A giant monkey tramples elves in this trade card from 1896.

From the North Carolina Christian Advocate, 1912.

"Eyes of the night."  From an ad for Philidyne bicycle lights.

There's wizardry in those pocket watches.  Circa 1890.

"Too late?"  From Illinois Agricultural Association Record, 1949.

From c. 1890.

"Mere oblivion sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."  From c. 1890.

"There is a fine line between hunting for survival and hunting for joy." —Soundlessmarine

Here that fine line is represented by a pocket watch.  (?)  Circa 1890.

From our collection of Magic Words & Symbols Spotted in the Wild:

In the late 1800s, the J & P. Coats thread company released Tarot-like trade cards.

A Scribner's ad from 1886.

A 1962 ad for Turner's cameras.

Ginger tonic dispels demons in this ad from c. 1890.

"What's the use?"  From the North Carolina Christian Advocate, 1912.

"'Are you on!'  This is the place to 'catch on' to a good hat."  From How to Make Show Cards, 1916.

The "23 Enigma" underfoot: an ad from 1895.

"Slightly disfigured but still in the [circle]," from an ad for Dr. J. T. Wiggins & Co., druggist, Mason, Texas, c. 1880.

 Here's the "ghost of the past [outhouse]" from The Ladies' Home Journal, 1948.

Here's an encounter with Bibendum, the Michelin Man, whom William Gibson has described as a stomach-churningly creepy, "weird, jaded, cigar-smoking elder creature suggesting a mummy with elephantiasis ... the rolls of his pallid, rubbery flesh like the folds of a partially deflated blimp, greasy and vile" (Pattern Recognition). From The Saturday Evening Post, 1920.

"Tally-ho.  This light shows the way."  An ad from McClure's Magazine, 1896.

From Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina, 1904.