swarbles.

oldbookillustrations:

The wave.

William T. Horton, from A book of images, introduced by W. B. Yeats, London, 1898.

(Source: http://archive.org/details/bookofimages00hortrich)

oldbookillustrations:

Tigerlilia terribilis.

Edward Lear, from More nonsense, pictures, rhymes, botany, etc., London, 1872.

(Source: archive.org)

oldbookillustrations:

THE PIC-NIC
Contented man: What a nice damp place we have secured; and how very fortunate we are in the weather ; it would have been so provoking for us all to have brought our umbrellas and then to have had a fine day!! Glass of wine, Briggs, eh?

John Leech, from Pictures of life and character vol. 1, London, 1886.

(Source: archive.org)

oldbookillustrations:

The hush of night

Myles Birket Foster, from Country life, collective work, London, New York, 1873.

(Source: archive.org)

oldbookillustrations:

I perceived myself fallen into the Alexandrine Library, overwhelmed in an ocean of books.

William Strang, from The surprising adventures of Baron Munchausen, by Rudolf Erich Raspe, London, 1895.

(Source: archive.org)

oldbookillustrations:

When a sunbeam was seen to glance over the walls,
And the castle of Willumberg bask’d in the ray…

Samuel Rhead, from Poetry and pictures from Thomas Moore, London, 1858.

(Source: archive.org)

oldbookillustrations:

Fleetly o’er the moonlit snows
…………………………………….
Swift our sledge as lightning goes…

Goerge Thomas, from Poetry and pictures from Thomas Moore, London, 1858.

(Source: archive.org)

ziarci:

Dulcimer-playing automaton, once belonging to Marie Antoinette. See it in action here.

oldbookillustrations:

Banjonalities

George Du Maurier, from English society, New York, 1897.

(Source: archive.org)

oldbookillustrations:

Ceiling pattern, “which repeats equally in all directions.”

From Principles of decorative design, by Christopher Dresser, London, New York, 1873.

(Source: archive.org)