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
(Marlboro, VT: Tasha Tudor, n.d.). Handmade card rosily painted with a winged mouse bravely, if meekly, extending a heart to the reader, while ringed in a lilac heart-shaped wreath. The mouse's offering is no coincidence; the interior of the card reads, "Valentine greetings, with love, from the mice at 54,"..... More
(NY: n.d.). Portrait measures 7 3/4 by 6 inches, printed on a 11 by 7 1/4 inch sheet. The etching shows Clemens with his head resting on the the backs of both hands, and is printed in brown. It has an unfinished quality to it, as though it were a...... More
(San Diego): Twin Heart Press, 1993. (32)pp., frenchfold. One of 100 copies. A sweetly illustrated compendium of holiday recipes for cakes, loaves, roasted nuts, and the like. Bound in paper over boards with dust wrapper illustrated in imitation of lace. Some staining to wrapper, else near fine. (1 13/16 by..... More
Brooklyn: Angelica Press, 1975. Four folio volumes, each unbound as issued. One of 220 numbered copies printed by Dennis and Marilyn Grastorf. The titles include: "A History of Wood Types"; "How to Print Wood Type," with illustrations by Marilyn Grastorf; "Forty-nine Fonts of Wood Type"; and "Posters." The type specimens..... More
(Houston, TX: ImpPress, 1965). Small octavo. (12)ff. One of 150 copies, signed by the artist and printer, Dugald Stermer. A quirky type specimen book printed on various colors of paper, in many colors of ink. With full-page illustrations, including a cartoonish frontispiece of a man with a printing press in..... More
San Francisco: Bock Ngar Chy Co., (c. 1934). Oblong small octavo. (44)pp. Specimen catalog, printed in black and green with text almost entirely in Chinese, of the Bock Ngar Chy Co., the most prominent printing company of its time in San Francisco's Chinatown. The catalog reflects the company's success, offering..... More
N.p. n.d. Small quarto. (ii), 36pp. This is a unique pre-production edition of Mary E. Williamson's children's book, which seems to never have been published. The text is handwritten in black ink, and the illustrations are hand-drawn and colored with ink and paint, all on boards. The story follows an..... More
Edo: Tsutaya Jusaburo, (1823). (19), (15)pp. Likely third edition. Masterfully illustrated with fifteen prints by Kitagawa Utamaro, softly colored and finely detailed, showing insects and reptiles tucked among lush plants. Each spread is accompanied by a pair of flowing 31-syllable kyoka poems, humorously relating the sentiments of love to insects..... More
Lewiston, ME: Bates College Museum of Art, 1999. Oblong octavo. 77pp. Replete with reproductions of Van Vliet's lithographs, drawings, etchings, and other works. Interview transcript with Van Vliet at the back, along with a catalogue of her works and associated bibliography. Some rubbing to edges, else fine in printed wrappers..... More
Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1884. First deluxe edition. One of 100 copies, printed on Japanese paper and signed by the artist, Elihu Vedder, on the limitation page. The fifty-seven Art-Nouveau illustrations, drawn in pencil, ink, chalk, and watercolor over ten months from May 1883 to March 1884, are here..... More
London: Soncino Press, 1930. Small quarto. xl, (3), 209pp. One of nine copies printed on Roman Vellum, signed by the editor, Cecil Roth, and the illustrator, Albert Rutherston. With fourteen full-page stencilled illustrations, plus seventy small ornaments, all in color. Rutherston's bright depictions of the Passover story, including illustrations of..... More
Buenos Aires: Colombo, 1958. Quarto. 32pp. From an edition of 52 copies, this is one of thirty-two copies printed on Ingres. An elegantly-printed bilingual edition of Keats's Odes, in English and Spanish, each with a full-page lithograph by Raúl Veroni of the poem's subject. The first illustration is signed in..... More
![A una Alondra [To a Skylark]. Shelley, sshe](/pictures/thumb/23185.jpg?v=1434431953)
(Buenos Aires: R. Veroni, 1972). Small quarto. (28)pp. From an edition of thirty-two copies, this is one of three copies printed on Japan paper. Signed by the translator, Miguel Alfredo Olivera, on the colophon page. Shelley's famous ode, translated into Spanish, is illustrated with colored engravings by Raúl Veroni. A...... More
(Easthampton, MA): Warwick Press, 1987. Quarto. (4)pp., accordion-fold. One of twenty copies signed by Carol Blinn, who wrote, illustrated, and printed this book. A poem by Blinn is accompanied by a watercolor illustration that extends across the central page spread, depicting three yellow balls floating on a cerulean pool surrounded..... More
Middletown, CT: Wesleyan Art Laboratory, 1945-1966. A group of nine publications produced by the Wesleyan Art Laboratory. The Art Lab was Wesleyan's first studio art space, begun by Russell T. "Butch" Limbach, who arrived at the university in 1941 as an artist-in-residence. Limbach, whose work had been exhibited throughout the..... More
London: Faber & Faber, (1933). First edition. One of only 60 copies printed on English hand-made paper, signed by the author. With engraved title page, three tinted full-page plates and black & white headpieces by Rex Whistler. Collects seven of de la Mare's fantasy stories for children. A brilliant copy..... More
Leominster, Herefordshire: Whittington Press, 1997. Folio. (61)pp. One of 440 copies. Signed by Craig. Eighty-one engravings and three two-color linocuts adorn Craig's verses, giving life to the flora, fauna, and landscapes he describes. Bound in gray cloth with patterned paper over boards. Housed in matching slipcase. Fine. Top edge blue..... More
(Fullerton, CA: Lorson's Books & Prints, 1986). (16)ff. From an edition of 200 copies printed at the Whittington Press for Lorson's Books & Prints, this is one of fifty deluxe copies with an extra set of proofs. Contains thirteen beautiful hand-colored wood engravings of wine-related activities. Very fine, in full..... More
Gloucestershire: Whittington Press, (1977). Large quarto. (26)ff. One of fifty numbered copies signed by the author-illustrator. A collection of ten poems and ten etchings by Judy Ling Wong, beautifully printed on heavy Fabriano Roma handmade paper. Wong printed the etchings, which are in black, in her own studio; each one..... More
(Vienna: c. 1903). 9 7/8 by 8 1/4 inches. (11)ff. Contains nine early hand-tinted photographs, matted in brown cardboard and bound in. The front endpaper is inscribed "Karniow / August - September 1903." The photographs show a family on vacation by a lake, horseback riding, and in elaborate local costume..... More
Austin: Book Club of Texas, 1993. Broadside measuring 14 by 20 inches. Printed by the Wind River Press. Includes a quotation from J. Frank Dobie's "Some Part of Myself" (1967), and an illustration by Teresa Avini. The main image, printed in a dark purple, shows cowboys silhouetted against a night..... More
Original artwork, signed by the artist, Tony Tallarico. Depicting the letters A, B, and C against an orange background, this vibrant piece juxtaposes the realistic style of the letter examples (an apple, a ball, and a cat) with the playful style of the letters themselves, which have been enhanced by..... More
Vienna: J. de Pian and L. Müller, 1842-44. Folio. (26)ff. Twenty-six color lithographs after Jean Baptiste de Pian, printed and finished by hand by the noted Viennese lithographers Leopold Müller, Johann Höfelich, and M. R. Toma. Each plate in this series has a large letter of the alphabet fully incorporated..... More
Two modern posters, with alphabet themes, containing: "Jerry Pallotta's Alphabet Books." Watertown, MA, Charlesbridge Publishing, (early 1990s). An advertising poster for artist Jerry Pallotta's alphabet books, measuring 24 1/2 by 19 1/4 inches (622x489mm) and showing the full cover for "The Extinct Alphabet Book," published in 1993. A list of..... More
N.p. (Thomas McLean, 1810s). Framed, full-color plate of a Turkish warrior from John Heaviside Clark's The Military Costume of Turkey, engraved by F. H. Clark from a drawing by Octavien D'Alvimart. This plate shows a subaltern officer of the janizaries, or janissaries, a division of the Turkish infantry forming the..... More
