Showing posts with label Vintage nature clipart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vintage nature clipart. Show all posts

Free Vintage Garden Poem: The Rabbit and the Carrot by Jenny Wallis

THE RABBIT AND THE CARROT
by JENNY WALLIS

I SING in rhyme a romance sweet,
A tender tale as e'er you'll meet.
'Tis all about a pretty rabbit;
Our little yard did he inhabit.

Beyond the fence Miss Carrot grew;
Her beauty his attention drew.
He daily thought, "Would I were able
To reach that lovely vegetable!"

He tried each space; found all too small;
Beneath there was no room to crawl.
Then off he tore a cabbage leaf,
And on it wrote his tender grief.

Then through the fence he tossed the note,
And to her feet he saw it float;
On which she read, with great surprise,
Words that were very far from wise.

She saw full well that he would win her,
Only to make on her his dinner;
So said, "Kind sir, your note I've seen;
But, pardon me, I'm far from green."

A humourous garden poem originally published March 8, 1887. If you would like to download the illustrated poem as a high-res 5.5" x 10" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark, you can find it here.

Creative Commons Licence
Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized poems by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Botanical Clipart: Three Grandest New Plants, 1896

Three grandest new plants for only 30 cents (as featured in the Mayflower Horticulture magazine from May 1896). From left to right, you have:

THE BRIDAL ROSE: A remarkable plant with leaves resembling a Rose in shape; its flowers are produced during winter, and as as double as a Peony and almost as large. Color pure white, and when a plant one or two feet high shows a score or more of these enormous flowers, which they often do, the sight is a most novel and attractive one. New and little known. Will create a sensation anywhere, for it is one of the most remarkably showy plants in cultivation, and should be in every collection.

NEW DWARF CALLA LITTLE GEM: All that need be said about this sterling novelty is that it is a perfect miniature Calla, growing 8 or 12 inches high and producing perpetually very large snow-white blossoms. It begins to bloom when only a few inches high in a three or four inch pot, and a well-established plant in a large pot is never without flowers, summer or winter, and sometimes shows a dozen at once. The greatest plant novelty of late years and yet the sensation of the day. Our stock is TRUE, and this is a rare opportunity for our readers to get one at little cost.

RUDBECKIA LACINIATA GOLDEN GLOW: Offered this year for the first time. A hardy perennial plant growing eight feet high, branching freely, and bearing by the hundreds, on long, graceful stems, exquisite double blossoms of the brightest golden color and large as Cactus Dahlias. The cut represents a plant in bloom, as photographed. Mr. William Falconer, the best authority on plants in this country, says of it: "When I saw the double-flowering form of Rudbeckia Laciniate in bloom in your grounds at Floral Park, in summer last year, I was amazed, for notwithstanding my long and intimate acquaintance with plants I had never before seen a double-flowered Rudbeckia; and I was delighted with the fullness and gorgeousness of the blossoms and their clear, bright yellow color. You gave me a plant last spring and it was set out in good garden ground. It grew vigorously and threw up strong branching flower stems six feet high, laden with sheaves of golden blossoms as large as fair Chrysanthemums, and all having an elegant, graceful appearance, without any stiffness in habit or blossom. Many eminent florists and amateurs have seen it here, and all admired it. As cut flowers, the blossoms last well. In fine, I unhesitatingly regard it as the most desirable introduction among hardy perennials since we got Clematis Paniculate."

You can download the vintage ad above as a high-res 8" x 8" @ 300 ppi JPEG here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Flower Illustration for Collage Art, Papercrafts, Scrapbooking or Wall Art: The Butterfly and the Rose 1

To love at all is to be vulnerable.
Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken.
If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal.
Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements.
Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.
But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change.
It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.
To love is to be vulnerable.
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

An antique botanical illustration showing a butterfly on a stalk of pink cabbage roses (Provence rose, Rosa x centiflora). The engraving was done by Langlois after a drawing by Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759 - 1840).

The form of Rosa centiflora portrayed by Redouté in this print is a triumph of the hybridiser's art; of its kind, it is surely near perfection. It is not surprising that Centiflora roses came to be identified with the so-called Queen of Roses cultivated by the Greeks and Romans. This notion is romantic, but informed opinion now belives it to be mistaken. Rosa centiflora is thought to be a complex hybrid of four species known in western Europe in the late sixteenth century, which was evolved pver a period of about a hundred and thirty years and perfected in the early eighteenth century. The four species involved were Rosa rubra (the Apothecary's Rose or Rose of Provins), Rosa phoenicea (the Damask Rose or Crusaders' Rose), Rosa moschata (the Musk Rose) and Rosa canina (the Dog Rose).
[Source: Eve and Norman Robson, Plants (London: Studio Editions, 1990), p.84]

Download and print for wall art or to use in various altered art, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects. You can find the free high-res 8" x 11" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

Below, you can see how I have paired the above botanical illustration with a vintage piece of French sheet music called "Le Papillon et La Rose." You can find the high-res JPEG of the sheet music here.

If you would like to download the combined illustration and sheet music image, you can find the high-res JPEG here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Printable Bird Illustration for Altered Art, Graphic Design or Scrapbooking: Spring Doves with Basket of Forget-Me-Nots

Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy
Rather in power than use; and keep thy friend
Under thy own life's key: be check'd for silence,
But never tax'd for speech.
William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well

A vintage postcard from 1908 that shows a pair of white doves flying aloft as they carry a basket of brilliantly blue forget-me-nots contained within a basket with pink ribbons tied in bows for handles.

This colourful bird illustration would be lovely as the cover of a greeting card to a friend or loved one (Mother's Day, Valentine's Day or birthday) but could also be used in a mixed media art project or to decorate a scrapbook.

To download the high-res 4" x 6" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark, please click here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Victorian Sheet Music and Vintage Nature Clipart for Cardmaking, Collage or Scrapbooking: Spring Bird Waltz and Bird with Spring Blossoms

Hello, everyone. Two free graphics this morning:

(1) An illustration from one of my books on wild birds, published in 1901. This bird is called the chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita), its name derived "...from the fancied resemblance of its notes to the words 'chiff chaff,' which are uttered with a quick, clear enunciation; the song is sweet and not unmelodious, and when alarmed the bird has a note of displeasure which sounds something like the word 'whoo-id' or 'whoo-it.'

...considered the earliest of our summer visitors, arriving in this country [England] sometimes in March, and remaining until October; indeed, of all small warblers, it is the first to come and the last to go."

Download the 4" x 6" @ 300 ppi JPEG here.

(2) A light-hearted dance tune called "Spring Bird Waltz" from the August 1, 1858 issue of Young Ladies' Journal. You can download this antique sheet music as a 4" x 6" @ 300 ppi JPEG here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Illustration for Cardmaking, Garden and Nature Journals or Scrapbook Page: Birds Exchanging News of Spring

Never cut a tree down in the wintertime.
Never make a negative decision in the low time.
Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods.
Wait. Be patient.
The storm will pass. The spring will come.
Robert H. Schuller

Antique illustration from the late 1800s showing a sparrow coming to the bullfinches' icy perch to exchange news of spring - will spring be early or late this year? Delicate and subtle sprigs of spring blossoms surround the borders of this image. A great whimsical graphic for greeting cards, garden or nature journals, collage, and scrapbooking projects. You can download the high-res 6" x 4.5" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Bird Clipart for Cardmaking, Collage, Crafting or Scrapbooking: Messenger Doves with a Ribbon of Pink Envelopes

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.
Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets

First-generation digital scan of a vintage postcard from 1906. It shows an illustration of a flock of doves flying towards the recipient with love notes in little pink envelopes strung on a red ribbon. This would make a lovely greeting card for Valentine's or Mother's Day but you could also use it in a mixed media collage project or to decorate a scrapbook page or as a gift tag. You can download the high-res 4" x 6" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Clipart for Altered Art, Graphic Design, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: Invited Guests or Young Lady with Wild Swans

The river is such a tranquil place, a place to sit and think of romance and the beauty of nature,
to enjoy the elegance of swans and the chance of a glimpse of a kingfisher.
Jane Wilson-Howarth, Snowfed Waters

An antique illustration from c1885 that shows a young lady in a row boat underneath a large weeping willow. She is extending an outstretched hand to two white swans that are gliding along the river towards her.

You can download this free high-res 6" x 11" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark for altered art, collage, graphic design, junk journal, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Bird Clipart for Cardmaking, Collage or Scrapbooking: Robins on Icy Branches with a Rose in Full Bloom Amid Winter Snow


When we love, we always strive to become better than we are.
When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.
Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Digitally restored and enhanced antique postcard from the early 1900s with an illustration showing a pair of robins percehed on snowy branches in wintertime. Miraculously, a marvelous pink rose is still blooming amid the winter cold.

Free to use in your cardmaking, collage or scrapbooking projects. You can download the high-res 6" x 4" @ 300 ppi JPEG without any words or watermark here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Winter Clipart and Nature Poem for Cardmaking, Crafts or Junk Journaling: Snow Crystals, 1881 and Snowflakes, 1879

Above is a black and white illustration from an 1881 magazine thats a variety of snow crystal shapes. I also found a sweet winter poem called "Snowflakes" written by Mary Mapes Dodge (1831 - 1905) and first published in 1879 that I thought would go well with the illustration. Here is how the poem goes:

Whenever a snowflake leaves the sky
It turns and turns to say “good-bye;”
“Good-bye, dear cloud, so cool and gray!”
Then lightly travels on its way.
And when a snowflake finds a tree,
“Good-day,” it says — “Good-day to thee!
Thou art so bare and lonely, dear,
I’ll rest and call my comrades here.”
But when a snowflake brave and meek,
Lights on a rosy maiden’s cheek,
It starts— “How warm and soft the day!
‘Tis Summer!”— and it melts away.
[Source]

You can download the free illustration as a high-resolution 5" x 7" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here. Perfect for a holiday greeting card or incorporate into crafts, scrapbooking or junk journal projects.

By the way, here is an audio of soprano Gwen Catley singing "Snowflakes," which had been set to music by composer Liza Lehmann (1862 - 1918), and published in 1914. [Source]


Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Bird Clipart for Cardmaking, Collage or Scrapbooking: The Finches Take Shelter in a Snowstorm

She captured a feeling, sky with no ceiling,
the sunset inside of a frame.
La La Land

Antique postcard from the early 1900s with an illustration showing a pair of finches, male and female, huddled together on a stalk of wildflower. They are sharing a pale blue umbrella as they take shelter from the snowflakes swirling around them. A frame of birch tree trunks surround the winged couple.

Free to use in your cardmaking, collage or scrapbooking projects. You can download the high-res 6" x 9" @ 300 ppi JPEG without any words or watermark here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Clipart for Cardmaking, Collage or Junk Journaling: Girl at Window of Vine-Covered Cottage

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive
— to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love — then make that day count!
Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

An antique illustration from 1883 that shows a girl opening the window of a vine-covered cottage to greet a little whote dove that has flown up to say good morning! You can download this free high-res 8.5" x 11" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark for card making, collage or junk journal projects here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Bird Clipart for Cardmaking, Collage or Scrapbooking: Hummingbird in Field of Wheat and Corn

In life, we plant seeds everywhere we go.Some fall on fertile ground needing very little to grow.
Some fall on rocky soil requiring a tad bit more loving care.
While others fall in seemingly barren land and no matter what you do; it appears the seed is dead.
Nevertheless, every seed planted will have a ripple effect.
You could see it in the present or a time not seen yet.
So be wise about where you plant your seeds. Be very mindful of your actions and deeds.
Negativity grows just as fast if not faster than positivity.
Plant seeds of kindness, love and peace and your harvest will be abundant living.
Sanjo Jendayi

The above image was originally a Victorian trade card from 1880 for American Breakfast Cereals, a producer of steam cooked and dessicated cereals as well as cereal milk and cereal cream. The card shows a ruby-throated hummingbird perched on a stalk of wheat in a field of wheat and corn.

Free to use in your cardmaking, collage or scrapbooking projects. You can download the high-res 6" x 11" @ 300 ppi JPEG without any words or watermark here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Garden Clipart for Crafts, Collage or Junk Journaling: A Victorian Aviary and Flowering Angel Trumpets

Larks in the morning, crickets at night. There is no other world.
Marty Rubin

A black and white illustration of an aviary in a Victorian garden, surrounded by climbing roses and wild convolvulus. This particularly ornamental aviary was manufactured by Mr. E. Crook of 5, Carnaby-street, Regent-street, London, and was quite popular with many ladies of that era. You can download a 8” x 7” @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

May I a small house and large garden have;
And a few friends,
And many books, both true.
Abraham Cowley

A botanical illustration from Henderson's Handbook of Plants that shows a small flowering tree growing in a landscaped, walled garden. The "tree" is actually a standard shrub of Brugmansia suaveolens, also commonly known as angel trumpet or angel's tears. The remarkably beautiful flowers (usually white but can be yellow or pink) are sweetly fragrant in the evenings so they can attract pollinating moths but hang half-closed during the day. A lovely graphic to use in crafts, collage or junk journaling. You can download the 8” x 10” @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Bird Clipart: Caged Canary Longing to be Free


The caged bird sings with a fearful trill,
of things unknown, but longed for still,
and his tune is heard on the distant hill,
for the caged bird sings of freedom.
Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

Now that she had nothing to lose, she was free.
Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes

A Victorian trade card that shows a lone canary with a vibrant yellow plumage sitting by itself in a cage. In the background is a wild and beautiful forest. The bird appears to be singing - is it pining for its lost freedom? Free to use in your craft, mixed media collage or DIY wall art projects. You can download the high-res 6" x 8" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Bird Clipart: Profiles of Birds in Finch and Sparrow Family

I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.
e.e. cummings

Ten antique illustrations from 1898 that show profiles of birds in the finch and sparrow family. Figure 150 shows a White-throated Sparrow, Figure 151 shows a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Figure 152 shows a White-crowned Sparrow, Figure 153 shows a Chewink, Figure 154 shows a Song Sparrow, Figure 155 is of a Cardinal, Figure 156 is of a Junco, Figure 157 is a Redpoll, Figure 158 is a Snowflake, and last but not least, Figure 159 shows a Dickcissel. You can download the high-res 12" x 9" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Animal Clipart for Crafts or Collage: Frolic, the White Squirrel


Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
George Eliot, Mr Gilfil's Love Story

This illustration originally appeared in the December 1904 issue of St. Nicholas Magazine. Drawn by Meredith Nugent, it shows Frolic, a young albino squirrel that became a much-loved family pet. "In June, he stained his paws with strawberries; in August he feasted on mushrooms; and during winter birch buds fresh from the snowy woods were always a great treat." You can download a 6" x 6" @ 300 ppi JPEG for crafts or mixed media collage projects here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.