Pretty Art Nouveau Floral Border

Here is a pretty floral border in an art nouveau style. The flowers themselves look kind of like morning glories to me, but the leaves and branches with thorns seem more like roses, so I am guessing that they are stylistic roses. The image in the original was mirrored on the other side of some text. It could be rotated so that it was on top or bottom, rather than the side (which I think might look nice because of that arch area in the center). In fact, I should have done that, but didn't think about it until I started writing this. If rotated this would be nice as a header for an invitation, letterhead, announcement, etc.




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Weird Wednesday: Periscope Hat

I like to call this the Vixen Starlet Steampunk Periscope Top Hat--because the way she is drawn reminds me of a silent film star, and the star on the periscope makes me think Hollywood glamour "star" too. But of course the periscope and the top hat makes me think of "steampunk."

This wacky fashion statement comes from a 1915 newspaper. The article claims appearances of this fancy hat had been made in New York and Chicago. It explains the style and its use this way, "A tiny mirror is tucked at an attractive and innocent angle in the bonnet so it reflects the actions of pedestrians behind the wearer." And would be used to avoid unwanted male attention, should some chap come up behind the lady looking like he wanted to flirt. I think there are much more interesting uses for it than that though.






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Halloween Couple Dancing

This illustration from 1920 seems to be of a couple wearing costumes dancing at a party. She is wearing a witches hat with a pom pom on the top and he is a (pardon my ignorance if I am wrong) a musketeer or buccaneer?






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Halloween Party Illustration

A black and white illustration from the year 1909 of a Halloween Party with all sorts of characters, ranging from witches, a fairy, gnome, jester, horse, and more.




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Edwardian Boots

Here is a non-Halloween related post. I thought the button up boots from the Creepy Lady ad post yesterday were pretty cool. So I clipped them out to make them available as two pieces of clipart for you too. These come from an ad from the year 1912.

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Weird Wednesday: Creepy Lady

Welcome to the first Weird Wednesday on the Vintage Snips and Clips blog!

What is that? Well, I keep coming across things like weird ads or other weird illustrations and thought I'd try sharing them on a regular basis. (I'm really good at procrastinating though, so we'll see how well that goes.) Since I have also been trying to gather Halloween stuff, I thought the first one I would add was something that is weird, but also kind of scary would do.

Obviously this ad for shoes from the year 1912 was not intended to be weird and creepy at all. I really think the people who created this ad did not realize how utterly creepy this woman would look once the drawing was translated into ink pressed onto newspaper. The style of make-up for that point in time, drawn in ink and then printed on newspaper...didn't translate so well in the instance.
 
Her eyes are dark, surrounded by dark, thick lines, and seem almost hollow. Her eerie smile is somewhat reminiscent of The Joker from Batman (but I think those are really supposed to be dimples). She is rather haunting, in my opinion. And what is up with her one hand? It's like an alien's hand or something.

In case someone wanted to use this for a sign, invitation, or other such purpose, I tried editing the shoes and text out and left it at the original size that I obtained it as.

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Weird / Creepy Scarecrow for Halloween

Here is another picture for Halloween from an old advertisement with a Halloween theme. These is a pretty weird looking and, may I add, kinda creepy scarecrow. The string from his hat is hanging across his nose and over his face. He is pointing with both hands in one direction and has a freaky grimacing mouth.

Perhaps he is saying, "The Halloween Party is THAT way!" Or maybe he is saying, "I insist that you go to this Halloween Party!"







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Halloween Pretty Witch

Vintage Halloween Witch

I am trying to get some images up for Halloween in this month of September, so that they can be used for things that need to be made in advance before October...or bookmarked or pinned to Pinterest in anticipation/preparation until one is ready to start making things for All Hallow's Eve.

This pretty witch with her broom, pointed hat and yowling black cat is a fun, black and white, vintage image for the spooky holiday.

Beware, the witching hour is getting near!

edit: This is so funny. I just noticed that this same witch is on The Graphic's Fairy's blog, but from many years earlier. I assume she got this image from the same source as I. But if you look closely at the two versions full size, you can see the different ways they've been edited. I think her's is more "sharp" if that makes sense (mine is also somewhat smaller). Just pick which ever version you prefer. :)


 

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Woman with a Box of Chocolates

This woman holding a box of chocolates was from the same shoe ad that also had the image of roses from a previous post I made.

As far as I know there is no longer a trademark for the company listed on this box (anyone hear of Ogram's?) so it should be safe to use. To try to clarify what I mean...
This picture is in the public domain, but so are many Coca-Cola pictures from old ads...however the name Coca-Cola is trademarked so it is best not to use things that have a current trademark even if the image itself is in the public domain. I hope that makes sense.
I personally would remove the product name (and maybe the rest of the text, but I left it for those who want to use it as is. But it would also be fun to remove the text on the box and replace it with your own.




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Black and White Illustration of Three Roses

Three Roses Tied With Ribbon

Today I came across this really cool image of three lovely roses tied with a ribbon. It had a lot of ink from the other page transferred onto it (you could see a man's face from an ad from another page on it)...so there was a lot of cleaning up to do, especially around the ends of the stems. Hopefully I did an alright job.

Overall it is a very crisp and clear, black and white image of long stemmed roses that I think turned out quite nicely.

It was from an ad for shoes from the year 1913, that was stating that if you bought a pair you got a box of chocolates and roses (I want to shop there). The ad described the roses being given as "a bouquet of Gude Roses." I did a quick search, out of curiosity, and found a few references to "Amelia Gude roses" in some old books and newspapers, but nothing else...I guess this is a "lost" breed of roses? They probably are just known by another name now.

I think there are so many things that could be done with this particular clipart of roses. Perhaps make a romantic item for Valentine's Day, or use to make a Mother's Day gift? Either way... Enjoy!




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Menorah and Star of David Frame

Tonight I came across this cool and pretty, art nouveau style frame with a Jewish menorah on the left and a Star of David on the right. This came from a Jewish newspaper from the year 1911. The center could be used to place text (as it originally was used for) or maybe an image could be put in there as well.




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Sparrows and Holly

Vintage Illustration of Sparrows & Holly

I had someone ask if I could find some pictures of birds, especially things like sparrows. Pictures of birds are always useful for clipart projects, so I readily agreed to keep my eye out for some and I hope to find several to add here.

This is one of the first I have found so far...a picture of two, pretty sparrows flying together in front of what looks to be a holly bush to me.

Since I tend to think of holly as more of a winter or Christmas thing, and since some might just want a version without the plants for other reasons, I decided to do version with it edited out, which you can see below.

Vintage Illustration of Flying Sparrows

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Old American Flags

I meant to post this a little bit earlier. This old flag is from the Ethics of Success Reader that I first started posting images from on this blog when I first started it. But I thought I'd wait until closer to July 4th to post it. It only has 30 stars on it. Apparently this flag became the official flag for the United States on July 4th, 1848. www.usflag.org/history/the30starflag.html

And here is a 48 star Old Glory American flag. The U.S. flag came to have 48 stars on July 4, 1912. www.usflag.org/history/the48starflag.html

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A Simple Pair of Scissors

Sometimes all you need is a simple image of a pair of scissors. Thankfully I found just that in a vintage ad. It has a very clean outline and basic details.

This image has a resolution of 99ppi. If you need something bigger, consider getting the vector version I created...for more info go here.


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Finger Pointing Clip Art

Black and white illustrations of a man's hand pointing its finger are very common...but they are also very useful in so many applications and somehow I think they are just Fun! I think they remind me of those animations from Monty Python. They are great for signage, but also invitations, flyers, funny messages and so much more.

So here's one more pointing finger in the public domain to use as clip art, adding to all those already out there for you to choose from. This image has a resolution of 99ppi.

Interested in a vector version of this hand? Check out my clip art store here.

I'm sure I'll be adding more of these sort of hands to this blog in the future.



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Three Sewing Baskets

These three sewing baskets comes from an ad published in 1918. Holding scissors, spools of thread, and other sewing implements for sewing and mending these baskets were an important part of the household at the turn of the century.







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Ice Cream Cone Clipart Black and White

How fun is this? An ice cream cone from a vintage ad (it was actually from a coloring competition type of ad). Ice cream and dessert lovers will find lots of uses for this public domain picture.





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Lively Lads

This is a fun illustration of four, cheerful boys from a vintage newspaper ad from 1912 advertising for the "nobbiest and newest offerings in Neckwear, Caps, Hats and other wearables" including shoes. They are rigged out in what are a few different examples of the fashion styles for boys of the 1910s era, including knee length pants and stockings and shoes with spats. Two of them are wearing nautical inspired suits and the others look like what I tend to think of as "newspaper boys" although I am sure it was typical schoolboy dress as well.

I've cleaned the image up, although there are a few flaws from the newspaper printing that someone may want to improve upon (it's easier to see it at full size).



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Pretty Edwardian Lady Portrait

This is a little too belated for Valentine's Day, but here is a pretty illustrated portrait of an Edwardian lady in what may be an evening gown. A simple oval frame with rectangles and hearts as accents frames her. She looks somewhat similar to a Gibson girl illustration.

This comes from an old advertisement in a newspaper from the year 1909.



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Laundry Warriors?

This may not be the most useful of images for clip art. I am just posting it here mostly because I found it amusing...what the heck does this image of one man smoking a pipe and another holding a weapon of some sort as they stare in the direction of the sun...have to do with laundry? I think they are knights perhaps (their hoods and bulky clothing perhaps being chain mail?).

The image could be edited to remove the text if one actually has a use for the illustration.

This was found in an old newspaper from 1909.



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