration titled "Herons on the Tree Tops" from the 1869 book The World at Home, or Pictures and Scenes from Far-Off Lands. This is such a richly detailed illustration, and I spruced it up and saved it with a large file size so that you can use it in a variety of projects. I think you could make some amazing crafts with this. I created a "This book belongs to" bookplate from it using the common font ENGRAVERS MT. Download a page of these free bookplates by clicking here for a Microsoft Word .docx file or here for an Adobe Reader .pdf file.      

If you'd rather have the file so that you can add your name digitally, you can download the image for the free bookplate in its largest size here:

Or in the more typical 4" x 3" size here:

Free vintage illustration of several dog breeds

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This illustration comes from the front of the 1901 book All About Dogs by Charles Henry Lane. The little fellow on the bottom right is quite a character. The illustrations from the book are by R.H. Moore.

Free vintage illustration of two lovers reading

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This beautiful Victorian-era illustration of a couple reading could be the start of a Valentine's Day-themed craft. Based on the signature in the bottom right corner, I strongly suspect that the illustrator is Joseph Swain.

Free vintage illustration of a woman washing clothes

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This image of a woman fanning herself while washing clothes comes from an 1892 advertisement for Pearline soap. The first line of the ad reads "You can't keep cool while you're rubbing away over a tub of steaming clothes." Thank heavens for Maytag. 

Free vintage illustration of mother with unhappy baby

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This illustration of a young mother comforting her rather unhappy infant originally carried the subtitle "How to Treat Croup." Dear Old Mum looks heroically composed, all things considered.

Free vintage illustration of a young married couple reading by candlelight

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In this Victorian-era illustration, a young married couple reads by candlelight while a traveler passes outside their window. I haven't yet been able to locate the source information, but I would guess that this is an illustration from a novel.

Free vintage illustration of foxhound

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The first dog that my husband and I adopted was a foxhound mix, thus my affection for the image above, which is a foxhound named "Marksman" from the 1901 book All About Dogs by Charles Henry Lane. The illustrations from the book are by R.H. Moore.

Free vintage Illustration of Lady Bradshaigh

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For my first free illustration, I've chosen an engraving of Lady Bradshaigh (1705-1785). Isn't she lovely? Lady Bradshaigh, born Dorothy Bellingham, is famous for being the pen-pal and confidante of Samuel Richardson, the author of the first English bestseller, Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded. Lady Bradshaigh lived a remarkable life, which you can read more about here: Ingilby History Page. The illustration comes from the introduction to the Complete Novels of Samuel Richardson, Volume 1, published in 1902. According to notes from the book, it was "engraved by Caroline Watson from an original portrait (1804)."