Recreated from a pattern found in 'Az Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia irásban és képben', 1882. To get the tile this is based on select the rectangle in Inkscape and use shift+alt+i.
Source Firkin
Same as Silver Scales, but in black. Turn your site into a dragon with this great scale pattern.
Source Alex Parker
A heavy hitter at 400x400px, but lovely still.
Source Breezi
Imagine you zoomed in 1000X on some fabric. But then it turned out to be a skeleton!
Source Angelica
A pattern formed from a squared tile. The tile can be accessed in Inkscape by selecting the rectangle and using shift-alt-i.
Source Firkin
Seamless Prismatic Quadrilateral Line Art Pattern No Background
Source GDJ
From a drawing in 'Less Black than we're painted', James Payn, 1884.
Source Firkin
This is so subtle you need to bring your magnifier!
Source Carlos Valdez
Prismatic Polka Dots Mark II 3 No Background
Source GDJ
Seamless pattern the tile for which can be had by using shift-alt-I on the selected rectangle in Inkscape.
Source Firkin
A seamless background texture of old cardboard.
Source V. Hartikainen
Subtle scratches on a light gray background.
Source Andrey Ovcharov
A car pattern?! Can it be subtle? I say yes!
Source Radosław Rzepecki
Luxurious looking pattern (for a T-shirt maybe?) with a hint of green.
Source Simon Meek
Design drawn in Paint.net, vectorised using Vector Magic and finished in Inkscape.
Source Firkin
This one needs to be used in small areas; you can see it repeat.
Source Luca
The image depicts a seamless pattern made using a bird's face.
Source Yamachem