Vintage French Labels

Beautiful vintage French labels today

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Click on image to download

Enjoy!

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Leonardo DaVinci Sketches

 Leonard DaVinci could very well be the greatest painter that ever lived but he was so much more than just a painter.  He was also a sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, geologist, cartographer, botonist and writer and probably the archetype of the term Renaissance Man. 

It is hard to image one human being, one man, being all of those things, but he was.  He quite possibly could be the most diversely talented person to have ever lived.  His painting of the Mona Lisa is his most famous and The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time. 

DaVinci is also revered as a technological genius and the notebooks he left behind contained drawings of a helicopter, tank, concentrated solar power, and a calculator among others.  Few of his designs were even feasible during his lifetime but some of them were put into use as the newest in technology such as the automated bobbin winder and the machine that tested the strength of wire.  DaVinci also made important discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, optics and hydrodynamics. 

Leonardo DaVinci blessed this planet with his presence from 1452 until 1519.

I hope you enjoy these sketches by Leonardo DaVinci

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Vintage George Washington Snake Game Board

Vintage games today

This is such a sweet image!  Wouldn't it be wonderful if all children played so nicely and sweetly?  Just precious.  If you look at the game board closely it says, "Harmony".  And take a look at that gorgeous mirror in the background.

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This is a rare board game circa 1840 to 1860 called the George Washington Snake Game.  It's a hand-colored wood engraving showing a game board with red, gold, and blue spaces, numbered between 1 and 122.  On the board are illustrations that are numbered and correspond to the blue starred spaces, which are action spots, the player landing on one follows the instructions given with the corresponding illustration, and moves accordingly. At the beginning of the game is a portrait of George Washington and at the end, a rustic looking homestead identified as the "home of the Washington family". 

What a treasure!

 

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Such wonderful vintage images today! Both of these images would make great framed art.  Size them before printing and you have some wonderful pieces of vintage art for your home or office.

Enjoy!

 

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Vintage Ellen Clapsaddle Valentine Postcard

How sweet is this vintage Valentine?

Ellen Clapsaddle was the most prolific American commercial artist of postcards and greeting cards of her time.  

Born in 1865 in New York state she attended art school on a scholarship and upon graduation supported herself and her mother giving art lessons as well as painting and portrait work that she was commissioned to do for wealthy clients.

At that time Germany was the center of the high end publishing world and she spent several years in Germany refining and perfecting her art working with engravers at the German publishing factories.  Upon her return to the United States she formed the Wolf Company and was the first and only female artist of her time to establish her own publishing company with the financial backing of the Wolf brothers.  She was the sole artist and designer for the Wolf Company.

The souvenir postcard industry was booming and Ellen and the Wolf brothers were making a lot of money which they invested in the German factories that produced the greeting cards and postcards she was creating.  And then World War I came along in 1914.  Most of the factories in Germany were leveled as a result of the war as well as all of Ellen's artwork and records.  With the destruction of her entire life's work and penniless, Ellen traveled to Germany during this period to see if there was anything left of her work to save.  

When she arrived in Germany and realized that her life's work was gone as well as her life savings Ellen wandered the streets and witnessed the horrors of war first hand.  Not having heard from Ellen the Wolf brothers borrowed money and traveled to Germany to search for her.  When they finally found her wandering the streets she was sick and had suffered a mental breakdown. Her health and spirit were totally broken.  She was 59 years old.

The Wolf brothers brought her back to the United States and took care of her for the rest of their lives.  

Her work is highly collectible and is easily recognizable because of her unique style.  I have posted several of her works here because I just adore her work but never knew her tragic story.  She gave the world such sweetness and beauty I felt compelled to tell you her story.  Thank you Ellen!  Your art made the world a better place.

This sweet little Ellen Clapsaddle Valentine

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Here is the back of the card with the original stamp

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Enjoy!

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Victorian Scrapbook Page

The hobby of scrapbooking began in the nineteenth century.  This scrapbook page is from one of those scrapbooks from about 130 years ago.

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I have removed the center image in case you would like to use the page in your scrapbook with your own image

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Enjoy!

Vintage Christmas Music Song Sheets

For everyone scurrying around making fun and beautiful Christmas decorations today I have three vintage Christmas sheet music pages.  Torn and aged around the edges I am sure you will find some wonderful crafty uses for them.

Send me photos of what you create, I would love to see and share them!

Click on image to download

Click on image to download

Click on image to download

Enjoy!

The Original Velveteen Rabbit

The Velveteen Rabbit was written by Margery Williams in 1922 and was illustrated by William Nicholson.  It's the story of the stuffed rabbit given to a boy as a Christmas gift and the rabbit's attempt to become "real".

Here is the cover of the original book

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Here are two illustrations from that 1922 book

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And here is the first page of the book

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Enjoy!

Vintage French Version of Sleeping Beauty Title Page

Today I have a wonderful title page and illustration from a 1910 French  version of Sleeping Beauty.  The illustration is by Edmund Dulac.  I have shared some of his work with you before and you can find them here.

This title page and illustration was published in 1910 and is Sir Arthur Quiller Couch's version of Sleeping Beauty.  He also published under the pen name of Q.  He is primarily known for his Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900.

Here is the tile page

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And here is one of the illustrations from the book

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And don't forget about our blog giveaway - vintage Russian postcards!  You can find all of the information here.

Deadline to enter is midnight this Sunday.

Enjoy!

Free Vintage Clip Art - Vintage Family Record Certificate Ephemera

Vintage Family Record

Today I have a gorgeous art deco family record certificate used to record family events like births, marriages and deaths.

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The actual image is small 3.25 x 4 inches.  It is beautiful isn't it?

Enjoy!

Free Vintage Clip Art - Vintage Family Record Certificate

Vintage Boston Birth and Marriage Record

Record keeping of births, deaths, marriages and divorces, vital statistics as we call them today, was not a consistent practice in America and has developed into a common practice slowly over time.

In colonial America many local communities tried to keep these records but they were often not complete.  I know my own grandfather was born in rural Indiana around the turn of the last century and he did not have a birth certificate so no one really knew the year of his birth.

By the mid-1800's a few large cities on the east coast were recording birth and death records but those records were usually incomplete.  Many counties in the east and midwest were recording births and deaths by the late 1800's.  Most states began enacting laws about recording birth and death records in the early 1900's and within 20 years of these laws about 90% of the births and deaths were being recorded.

It was also common practice for families to keep their own records, often inside the family bible.  The certificate below is an example of a family birth and death certificate, probably from the early 1900's from Boston.

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Enjoy!

Free Vintage Clip Art - Pages from Kate Greenaway's Language of Flowers

Kate Greenaway's Language of Flowers

Catherine (Kate) Greenaway was an English writer and children's book illustrator. She studied in what is now the Royal College of Art in London.  Her first book, published in 1879, was a collection of simple verses about children called Under the Window.  Her paintings were reproduced by hand engraved wooden blocks.

The little boys and girls that she painted were dressed in her version of fashion for the time period and Liberty of London actually adapted her paintings for children's clothes and a generation of British mothers dressed their children in Kate Greenaway's bonnets and pantaloons.  

She died of breast cancer at the age 55 in 1901.  The Kate Greenaway Medal was established in her honor in 1955 and is awarded every year in the UK to an illustrator of children's books.

I present to you pages from Language of Flowers - a charming illustrated book of flower equivalents

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Click on image to download

Click on image to download

Aren't they wonderful?  Kate Greenaway books are very collectible too so keep your eyes open for them.

Enjoy!

Free Vintage Clip Art - Page of French Text

Page from Marcel Proust's 1913 Novel

I came across this page from Proust's Remembrance of Thing's Past and thought it might be of interest to you.  This novel is one of the world's classics and could be used in so many of your artful creations.

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Free Vintage Clip Art - Vintage Perfume Label

Vintage Perfume Label

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Isn't this a lovely label?  Very nice.  I really like the font used for "Cologne".

I hope you enjoy this perfume label!

Free Vintage Clip Art - Vintage Spanish Tomato Label

Happy September Everyone!

This is my favorite time of the year.  The kids are going back to school, the weather is cooling down (thank goodness!) and if we are lucky, we have a bountiful harvest awaiting us in our gardens.  

Tomatoes are one of my favorite things to grow.  I remember our first tomato harvest after acquiring our two Labrador Retrievers.  My husband was picking the first ripened tomatoes and Molly, our sweet little lab girl, was watching him pick them.  And she got so excited and started jumping up and down and as I watched her I realized she thought my husband was picking balls, her favorite thing in the world.  She actually thought we were growing balls for her! We still laugh about that it because it was so funny.

So in honor of our little girl Molly here is a lovely vintage Spanish tomato label.  Enjoy the harvest!

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