From a drawing in 'Maidenhood; or, the Verge of the Stream', Laura Jewry, 1876.
Source Firkin
Pattern Background, Texture, Photoshop Structure style CC0 texture.
Source Darkmoon1968
Very dark pattern with some noise and 45-degree lines.
Source Stefan Aleksić
CC0 and a seamless pattern from a tile drawn in Paint.net .
Source SliverKnight
A seamless pattern formed from cross 4. To get the original tile select the rectangle in Inkscape and use shift-alt-i.
Source Firkin
A seamless texture traced from an image on opengameart.org shared by Scouser.
Source Firkin
Looks like a technical drawing board: small squares forming a nice grid.
Source We Are Pixel8
A light gray fabric pattern with faded vertical stripes.
Source V. Hartikainen
From a drawing in 'Art Embroidery', M.S. Lockwood and E. Glaister, 1878.
Source Firkin
From a drawing in 'Handbook of the excursions proposed to be made by the Lincoln Diocesan Architectural Society, on the 27th and 28th of May, 1857', Edward Trollope, 1857.
Source Firkin
As simple and subtle as it gets. But sometimes that’s just what you want.
Source Designova
ZeroCC tileable moss texture, photographed and made by me. CC0
Source Sojan Janso
That’s what it is, a dark dot. Or sort of carbon looking.
Source Tsvetelin Nikolov
Not the most creative name, but it’s a good all-purpose light background.
Source Dmitry
A seamless texture of an abstract wall colored in shades of light orange brown.
Source V. Hartikainen
A seamless chequerboard pattern formed from a tile that can be had in Inkscape by selecting the rectangle and using shift+alt+i. Alternative colour scheme.
Source Firkin
Zerro CC tillable texture of stones photographed and made by me. CC0
Source Sojan Janso
Bright gray tones with a hint of some metal surface.
Source Hendrik Lammers
It’s like Shine Dotted’s sister, only rotated 45 degrees.
Source mediumidee
Utilising some flowers from Almeidah. To get the unit tile, select the rectangle in Inkscape and use shift-alt-i.
Source Firkin
From a drawing in 'Studies for Stories', Jean Ingelow, 1864.
Source Firkin
Prismatic Geometric Tessellation Pattern 4 No Background
Source GDJ
Might not be super subtle, but quite original in its form.
Source Alex Smith
A seamless texture traced from an image on opengameart.org shared by Scouser.
Source Firkin
A free black metallic background pattern. Here's a new pattern I made that looks metallic.
Source V. Hartikainen