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
(Ditchling: St. Dominic's Press, 1929). 32mo. (5)pp. With a cover illustration, dragon headpiece, and four square vignettes by Eric Gill, depicting a child's encounter with night-time fears. In this poem by Press founder Hilary Pepler, a boy asks his nurse if dragons, ghosts, and goblins exist as he is tucked... More about Concerning Dragons
London: Gogmagog Press, (1965-66). Four small octavo volumes, each (26)pp. One of 100 copies printed on Hosho paper, signed by the artist/printer Morris Cox. Each volume contains a colorful panorama of nature printed from heavily textured blocks, which give the offset prints an embossed effect. The changing seasons appear in... More about The Four Seasons. An Impression of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter: a Landscape Panorama
Berkeley, CA: Pacific Film Archive, 1973. Broadside measuring 24 by 18 1/4 inches. One of 500 copies. Designed by California artist David Lance Goines and printed in 10 colors, this advertisement for a film series at the Pacific Film Archive features an image of Veronica, daughter of Solome, who took... More about "Images Médiévales"
Oakland, CA: Karl Kardel Co., 1974. Broadside measuring 24 by 18 1/4 inches. One of 1,850 copies. Designed by California artist David Lance Goines and printed in 8 colors, this advertisement for Karl Kardel Co. features a bumblebee over an ochre background. The design was inspired by an unknown philosopher's... More about "Karl Kardel Co.: Builders, Painters, Decorators"
Waltham Saint Lawrence: Golden Cockerel Press, 1926. Small quarto. 15pp. One of 250 numbered copies. The text is illustrated with six wood engravings by Eric Gill. The engravings are beautifully rendered interpretations of scenes from the last day of Jesus's life, from his vigil at the Garden of Gethsemane, to... More about Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi: Being the 26th and 27th Chapters of Saint Matthew's Gospel...
Berkshire: Golden Cockerel Press, 1927. Quarto. xi, 312 pp. One of 225 copies printed on Kelmscott paper in black, red, and blue. This handsome volume is Eric Gill's tour-de-force, his wood engravings appearing in the outer margin of every page of text. The decorations show leafy vines that frame and... More about Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer
(London): Golden Cockerel Press, 1945. Quarto. 92pp. One of 500 copies. Six engravings by Webb, illustrating various military exploits and battles recounted in the text. The original work, titled Gesta Francorum et Aliorum Hierosolimitanorum, was the diary of a cavalry officer in Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine. The original mauscript... More about The First Crusade. The Deeds of the Franks and Other Jerusalemites
(London): Golden Cockerel Press, 1934. Tall octavo. (16)pp. One of 500 numbered copies. Illustrated with one full-page wood engraving and a four-line initial capital by Gill. This edition of Gill's "sermon," reflecting on the 136th Psalm, marks the first use of Gill's Perpetua Roman and Felicity Italic typefaces. Bound in... More about The Lord's Song
London: Golden Cockerel Press, 1952. Tall quarto. 80pp. From an edition of 360 copies, this is one of 60 deluxe copies, signed by the artist, John Buckland Wright, and the author, Phyllis Hartnoll. Illustrated by Buckland Wright with eight aquatints, printed from the copper plates. Only the deluxe copies had... More about The Grecian Enchanted
London: Golden Cockerel Press, 1952. Tall quarto. 80pp. One of 360 copies. Illustrated by John Buckland Wright with eight aquatints, printed from the copper plates. A lush example of Buckland Wright's style, with particularly impressive shading and detail not found in other instances of his work. Bound in green half-cloth... More about The Grecian Enchanted
(Waltham Saint Lawrence): Golden Cockerel Press, 1928. Quarto. 101pp. One of 500 copies. Illustrated with wood engravings and all but two initial capitals by Robert Gibbings. The remaining two capitals—“Lamia” on the title page and “IT” on page 18—were engraved by Eric Gill. A fine copy of what the Press..... More about Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of Saint Agnes & Other Poems
London: Golden Cockerel Press, (1939). Small quarto. 28pp. One of 100 copies printed on handmade paper and bound in full blind-stamped mustard morocco. The eighteen copper-engravings by John Buckland-Wright took two years to produce, and were inspired by the Roman sarcophagi in the Louvre. These were produced using a sugar... More about The Vigil of Venus: Pervigilium Veneris
(Waltham St. Lawrence): Golden Cockerel Press, 1931. Quarto. 269pp. One of 500 copies, printed in Golden Cockerel type on Batchelor handmade paper. With sixty-five illustrations from wood engravings by Eric Gill. This work stands as the crowning achievement of the Golden Cockerel Press, as well as Gill’s finest work as... More about The Four Gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ. According to the Authorized Version of the King James...
(London): Golden Cockerel Press, 1948. Tall octavo. 28pp. From an edition of 750, this is one of 100 copies specially bound and with an extra engraving. The twelve engravings by John Buckland Wright, with their supple lines and rich settings, perfectly complement Swinburne’s long erotic poem. In full sienna morocco... More about Laus Veneris
(London): Goode Bros. c. 1875. (47)pp. Illustrated throughout with black & white lithographs, this little book includes excerpts from several Old Testament stories. In dark violet gilt-stamped wrappers. An unusually fine copy. (Bondy 162). (2 1/4 by 1 5/8; 58x40mm.). More about The Illustrated Bible; also Verses entitled Railway to Heaven
NY: Esquire Magazine, c. 1966. 16mo. First edition. Accordion-fold booklet with three illustrations by Gorey. Esquire's pitch to prospective advertisers is framed around a Sherlock Holmes vignette in which Watson uses Holmes's deductive reasoning to conclude that if one wants access to the heaviest periodical readers, one should advertise with... More about The Case of the Heavy Reader: A Pastiche for Madison Avenue
NY: Crown Publishers, 1986. First edition. Signed by Gorey on the title page. A collection of trivia questions, sometimes humorous and often obscure, illustrated with Gorey figures in playful, languid, or dour positions. Gorey's own work appears as part of the pictorial quiz in the middle of the book. Fine... More about The New York Review Quiz Book
(Middle Falls, NY: The Toy Works), 1979. A cotton beanbag of a smiling pink pig, measuring seven inches from toe to eartip, and wearing a brown tweed jacket. In back, the turned-up vent shows that the jacket is lined to match his tasteful goldenrod bow-tie. This is one of five... More about Pig Bean Bag Toy
(Middle Falls, NY: The Toy Works), 1979. A cotton beanbag of a smiling pink pig, measuring seven inches from toe to eartip, and wearing a brown tweed jacket. In back, the turned-up vent shows that the jacket is lined to match his tasteful goldenrod bow-tie. This is one of five... More about Pig Bean Bag Toy
Boston: Bromer Booksellers, 1996. Small quarto. 26 pp. From an edition of 2,000 copies, this is one of 200 copies signed and numbered by Edward Gorey. Bromer special holiday catalog with previously unpublished, full-color cover design by Gorey, who created the artwork originally for a Nieman Marcus holiday catalogue. When... More about Season's Greetings 1996 Bromer Booksellers
Reading, MA: Young Scott Books, 1971. First edition thus. Signed by Gorey on the title-page. With Gorey's large color illustrations surrounding Ennis Rees' whimsical poetic interpretations of Aesop. Near fine in orange pictorial boards and matching very good dust wrapper. (Toledano B47a). More about Lions and Lobsters and Foxes and Frogs. Fables from Aesop
Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963. First edition. Illustrated by Pat Marriott, with jacket design by Gorey. Bound in red cloth over boards with black wolf stamped to upper cover. General mild edgewear, else very good in very good price-clipped dust wrapper. (Toledano D-Aiken). More about The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
NY: Harcourt, Inc., 2002. Small quarto. (71)pp. One of twenty-six lettered copies of a special issue to the first Gorey edition of Belloc's Tales, which were originally published in London in 1907. Gorey's 61 illustrations frame the verses in perfect macabre humor. Belloc's Tales may well have influenced Gorey's own... More about Cautionary Tales for Children
NY: Targ Editions, 1982. One of 250 copies. With a signed frontispiece by Gorey, and inscribed by the author, D. R. Bensen, to the noted book collector Stuart B. Schimmel. Bound in purple cloth with a translucent glassine dust wrapper, which is illustrated with four different-colored images by Gorey. Small... More about Irene, Good-Night
NY: Gotham Book Mart, 1971. First edition. One of twenty-six lettered copies, signed by Gorey. A suspenseful, nonsensical tale intended “to make all serious men mad, mad, mad, and to amuse children little little little.” Slight toning to spine and rear wrapper. Overall, nearly fine in illustrated wrappers. (Toledano B49a)..... More about The Salt Herring
