Art Library / Coloured vector SVG files
Coloured vector SVG files
Lifted from the page of historical books. Flat-colour vectors, for printing and layered art.
35 collections, 9,603 pieces in total. Pick a collection to see the art inside it.
Colour plate
Crane preening among reeds 02 - A Natural History of Uncommon Birds - 1743
From George Edwards, A Natural History of Uncommon Birds (1743)
View this pieceColour plate
Calligraphic letters f and g - Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta (The Model Book of Calligraphy) - 1596
From Georg Bocskay and Joris Hoefnagel, Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta (The Model Book of Calligraphy) (1596)
View this pieceColour plate
Streamer tailed bird with a striped moth - A Natural History of Uncommon Birds - 1743
From George Edwards, A Natural History of Uncommon Birds (1743)
View this pieceBrowse the collections
Start with a subject or a set of historical plates.
Ornament Plates
Chromolithograph borders, panels and illuminated ornament from Victorian pattern books.
Flowers
Botanical colour plates of garden and wild flowers, drawn in full bloom from life.
Japanese Colour Prints
Birds, flowers and waves from Japanese colour-woodblock albums, printed flat rather than shaded.
Shells
Conchology plates painted from the cabinet: whelks, cowries, scallops and nautilus.
Illuminated Lettering
Initials, alphabets and title panels laid out in gold and colour by illuminating manuals.
Machines and Engines
Screw presses, winches, mine engines and mills, scanned whole from Renaissance machine books.
Figures in Colour
People as the colour plates drew them: portraits, dancers, workers and studies of dress.
Birds in Colour
Hand-coloured ornithological plates: songbirds, waterfowl and the eggs that go with them.
Fungi Plates
Caps, gills and spore drawings from the great mycological atlases, painted plate by plate.
Herbals and Remedies
Medicinal plants cut for the apothecary, scanned from Blackwell's Curious Herbal and its kin.
Botanical in Colour
Colour botany plates: the whole plant with root, leaf and flower, painted from the specimen.
Minerals and Fossils
Crystals, ores and fossil impressions, hand coloured specimen by specimen for the cabinet.
Costume Plates
Historical dress, uniforms and regional folk costume from hand-coloured costume albums.
Butterflies in Colour
Hand-coloured lepidoptera plates: swallowtails, hawk moths and the caterpillars they came from.
Insects in Colour
Butterflies, moths and beetles from hand-coloured entomology plates, wings at full colour.
Ruins and Views
Piranesi's Rome and the American picturesque: temples, aqueducts and river valleys drawn on the spot.
Colour Borders
Chromolithograph border strips and running patterns, printed to frame a page in flat colour.
Creatures in Colour
Beasts, fish and fabled animals printed in full colour from natural histories and bestiaries.
Textile Designs
Repeating florals, damask and printed cloth from textile and wallpaper sample books.
Anatomy and Diagrams
Anatomical figures and the earliest statistical charts, both coloured to be read rather than admired.
Heraldry in Colour
Shields, crests and badges in their proper tinctures, which is the whole point of a heraldic plate.
Ferns in Colour
Fronds from the Victorian fern books, drawn at the height of the craze for collecting them.
Alchemy and Emblems
Hermetic emblems, allegories and alchemical figures, scanned whole from the emblem books.
Artefacts and Antiquities
Gold masks, inlaid daggers and painted pottery, drawn as the excavation reports recorded them.
Leaves
Leaf and foliage studies printed in autumn colour, ready to scatter across a panel.
Nautical in Colour
Ships, rigging and harbour scenes in colour, from maritime albums and signal charts.
Chinese Colour Plates
Peonies, dragons and lattice ornament from Chinese decorative albums and ornament books.
Star Charts
Constellation figures and planetary diagrams from the hand-coloured celestial atlases.
Objects in Colour
Vases, clocks, lamps and household things, printed in colour from trade catalogues and design plates.
Geometry
Ruled colour diagrams and geometric constructions from technical drawing plates.
Furniture
Historical colour plates traced into flat-colour vectors for printing.
Pottery
Historical colour plates traced into flat-colour vectors for printing.
Skeleton
Historical colour plates traced into flat-colour vectors for printing.
Initials
Historical colour plates traced into flat-colour vectors for printing.
Ephemera
Historical colour plates traced into flat-colour vectors for printing.
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