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

Click on the image above to view and download the full-size version

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: