Since the dawn of printing with moveable type printers have used various design elements to embellish the printed page.
Design elements of the ornaments include typographic fleurons, dingbats, headpieces, tailpieces, scrolls, trophies, lunettes, calligraphic and heraldic devices, cupids and wreathes.
BibliOdyssey has a tremendous post on this long-standing relationship of word and image and often overlooked aspect of book illustration. He has also put together a Flickr set with over 80 examples of the craft.