At Bromer Booksellers, we focus on the visual book, with fine images that both enhance narrative and stand alone as independent creations. Among our holdings in this area are costume books, emblem books, examples from the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods, the fantasy illustrators in the tradition of Arthur Rackham, and modern books with original graphics. We look for the successful fusion of picture with text from any century, any country, and across a variety of artistic movements and media. We are especially fascinated with books of other cultures, and you will occasionally find items such as Japanese illustrated woodblock books and Eskimo tales without words ...
Read more about Illustrated Books
Santa Barbara, CA: Simplemente Maria Press, 2019. Square octavo. (6)ff. booklet, + fourteen-panel accordion. One of twenty-five copies, signed by the illustrator, Mary Heebner, and the author, Stephen Kessler. The accordion pairs images from Heebner's collage series, Veiled/Unveiled, with lines of the poem "Cassandra," printed letterpress. The images are individually..... More
Santa Barbara, CA: Simplemente Maria Press, 2000. One of fifty copies. Twelve prints from Heebner's Isla Negra series of paintings appear in the center of trifolded sheets, with twelve of Neruda's poems of the sea tipped in on either side: the original Spanish at the right, and Alastair Reid's English..... More
New Haven, CT: Jonathan Edwards College Press, 1974. Small quarto. (x), 13pp. One of 100 copies. Wood-engraved color frontispiece and textual diagram by Lance Hidy, elucidating Edwards' pronounced awe of spiders. Bound in black cloth over boards with paper spine label. Fine. More
Seal Harbor, ME: Printing Office at High Loft, 1977. Octavo. (29)pp. One of 80 copies. Illustrations by Philip H. Heckscher of the wistful Maine coastline printed in green. They accompany August Heckscher's verses, which evoke the nostaglia, rusticism, and romance of northern New England. Bound by Gray Parrot in decorative..... More
Franklin, NH: Hillside Press, 1968. xi, 42pp. One of 250 copies. Illustrated throughout with woodcuts replicated from seventeenth-century originals. Very fine in gilt-stamped black morocco. (2 5/16 by 2; 58x51mm). More
Manchester: Manchester Metropolitan University, 2008. Folio. 79pp. One of 250 printed in softback at Northend Creative Print in Sheffield. Vibrantly illustrated with various papers from the collection from a variety of locations and eras. Preface by Colin Harris and Foreword by Mirjam Foot. Covers replicate marbled paper from Tirzah (Garwood)..... More
London: Orlando Hodgson, (c. 1840). 16mo. 6ff., + wrappers. Each leaf presents the reader with a half-page illustration of activities suitable for the time of day described in the verse below them. The images are hand-colored in a variety of shades, giving them uncommon depth. The book weaves counting from..... More
1998. Relief engraving. Donald Hall, who served as 14th Poet Laureate of the United States from 2006-2007 and to whom this copy is inscribed, was the model for Ecclesiastes. Signed by the artist. AP. Framed. (17 1/2 by 12 1/2 in.). More
(Paris: Perrigot-Masure, c. 1922). Framed sheet of handmade paper with a chiaroscuro watermark portrait of Dard Hunter as a young man, based on a photograph by Clara Ragna Johnson. To the left, his name is lettered in the style characteristic of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Sheets of this handmade..... More
(Vienna): Jugend & Volk Wien Verlag, (1969). Oblong quarto. 210pp. One of 99 copies, signed and numbered by the artist, Wolfgang Hutter. Bound-in are three original lithographs, also signed and numbered by Hutter. An essay on the style of the Austrian neosurrealist artist, followed by a catalog of his works..... More
(France): 1883. Miniature-sized illuminated manuscript on vellum of a Mass for the Virgin Mary. The volume begins with a full-page miniature of the Virgin and her husband Joseph surrounding and blessing a church official, in the company of an awed congregation. The manuscript itself is replete with elaborate borders, unique..... More
London: Ward, Marcus & Co., (c. 1880). (8)pp., accordion-fold. A New Year's card consisting of a four-panel panorama brilliantly printed in bright colors with gold backgrounds. The card allegorically depicts the year in the stages of its "life": as a child, dreaming of pudding and music-filled fun; a young man..... More
Bruxelles: Ets. Guy Onkelinx, 1924. Small quarto. (40)pp. Illustrated with ten color plates of Art Deco jewelry design and six allegorical color plates, a full-page black & white unattributed image, and a small vignette by American artist Lawrence Sterne Stevens. The jewelry designs by Devos, an important Belgian jeweler, are..... More
Offenbach am Main: Gebr. Klingspor, 1930. Oblong 32mo. 24pp., frenchfold. Illustrated with elegant silhouettes of men and women dressed in the height of fashion, each framed by a colorful border. Facing each silhouette or pair of silhouettes is a passage of German verse. This particular copy is specially bound as..... More
(London): Fortune Press, (1922). One of 100 deluxe copies with a limited, signed color etching. Warmly inscribed by Jean de Bosschère, "with greetings of spiritual brotherhood." With a color frontispiece, twenty-one full-page plates printed in black & white and sanguine, and numerous black & white illustrations throughout. The volume opens..... More
London: John and Arthur Arch, 1816. Small quarto. Two volumes. xxii, 478, 478*pp. + (9)ff. plates; (479)-836pp. + (13)ff. plates. A valuable reference on the history of engraving in Europe, illustrated with numerous examples throughout the text and on inserted plates. Handsomely bound in full red straight-grain morocco, decorated with..... More
(NY: 1958). 16mo. 20ff. First edition, limited to 60 copies signed by the artist. This copy bears a presentation inscription on the colophon page to Ben Shahn and his wife, Bernarda Bryson Shahn. Illustrated with eighteen compact etchings of babies sleeping, crying, smiling, or being held by their mothers, which..... More
(Otley, Yorkshire: J. S. Publishing & Stationery Co., Ltd., c. 1850). Sixteen 16mo. issues, each 8pp., comprising a complete series, as indicated on the back covers of each issue. All the chapbooks are illustrated with woodcuts on every page, and approximately half of the illustrations in each are hand-colored. The..... More
(c. 2009). Quarto. Eight-panel, life-sized self-portrait of fiber artist Sheryl Jaffe. Numbered "1/1" and signed by Jaffe to the interior of the box. In this "sculptural artist book," Jaffe is drawn lying on her back, nude, against a background of earthy greens, sunny yellows, and liquid blues. Climbing over the..... More
Newark, VT: Janus Press, 2011. Twenty-four 16mo. chapbooks, housed in quarto trifold portfolio. Each chapbook (8)ff. One of 120 copies, signed by Peter Schumann, whose charcoal-and-ink drawings illustrate the interiors and whose crayon drawings grace the covers. Here, Schumann explores the format of Latin American cordells, chapbooks traditionally sold by..... More
(Japan: Sûzan Shobô, 1816). Small quarto. (19)ff. A Japanese book of color woodblock prints by Kameda Bôsai (1754-1826), one of the leading painters of the Nanga or Bunjinga (literati) schools of painting. The seventeen full-page illustrations, five of which extend across the page spread, are landscapes depicting mountainous terrain, comprised..... More
Sydney, Australia: Beacon Press, 1948. Folio. 53pp. One of forty deluxe copies, signed by the author. A lovely production, illustrated with thirty-six color plates. The plates are genuine prints: beautifully made modern reproductions of the originals, done in Japan. The text traces the rise and fall of the Ukiyo-ye school..... More
Kyoto: Geisodo Yamada Naosaburo, 1911. Small folio. Folding album consisting of twelve ink wash and color prints on thirteen sheets, each bearing Seiho's chop mark. One of the key figures of modern Japanese painting, Seiho (1864 - 1942) absorbed elements of European-style painting -- Impressionism, in particular -- and successfully..... More
(London): Sotheby's Publications, (1987). Quarto. 2 volumes. 1-608; 609-1131pp., numbered continuously. Illustrated with 225 color plates and numerous black & white illustrations throughout. This detailed reference work also contains a glossary and indexes of works and authors. Hillier was the leading authority in Europe on the Japanese woodblock print, working..... More
London: Clover Hill Editions, 1979. Quarto. 19pp. One of 100 copies, printed on Barcham Green’s RWS handmade paper by Will Carter at the Rampant Lions Press, with an extra set of the engravings on japon. Illustrated with thirteen wood engravings by David Jones, several of which frame the text. Jones..... More
