The Hillstock Quality Pledge

We've been a pioneer in the niche of vintage image licensing: Hillstock has been selling vintage images online since early 2002. As we've expanded our offerings over the years we've always stayed true to our founding principles of honesty, integrity and high quality.

We do not strive to be the largest or cheapest collection online: We're well aware of the microstock craze where anyone with a camera or scanner can upload images for licensing- everything we have is from our own original sources. We also realize our pricing is not for every budget, but we believe in the old proverb that you get what you pay for. Everything we scan gets "cleaned up" and enhanced. Also, your time is money, and we save you both by picking out the best of our best to offer you so that there is no need to spend hours sorting through filler images.

We only use original art sources in our possession: The image sources we bring to you literally span generations of collecting since Hillstock owner Averyl Hill's grandmother is herself a lifetime collector. Additionally, our home state of Maine is well known for its antique shops, old estate sales, auctions, flea markets and other places for acquiring authentic vintage art sources. If we're not busy at work in our design studio we're most likely out treasure hunting to find the best images for your projects. We store our sources at an undisclosed climate controlled archive and maintain a catalog of source material. Try asking a vintage clip art or stock image vendor if they can take a picture of the original source art. We can!

We only use legally & ethically acquired art sources: Intellectual property law is something we take very seriously. We research the copyright status of an image before we will add it to our stock collection or use in a unique design. If there's any doubt on our part, we don't use it. No exceptions. We will not take images from The Library of Congress online archive and then repackage them to charge you a licensing fee which is a practice that sadly we've seen done. We invite you to conduct your own searches if ever in doubt!

We use gleaming new technology: While we love vintage images we're certainly not luddites! The technology we use to digitize our vintage image sources is the best we can offer and we print our images at advertised sizes in-house for testing purposes to ensure we approve of what we offer you.

We offer high quality stock images: We do not offer low-res pixilated junk. While we do offer multi-media resolutions, our print resolution images are clearly marked with both pixels per inch and print size so you can make educated buying decisions. We will never simply resize an image with software- all print sizes are scanned in directly at advertised sizing.

We give back to the community: Since its inception, Hillstock has sponsored a cage for a year at our local animal shelter, was a national corporate sponsor of Toys for Tots in 2005, has donated art to decorate the rooms of residents at the Scarborough, Maine veterans home and provided stock images for the marketing of the historic Victoria Mansion in Portland. These are but a few examples.

You can speak to the owner: Hillstock doesn't hide behind private domain registrations or withhold a telephone number to contact us. Have a concern or question- please call us at 207-415-6459. That's EST in Maine. If we can't take your call please leave us a message and the owner, Averyl Hill, will get back to you.

This pledge is © Hillstock, LLC.