Free Vintage Bottle and Tin Printables from an 1896 Catalog
Overview
Download four free vintage collage sheets featuring illustrated bottles, tins, polishing powders, soldering fluids, enamels, cements, and other products from the 1896 Green Bros. Catalog.
Use these antique product illustrations in junk journals, scrapbooks, art journals, mixed media collages, altered books, and handmade cards.
Add unusual historical details to Halloween crafts, including apothecary labels, fictional potion bottles, and vintage-inspired spell books.
Incorporate the illustrations into digital collage, digital scrapbooking, graphic design, and other creative projects.
The original catalog illustrations are believed to be in the public domain in the United States, while the printable collage sheets are original compilations created by The Art Scavenger.
Free Vintage Bottle and Tin Printables from the 1896 Green Bros. Catalog
Looking for free vintage bottle printables, antique product illustrations, and unusual ephemera for your next creative project? These four printable collage sheets feature images from the 1896 Green Bros. Catalog, an antique catalog filled with products and supplies for jewelers, watchmakers, engravers, and other tradespeople.
The illustrations include glass bottles, metal tins, polishing compounds, enamels, cements, oils, and specialty workshop products. Their detailed labels, distinctive packaging, and old-fashioned advertising typography make them useful for everything from junk journals and scrapbooks to Halloween potion bottles and digital collage art.
Published in the late 19th century, the Green Bros. Catalog offers a glimpse into the products and commercial printing of the Victorian era. These weren't illustrations created for modern crafting. They were practical catalog images intended to show customers the merchandise available for purchase. Today, those same illustrations can become creative resources for paper artists and digital designers.
I have taken selections from this historical source and created four free printable collage sheets. The original illustrations are believed to be in the public domain in the United States, making them an interesting resource for a wide range of creative projects.
Scroll down to find your free vintage bottle and tin printables and start planning your next project.
What Are Vintage Product Illustration Printables?
Vintage product illustration printables are downloadable sheets featuring images of merchandise reproduced from historical catalogs, advertisements, trade publications, and other printed materials. These illustrations often show the packaging, labels, and containers used to market everyday products more than a century ago.
Unlike modern product photography, antique catalog illustrations were commonly created using engraving, wood engraving, lithography, or other printing methods. Artists and engravers used careful lines, shading, and lettering to make products recognizable in the printed catalog.
The Green Bros. Catalog illustrations are particularly interesting because they document specialized products used in traditional trades. Small bottles of watch oil, tins of polishing powder, and containers of enamel or soldering fluid reflect the materials that craftspeople and repair workers needed in the late 1800s.
For today's makers, these illustrations offer ready-to-use images with a distinctly historical look. Print them for paper crafts, cut out individual objects for collage, or incorporate scanned elements into digital designs.
They work especially well in junk journals, altered books, vintage-themed scrapbooks, handmade cards, art journals, and mixed media projects where small details and old-fashioned typography help tell a story.
A Glimpse into the Victorian-Era World of Green Bros.
The year 1896 falls within the late Victorian era, a period when printed catalogs played an important role in connecting manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, and skilled tradespeople with the products they needed.
Before online stores and searchable product listings, catalogs helped customers compare merchandise through printed descriptions, illustrations, product numbers, and prices. A catalog could serve as a practical reference for ordering everything from basic supplies to specialized tools and materials.
The Green Bros. pages featured in these collage sheets have a distinctly commercial purpose. Their organized layouts group related products together, with each illustration accompanied by a product name, descriptive text, and ordering information. The result is a combination of practical information and detailed graphic design.
The catalog includes supplies for watchmakers and jewelers, such as watch oil, clock oil, chronometer oil, diamond oil, and polishing compounds. Other sections show products including borax, soldering fluids, enamels, cements, and materials for repairing or finishing different objects.
Many of these products were sold in containers designed for their specific uses. Bottles, boxes, tins, and labeled jars gave customers visual clues about the contents while helping manufacturers distinguish their products from competing merchandise.
The catalog's typography is also worth a closer look. Bold headings, decorative lettering, tightly arranged descriptions, and small price lists create the dense, information-rich appearance associated with 19th-century commercial printing.
For collage artists, these details are part of the appeal. A tiny bottle illustration may contribute an unusual shape, while an old label or block of printed text can add texture to a composition.
The illustrations also offer something different from the flowers, birds, butterflies, and other subjects commonly found in vintage printable collections. They bring the world of antique shops, workshops, apothecaries, and industrial supplies into creative projects.
What's Included in the Free Vintage Bottle and Tin Collage Sheets?
This collection includes four free printable collage sheets featuring illustrations reproduced from the 1896 Green Bros. Catalog.
Across the collection, you'll find a variety of antique containers and specialized products, including:
Vintage bottles: Small glass bottles with illustrated labels, stoppers, and distinctive shapes.
Tins and metal containers: Round tins and other packaging for polishing compounds and specialty materials.
Watch and clock oils: Bottles of watch oil, clock oil, and chronometer oil.
Polishing powders and compounds: Products such as rouge, tripoli, rotten stone, crocus, and emery.
Enamels and cements: Containers and packages of engraving, jewelry, repair, and finishing supplies.
Workshop products: Illustrated boxes, jars, soldering fluids, and other materials used by tradespeople.
Antique typography and advertising details: Product names, price lists, labels, and descriptive text that can be used as collage elements.
The sheets offer a mix of larger illustrations that can serve as focal points and smaller details that work well in layered compositions.
You can use the sheets as printed paper-crafting resources or incorporate individual images into digital design projects.
Free vintage bottle and tin printables featuring antique product illustrations from the 1896 Green Bros. Catalog. Download these printable collage sheets from The Art Scavenger for junk journals, scrapbooking, mixed media art, and Halloween crafts.
Creative Ways to Use Antique Bottle and Tin Illustrations
The variety of containers and labels makes these printables useful for more than one style of crafting. Their commercial origins give them a slightly industrial, scientific, or apothecary-inspired appearance, depending on how you combine the images.
Junk Journals and Art Journals
Use individual bottles and tins as focal images on journal pages, or cut out smaller illustrations to tuck into pockets and envelopes. The original catalog text can be left intact for a more authentic historical look, or trimmed away when you want a cleaner silhouette.
Try pairing the illustrations with ledger paper, handwritten notes, old book pages, vintage receipts, and neutral backgrounds. A few small pieces of catalog text can help fill empty spaces without overwhelming the main image.
Scrapbooking and Handmade Cards
These illustrations can add an unusual historical element to scrapbook layouts, handmade cards, tags, and paper embellishments. They're especially useful for themes involving antique shops, collecting, science, old-fashioned workshops, or industrial history.
You could also create a card for someone who enjoys vintage advertising, antiques, mechanical objects, or historical curiosities.
ATCs and Miniature Collage Projects
Artist trading cards (ATCs) measure 2.5 by 3.5 inches, making them a natural fit for small, detailed images. Choose a single bottle or tin as the main subject, then build a background using scraps of text, aged-looking paper, and small decorative marks.
For a coordinated set, create several cards featuring different product types from the catalog. The shared source and printing style will help the collection feel connected even when each card uses a different illustration.
Altered Books and Mixed Media
Use the product illustrations in altered books, layered paper compositions, and mixed media artwork. Combine them with tissue paper, acrylic paint, ink, stamps, or torn book pages to contrast the precise linework of the original engravings with more expressive textures.
You can also cut out labels, headings, and tiny sections of catalog text separately. These fragments can serve as background texture or visual accents.
Halloween Potion Bottles and Apothecary Crafts
The bottles, tins, and unfamiliar product names are particularly well suited to Halloween crafting. Although the original catalog depicts ordinary commercial supplies, the containers can take on a completely different character when placed in a spooky context.
Try using them for:
Potion bottle decorations: Cut out bottle illustrations and attach them to gift tags, or miniature apothecary displays.
Witch's journal pages: Combine the images with handwritten recipes, fictional potion ingredients, and dark botanical illustrations.
Haunted laboratory collages: Mix bottles and tins with old scientific diagrams, distressed paper, and mysterious labels.
Halloween junk journals: Use the images alongside poison labels, antique medical illustrations, and vintage Halloween postcards.
Spooky gift packaging: Add a small bottle illustration to treat bags, folded paper boxes, or Halloween-themed handmade cards.
For a convincing aged appearance, print the illustrations on cream or light beige paper and distress the edges with a little brown ink. You can also layer a cutout over a dark background to make the container stand out.
The original illustrations don't need to depict anything supernatural to work in a Halloween project. Their unfamiliar products, intricate labels, and antique printing already suggest the sort of mysterious shop you might encounter in a fictional Victorian town.
Use These Printables for Digital Art and Design
You don't have to print these collage sheets to use them. The vintage bottle and tin illustrations can also be incorporated into digital collage, graphic design, and digital scrapbooking.
The original artwork provides a useful starting point for designs that combine historical imagery with modern layouts. You can work with individual illustrations in Canva, Procreate, Adobe Photoshop, or another graphics application that supports image editing and layering.
Digital project ideas include:
Digital junk journal pages: Combine the bottles with scanned paper textures, handwriting, and antique labels.
Digital scrapbooking: Use individual illustrations as embellishments on vintage-inspired layouts.
Halloween graphics: Create potion bottle compositions, spooky invitations, party decorations, or social media graphics.
Printable wall art: Arrange a selection of bottles and tins into a vintage catalog-inspired display.
Creative business graphics: Incorporate individual illustrations into appropriate promotional designs, packaging, or other commercial creative work.
Digital collage sheets: Build your own transformed compositions using selected images rather than reproducing the original sheets.
Tips for Working with Vintage Illustrations Digitally:
Crop individual objects carefully. Remove surrounding catalog text when you want a standalone bottle or tin, but keep some of the original lettering when it contributes to the design.
Layer images and textures. Combine the illustrations with aged paper, subtle stains, torn edges, or contrasting backgrounds to create depth.
Adjust contrast and transparency. Lighten an illustration for a background element or increase contrast when you want its fine linework to stand out.
Keep a copy of the original image. Work on a duplicate so you can return to the unedited illustration whenever you need it.
The downloadable sheets are intended as high-resolution printable resources. For digital projects, use the highest-quality original download available rather than a small screenshot or compressed preview. The usable resolution of an individual illustration will depend on its size within the sheet and how tightly you crop it.
The source illustrations are believed to be in the public domain in the United States. You can use them as source material for digital creative work, subject to the usage guidelines below.
More Free Vintage Ephemera Printables
If you enjoy using antique illustrations and printed ephemera in your projects, these related collections from The Art Scavenger offer more material to explore:
Vintage Apothecary Labels – Add old-fashioned labels and pharmacy-inspired details to journal pages, altered bottles, and vintage-style mixed media art.
Poison Bottle Labels – Use these printable labels for spooky Halloween projects, fictional apothecary displays, and mysterious potion bottle decorations.
Magic Props Catalog Printables – Find vintage-inspired theatrical and magical imagery for fantasy journals, Halloween crafts, and unusual collage compositions.
Vintage Postcard Printables – Explore antique postcard imagery for travel-themed junk journals, scrapbook pages, and other paper crafts.
These collections can be combined with the Green Bros. product illustrations to create coordinated pages with an antique shop, old laboratory, pharmacy, or historical workshop theme.
Public Domain and Usage Guidelines
The illustrations in this collection come from the 1896 Green Bros. Catalog. Based on their publication date, the original catalog illustrations are believed to be in the public domain in the United States.
The four collage sheets available from The Art Scavenger are original compilations assembled from selected catalog images. The selection, arrangement, and preparation of the printable sheets are separate from the historical source material.
You're welcome to use the images in personal and commercial creative projects, including junk journals, scrapbooks, collage art, handmade items, and digital designs. You may crop, resize, recolor, or otherwise alter individual illustrations to suit your project.
Please do not resell or redistribute the collage sheets as-is, either in printed form or as digital downloads. If you share the collection on a website or social media, direct people to The Art Scavenger rather than distributing the original files yourself.
Public-domain status can vary by country and by the circumstances of a particular reproduction, so users outside the United States should check the rules that apply to their location. You can read the complete Terms of Use for additional details.
A Vintage Printable Collection for Halloween and Year-Round Crafting
Antique bottles and tins have a natural place in Halloween projects, especially when you're creating fictional apothecary shelves, potion labels, haunted laboratory scenes, or witch-themed journal pages. As autumn approaches, these kinds of images can be useful additions to a seasonal crafting collection.
But their usefulness doesn't end when Halloween is over. The same illustrations work throughout the year in industrial-themed art, antique shop journals, historical scrapbooks, altered books, and mixed media compositions.
Vintage commercial catalogs are also an interesting source of imagery for anyone who enjoys collecting ephemera or documenting the everyday objects of earlier generations. These pages preserve the appearance of products that were once sold to working tradespeople, giving modern crafters a different kind of historical material to explore.
Download the sheets when you need an unusual focal image, a small container illustration, or a piece of antique typography to complete a project. Keeping a few printed copies in your paper stash can make it easier to find just the right detail later.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these vintage bottle and tin images in the public domain?
The original illustrations are believed to be in the public domain in the United States because they were published in an 1896 catalog. The printable sheets are compilations prepared by The Art Scavenger. If you live outside the United States, check the copyright rules that apply in your country.
Can I use these vintage product illustrations commercially?
Yes. You may use the individual images in personal and commercial creative projects, including handmade products and digital designs. You may not sell or redistribute the complete collage sheets as-is, either as printed sheets or digital files. See the Terms of Use for details.
What paper should I use to print the collage sheets?
Regular printer paper works well for testing layouts and making lightweight collage elements. For sturdier embellishments, try matte presentation paper, lightweight cardstock, or another paper compatible with your printer. Cream or ivory paper can complement the aged appearance of the illustrations, while bright white paper gives you a sharper contrast.
Always check your printer's recommended paper weights before using thicker cardstock.
Can I use these images for digital scrapbooking and Halloween designs?
Yes. You can incorporate individual illustrations into digital scrapbooking, digital collage, graphic design, and Halloween-themed artwork. Crop and edit the images as needed, and make sure you're using the original high-resolution download for the best results. The restriction is against redistributing or reselling the original collage sheets as-is.
Final Thoughts
The 1896 Green Bros. Catalog is a reminder that interesting collage material can come from unexpected places. Its bottles, tins, polishing powders, and workshop supplies may have been ordinary merchandise to Victorian-era customers, but today they offer a wealth of details for creative projects.
Download these four free vintage bottle and tin collage sheets from The Art Scavenger and see where the illustrations take you. Whether you're making a junk journal, designing a Halloween potion bottle, assembling an ATC, or creating digital collage art, these antique product images offer something a little different for your collection of printable ephemera.
Love These Printables? Support The Art Scavenger!
I love sharing free vintage printables, and if you enjoy them, there are easy ways to support my work so I can continue creating and offering more free designs:
You may also enjoy these free collage sheets.
