B is for bear. It’s rare to find fancy letter images with great illustrations inside them. Most of the time, they just didn’t print well. With this one, the bears are well-defined and lovely. A mama bear and her two cubs are playing in the top loop of the B. While a lone bear, perhaps the daddy, is laying in the lower loop.
And, B is for Bear is a nice big drop cap B image! Large enough where the two bear drawings could be used alone. Each bear vignette includes trees and forest floor. This vintage illustration is most likely a woodcut and is simply black ink on an aged paper background.
This illustration was included in the 1895 English edition of Brehm’s Life of Animals.
This image is copyright free and in the public domain anywhere that extends copyrights 70 years after death or at least 120 years after publication when the original illustrator is unknown.