Johann Georg von Caspel (1870-1928) was a Dutch architect, painter, musician, and lithographer. Here are some of his posters / ads that I found Wikipedia Commons. I’ve featured his artwork before, on the DPD for 16 August 2009, which you can get either by going to the post itself, or going to my Freebies pages and downloading the .zip files of images for last August.

Advertising poster for Hollandischer Cocoa, by Caspel, 1897. From Wikipedia Commons.

Advertising poster by Caspel for Van Houten's "cocoa and chocolate", 1899. From Wikipedia Commons.

As always, click on them to see them full-sized.

Peace, love, and chocolate,

Bekka

Tags: .jpg, 1897, 1899, ad, ads, Art Nouveau, baking, Caspel, children, chocolate, cocoa, color, daily public domain, DPD, Dutch, food, free, image, ladies, lady, lithograph, man, PD, poster, shopping, Victorian, Wiki Commons, Wikipedia, woman, women

A short while ago I purchased 18 (out of a total of 20) volumes of a 1919 series for children called The Book of Knowledge: The Children’s Encyclopædia (NY: The Grolier Society). It has lots of wonderful black and white illustrations – some are drawings, some are photographs, and some are copies of famous artworks. Not to mention the frames on some of the pages. I’m looking forward to doing a lot of scanning from these 18 books.

But today’s picture is from Vol.4, pg. 1205. It is from the section entitled “The Book of Stories” and the story is “The Bride of the Wandering Prince”. The passage relevant to the picture is this:

The princes, while wandering on, came one day to the town where Cherry and her mother lived, and as they passed along the street they saw the fair maiden standing at the window. Then each of the three fell in love with her, and began to say how much he longed to have her for his wife.

Scarely had the wish been spoken when all drew their swords, and dreadful battle began.

Here are the three princes beginning to fight, with Cherry oblivious to it at her window (click on the image to see it / download it full-sized):

"The three princes saw a fair maiden sitting at the a window", _The Book of Knowledge_, 1919. Volume 4, pg 1205. Book in author's possession, PD due to age.

I cleaned up the image a bit from the original scan, to make it more clear. More images to come soon!

Peace,

Bekka

Tags: Art Nouveau, bw, daily public domain, DPD, fair maiden, fantasy, free, graphics, illustration, image, lady, man, medieval, men, modified image, PD, png, princes, public domain, sword, swordfight

This cornucopia is me trying something new: digital stamps [check out this concise article on them on About.com]. Digital stamps are slightly different from clip art, as explained in another article on About.com:

The main difference between digital stamps or digi stamps and clip art is that digital stamps have specifically been created with the stamper in mind. This means that the images are typically black and white outline images that allow stampers to add color and other embellishments as required. Clip art is often created as a ‘finished’ design that requires little in the way of further embellishment. - Digital Stamps and Clip Art: What is the Difference Between Digital Stamps and Clip Art? by Kate Pullen, About.com.

So I decided to try my hand at this, and took a .jpg image from a Project Gutenberg e-book. The book was a 1915 edition of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, illustrated by Arthur Rackham. It was of a cornucopia.

Here is the original image:

Illustration from 1915 edition of _A Christmas Carol_ by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Arthur Rackham.

I took it, cleaned it up, increased the resolution, and saved it as a transparent .png [so it can be printed on patterned paper and will let the paper show through]. Violá! Digital stamp:

Cornucopia, digital stamp, made from 1915 illustration by Arthur Rackham. 300 ppi, transparent .png. Created by author, released to public domain.

Feel free to download and use either one – but be sure to click on them first to get them full sized.

Peace,
Bekka

Tags: 1915, About.com, Art Nouveau, Arthur Rackham, Autumn, bw, cornucopia, daily public domain, digital stamp, DPD, Fall, feast, food, graphics, horn of plenty, illustration, image, modified image, PD, png, Project Gutenberg, public domain, Thanksgiving, Victorian

Today’s image is from the front cover of the magazine The Delineator, from Sept. 1921. I have cropped the picture, but have given you both the cropped image and the full magazine cover below. The image is of a faerie [or, if you prefer, fairy], who is obviously a cricket faerie and not a grasshopper because she carries a violin – if you’ve ever heard a cricket’s music, you will know this is a suitable instrument for her.

The Delineator: A Journal of Fashion, Culture, and Fine Arts was published by the Butterick Publishing Co. from 1873 to 1937. Yes, the same company that makes Butterick sewing patterns. By the turn of the 20th c. it was one of the premier women’s fashion magazines in the U.S., and it prominently featured those same Butterick patterns. By the Great Depression, however, the thoughts of most women turned to things other than ‘fashion, culture, and the fine arts’ and eventually, in 1937, The Delineator ceased to be published. [Butterick still produces a fine range of patterns though.]

Cricket Faerie, from the front cover of The Delineator magazine, Sept. 1921. Cropped by author. Click to see full sized.

Front cover of The Delineator, Sept. 1921. Click to see full sized.

Scheduled for posting as I listen to the crickets outside my office window, as summer draws to a close.

Peace,

Bekka

Tags: 1921, Art Nouveau, berries, Butterick patterns, color, cricket, daily public domain, DPD, faerie, fairy, free, graphics, illustration, image, magazine, magazine cover, modified image, PD, public domain, The Delineator, violin, watercolor

Today’s Daily Public Domain image is a French advertisement for a fountain pen from 1919. I found it in my diggings at – where else? – the Library of Congress  Digital Collections. The artist was Eugene Oge (1861-1936) and the translated text reads (approximately) “Waterman ‘Ideal’ Pen Holder – Weapon of Peace”. Remember that this is from 1919, just after the end of World War I and the treaty of Versailles. I just love the beautiful woman in classic drapery holding a pen in the air.

French ad for Waterman fountain pens, 1919, by Eugene Oge (1861-1936). Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LOC #LC-USZC2-4110.

As always, click to see it full sized.

May your ‘weapons of peace’ always be put to good use.

Bekka

Tags: 1919, ad, Art Nouveau, daily public domain, design, DPD, fountain pen, France, free, French, graphics, image, lady, Library of Congress, LOC, PD, pen, poster, public domain, writing

These are scanned from an old copy of the Bookman, c. 1920, that I own. They are public domain due to age. I modified both, and am including those also – they are also public domain, of course. Have fun with them. (As always, click on them to see them full sized).

Sample bookplate from the Bookman, c. 1920. Author's collection.

Same bookplate, modified by author. PD.

Art Nouveau sample bookplate from the Bookman, c. 1920. Author's collection.

Same bookplate, modified to remove the name.

Enjoy and happy reading! Peace,

Bekka

Tags: 1920, Art Nouveau, bookplates, color, daily public domain, DPD, free, graphics, image, line drawing, modified image, PD, public domain, the Bookman

On the Project Gutenberg site, I found a German children’s book from 1912 called ‘Siegfried, the Hero’ [Siegfried, der Held], written by Rudolf Herzog and illustrated by Franz Stassen. I don’t really read much German, but some of the illustrations were fun, and with the help of Google Translate , I could mostly figure out the captions. Here are a few – they are public domain due to age. [As always, click on them to see and download them full-sized.]

Siegfried finds Brunhilda on the iron bed.

Siegfried sees Kriemhild for the first time.

Siegfried reveals the secret of the ring to Kriemhild.

The argument between the queens.

Now, I’m not much for Wagner, or the Ring Cycle, or anything [though the Ride of the Valkyries is a fun piece of music - and the ringtone on my phone], but I just thought these Art Nouveau renderings of ‘medieval’ people were too fun to pass up. Have fun with them!

Bekka

Tags: Art Nouveau, Brunhilda, bw, daily public domain, DPD, fantasy, free, graphics, hero, high fantasy, image, knight, Kriemhild, ladies, line drawing, medieval, norse, PD, Project Gutenberg, public domain, queen, saga, Siegfried

Johann Georg von Caspel (1870-1928) was a Dutch architect, painter, musician, and lithographer. Here a few of his Art Nouveau style advertising posters from the late 1890s. Once again, I found these on Wiki Commons. As always, click an image to see it full-sized.

Dutch camera ad, 1899. Johann George van Caspel.

Dutch Ad for bicycle tires, 1897. Johann Georg van Caspel.

Ad for Maypole Soap, 1896. Johann Georg van Caspel.

Enjoy! Peace,

Tags: 1896, 1897, 1899, ad, Art Nouveau, bicycle, camera, color, daily public domain, design, DPD, free, graphics, image, lady, Maypole soap, photography, soap, tire, Wiki Commons, Wikipedia, women