Post updated with more identifications. Thanks to all the commenters making suggestions.
- Kindle definition & tree. Presumably commissioned by Amazon?
- I’m guessing that the Finches are probably from Audubon’s The Birds Of America but I can’t find the actual image elsewhere online.
- Virginia Woolf. From a photograph by George Charles Beresford.
- Jules Verne. I can find similar images online, but not credited to the photographer.
- First page of John’s Gospel from the Lindisfarne Gospel.
- Jane Austen. As with Verne, above, I can find similar images online but with no accreditation.
- Ralph Ellison. Unknown source.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe. Unknown source.
- Emily Dickinson. Again, I can find similar pictures…
- Opiuchus and Serpens from Atlas Coelestis by John Flamsteed (1646-1716). Presumably the Kindle authors used a colourised version.
- Johannes and Elisabetha Hevelius using a sextant to collaborate on astronomical research from The Heavenly Machine by Johannes Hevelius
- Mark Twain. Unknown source.
I have absolutely no idea about this one…As pointed out by Paul and Miriam, this is The Samian Sibyl after Guernico.
- The Fish look to me like it could be from Ernst Haeckel’s Kunstformen der Natur but like Audubon’s Finches I can’t find the exact image online. Correction: as Sasha points out in the comments, it’s from Le Larousse du XXe siècle.
- John Steinbeck. Again, I can find similar images but don’t know who they’re by.
- Erasmus of Rotterdam by Hans Holbein, 1523
- St Jerome in his Study by Albrecht Durer.
- Albert of Mainz by Albrecht Durer.
- Charlotte Brontë. Painted by Evert A. Duyckinick, based on a drawing by George Richmond. See wikipedia.
- Palladio’s plan of Villa La Rotonda, in I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura 1570. See the wikipedia entry for the building.
- Agatha Christie. Again, I can find similar, but uncredited, images online.
- Alexandre Dumas. Unknown source.
- “We’d love to hear your thoughts…”
Unknown source.As noted in the comments by Lucy B, and supported by Noel thislooks very much likeis a Grant Calculating Machine.See here for a very similar image.See this image on wikipedia.
Any help identifying the remaining images will be most gratefully received.
13: She is Sybilla Persica, prophetic priestess over the Apollonion Order, sometimes known as the Babylonian Sybil.
(http://askville.amazon.com/screensavers-kindle/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=62278819)
Thanks for that Paul. I found a similar painting: http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/2698418
More on (13)
Looks very similar to “The Samian Sibyl” – http://en.wahooart.com/A55A04/w.nsf/Opra/BRUE-8BWQZU – by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (better known as Guercino or Il Guercino), but either Amazon have played around with the image a lot or it’s reproduced from a painting after Guercino by a different artist
Hah, looks like we both found the same painting maybe?
I think It is the Sybilla Samia by the Italian painter Domenico Zampieri, “Il Domenichino” (1581-1641)
Hi!!
I have find this one and it really seems her!
http://worldart.sjsu.edu/Obj12585?sid=16218&x=1648200
Thanks Miriam!
Someone is selling the fish picture on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/85659802/fishes-vintage-print-french-color?ref=sr_gallery_27&ga_search_submit=&ga_search_query=fish+poster&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=vintage&ga_facet=vintage
and says it’s from a 1904 French dictionary: Le Larousse du XXe siècle
Thank you Sasha, it certainly looks like the same image!
I’ll correct the post to reflect that source, and see if I can find a more permanent link
Thank you for doing this!
My pleasure!
Thanks for this!
Is 23 a Grant Calculating Machine?
Link
It certainly looks like it! Thank you. (I’ve edited your comment to make the link a bit more manageable, I hope you don’t mind.)
Ophiuchus and Serpens, I found a similar work by Sir James Thornhill, 1725, it seems a based (colored) copy of Flamsteed, indeed.
Thanks for both of your comments Nachi.
Image #2:
http://abluteau.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/audubon_424.jpg?w=355&h=500
http://abluteau.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/the-birds-of-america-136/
Musée de la civilisation,
collection du Séminaire de Québec,
The Birds of America,
John James Audubon,
424/1993.35027
Brown-headed Cowbird, Fox Sparrow, House Finch, Lazuli Bunting, Evening Grosbeak, Rosy Finch
Awesome. Thanks Sylvia, Audubon confirmed! 🙂
You’re very welcome!
Both the Jules Verne and Jane Austen images are always attributed to “The Hulton Archive / Getty Images” which come from a collection of British Press images now owned by Getty Images:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulton_Archive#Hulton_Picture_Library
Image #4:
Jules Verne Original:
From a News Photo, 1877:
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jules-verne-french-novelist-here-in-1877-news-photo/89863212?Language=en-US
Image #6:
Jane Austen Original:
From an Original Family Photo , 1790
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/english-novelist-jane-austen-from-an-original-family-news-photo/2667605
Image #21:
Agatha Christie photo is by Walter Bird, from Getty Images:
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/british-writer-of-crime-and-detective-fiction-dame-agatha-news-photo/2668654
Thanks again!
I guess Getty must get a royalty from every Kindle sold then!
Yeah – what a racket!
lol
Image 2: The seven birds in the tree correctly are from John James Audubon’s, “Birds of America”. The plate number is 424. The birds are numbered on the drawing, 1 – 7, and are in order from the top. The plate caption below the drawing reads: Lazuli Finch (1. female), Crimson-necked Bull-finch (2. male), Grey- crowned Linnet (3. male), Cow-pen Bird (4. young male), Evening Grosbeak (center, with it’s head L of branch) 5. female), (Left of center is, 6. young male), Brown Longspur (7. female). There are only six captions on the plate, as the Evening Grosbeak is listed once, with 5. female and 6. young male, llisted underneath. The names are the Audubon names vs the common names. You can browse the plates, and look at the images/texts/captions at the following link: http://digital.library.pitt.edu/a/audubon/plates.html. Drawings are by JJ Audubon; Engraving, printing and colouring by Robert Havell, 1838. Hope this helps.
THANK YOU ALL so much for researching these pictures! I love them and have been mystified as to what many are, especially who the people in the Duerer and Holbein pix are, the Hevelius
sextant, and the first page of John’s Gospel. I was surprised when I couldn’t find the info on the Amazon Kindle site 2 years ago.
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I think you can be more positive about image 23. Following the link you posted after Lucy B’s reply, takes us to an image that seems beyond doubt to be the Kindle image because all the numbers showing on the device on the Kindle image match the numbers shown on one of the devices on the linked page. That page identifies the image thus:
Mechanical calculating machine by George B. Grant Co. Illustration published in Scientific American, May 1877. Source: Wikipedia
Following this link eventually leads to Wikipedia at:
This names the ultimate source as an advertisement in
“Scientific American” Vol. XXXVI, No. 19, May 12, 1877 p.294 New York: Munn &Company (Publisher)
“The Cooper Collections” (uploader’s private collection)
Thanks Noel. I’ll update the post.