Robin Hood - 1951

This 1951 version of Robin Hood was written by Carola Oman and was published by E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc. It contains black and white line drawings as well as eight color plates by S. Van Abbé.

Vintage Christmas Cards - 1940s and 1950s

I have a large box of cards that my grandmother gave me. Most of these cards belonged to her older sister, my great aunt. I love looking through these cards and reading the little notes that people wrote, seeing all the different styles of cards, and marveling at how much better everyone's handwriting was in that generation.

Since it's the holiday season, I thought it would be fun to share some of these cards throughout the month. I'm starting with a sampling below that is from the 1940s and 1950s. Many of the cards in my box have dates on them, because Aunt Alma kept most of the envelopes, but the cards in this post do not have specific dates on them.

I love this sweet little illustration. Below is the inside of this card.

A Noel themed card.

This is a nice example of a limited color palette being used well.

This is the inside of the sleigh ride card. As I've been looking through my box of cards and picking out ones to scan, I've been noticing that there was definitely a trend of couples having cards printed with their names on the inside.

Most of the cards are simply folded paper, but this was a good example of a cut-out design that was still in good condition. The stocking would flip open to display the message below.

I love the lettering style for the "Best Wishes" message.

A retro white Christmas tree.

I really liked this mailbox illustration card. For one, the artist used a dark teal and gold color theme instead of the standard red and green color theme for the holiday. The card was also an odd tall and narrow shape. Also, I absolutely love the script style for the message on the inside. Beautiful lettering. The front is on the left and the inside is on the right.

Here's another example of a card that is a tall and narrow design. The front is on the left and the inside is on the right.

Enjoy! More cards will be posted throughout the month of December.

The Romper Room Do Bee Book of Manners - 1960

Here is another find from one of the local used book stores that I frequent. The Romper Room Do Bee Book of Manners, by Nancy Claster, was published by Wonder Books, Inc. in 1960. The illustrations are by Art Seiden. I picked it up because the simplistic style reminded me a lot of Mary Blair's artwork, who I'm a big fan of. The book itself looks like it would have been right at home in the library of the Bobby and Sally Draper on Mad Men.

Welcome to Pictures and Print!

For some time now, I have been sharing vintage books from my own collection on my sketch blog to show where some of my inspirations come from. I enjoy sharing my books so much that I decided to create a spin-off blog specifically for that purpose. My collection is always growing, so I will always have new books to share as well as other vintage items of interests, such as magazines, comics, and more.

To start off with, I added all of the former posts from my sketch blog to this blog in order to keep the material together. I will be sharing new books in the days and weeks to come. I've also added more specific tags to those posts to make it easier to sort through subject material. I think the decade tags will be most helpful as I continue to add more books.

I collect mainly illustrated books, with a focus on fairy tales and children's books. I don't collect according to any sort of value and instead look for illustrations and styles that I enjoy. I will mostly be scanning the book covers as well as any pages I find interesting. I will never be scanning an entire book, simply because it would be too time consuming. However, if I have a particular book that is of interest to you and there was something specific that you wanted to see out of it, let me know!

I'm very much looking forward to sharing my collection with everyone! I hope you enjoy the blog. If you get a chance please visit some of the ads in the right column or at the bottom of the page to help support the blog and so I can continue to share new books with all of you.

...I also often post on Instagram, vintage related and not, as jackieocean. Feel free to follow along!

Morning Noises - 1962

It's been a while since I shared a vintage book that I find inspiring, so tonight I pulled one from my collection and scanned some pages. I picked this up at my favorite local used book store because I loved the simplicity and quirkiness of the interior illustrations. My favorite is the page where a duck is sporting a top hat, jacket, glasses, and a walking cane.

The book is titled Morning Noises and is written and illustrated by Alain Grée, and published by Wonder Books, Inc. in 1962.

*This post was originally posted in my sketch blog on July 11, 2011.

Sailor Jack And Eddy - 1961

Yesterday I visited my favorite local used bookstore, Books and Memories, as a way to kick off the weekend. I found some more great vintage books to add to my collection and thought I would feature one of them today.

The book is titled Sailor Jack And Eddy and is from a series of early reader books about Sailor Jack. The authors are Selma and Jack Wasserman, the illustrator is Robert S. Robison, and the book was published in 1961 by Benefic Press. The story is about a little boy named Eddy who stows away on the submarine Shark during his elementary school field trip.

I initially picked up the book because it has the bold colored canvas cover that can be found on many books from the '50s and '60s. I'm a big fan of these covers for their simplified design with limited colors and bold shapes, and am often tempted to take books home solely based on the cover design. This book is a nice bonus, because not only is the cover great but the inside illustrations are classic as well. The artist used a three color printing scheme - blue, yellow, and red - which is layered to make any green or orange that is needed. The result is a composition that has been very well planned out to make use of the printing technology that was available at the time.

I particularly like how some illustrations rely more on shapes than falling back completely on black outlines (like the sailors in the background of the final image below). The lines that are used are also nice and fluid - look at the continuous swoop of the pen that makes the sailor's legs as he walks in the image below. Older books like this are a good reminder that less can be more when it comes to art. Sometimes by setting some limits you can come up with a stronger composition and not be tempted to fill the picture with more just because you can.

*This post was originally posted in my sketch blog on March 19, 2011.

Alexander - 1964

I hadn't been to the local used book store in a while, so last night I went to check it out and see what was new. I found a few great vintage childrens' books to add to my collection, including the one below.

Alexander, by Harold Littledale and illustrated by Tom Vroman, was published by Parents' Magazine Press in 1964. The illustrations in the book make great use of strong lines, simple shapes, and vibrant colors. The pages in the book alternate from full color to black and white with red accents on every other page. Many of the color pages make great use of utilizing the white space around the images, with the little boy in the book often moving around on the white of the page while Alexander the horse is in the main color image.








*This post was originally posted in my sketch blog on January 13, 2011.

Bucky Button - 1953

This cute early reader book published by Beckley-Cardy, Chicago in 1953 titled Bucky Button by Edith S. McCall, with illustrations by Jack Faulkner. This book has the two color printing scheme that I find myself drawn to in many of the vintage books that I pick up. I particularly like the design of the cover, with the truck being off center and cropped halfway out of the frame.








*This post was originally part of a post in my sketch blog on July 23, 2010.