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 ...
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Zuilichem, The Netherlands: Catharijne Press, 1990. (30)ff. One of 150 copies. The activities of each month, illustrated with twelve full-page hand-colored plates. On the reverse of each illustration is a rhyming couplet pertinent to the month of year. Very fine in hand-colored vellum over boards. (1 7/8 by 2 1/2;..... More
(Portland, OR: Chamberlain Press, 1980-85). Small octavo. (112)ff. A collection of 105 engravings, all signed and numbered in pencil by Sarah Chamberlain. These hail from her major publications printed in the early 1980s via the Chamberlain Press: The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1979), A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go (1981)..... More
(Easthampton, MA): Chamberlain Press, 1978. Octavo. (6)ff., frenchfold. One of 100 copies, signed by the artist. Designed, printed, and illustrated by Chamberlain. Lear's poem tells of an old man "who invented a purely original dress"; it was edible. Printed in two colors on beige Japanese paper and illustrated with two..... More
(Portland, OR): Chamberlain Press, 1980. 24mo. (10)ff. One of 150 copies, signed by Chamberlain. Illustrated with eleven wood engravings depicting rowdy rats and the hapless inhabitants of Hamlin. Printed on Hosho paper and bound in marbled paper boards with leather spine label. Fine. More
(Portland, OR): Chamberlain Press, 1982. Small octavo. (20)ff. One of 125 copies, signed by the artist, Sarah Chamberlain. Contains eleven whimsical poems by Hilaire Belloc, illustrated with seventeen wood engravings cut and hand-colored by Chamberlain. Bound by Barbara Blumenthal in patterned boards, with a morocco spine stamped in black. Fine..... More
1977. A delightful 15 by 11-inch painting of a large gnarled tree, its branches forming a leafy canopy over a portion of meadow grown thick with green grasses and pink thistle. The tree is painted with a wooden sign nailed crookedly to its trunk, bearing the artist's signature and date..... More
(Portland, OR): Chamberlain Press, 1983. Octavo. (16)pp. From an edition of 125 copies, this is one of twenty-five deluxe copies signed by Chamberlain and with an extra signed print. This well-loved tale is designed, printed, and illustrated with ten delightful wood engravings by Chamberlain. The book is bound by Barbara..... More
Boston: Taggard & Thompson, 1858. 16mo. 31pp. Nine full-page color engravings, illustrating key scene's in the titular fox's antics in his journey to find food for his family. He finds a farm, confounds the animals, and captures a goose, only to again resort to his cunning ways to escape the..... 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
(Easthampton, MA): Cheloniidae Press, 1986. Octavo. (54)pp., frenchfold. One of 231 copies, signed by Alan James Robinson. The alphabet and the Latin and common names of the birds are printed in two colors after lettering by Suzanne Moore. The opening text is from "Animate Creation," a popular edition of "Our..... More
(N.p.): Cheloniidae Press, 1991. Quarto. (89)pp. One of 210 copies, signed by both Robinson and McGrath at the colophon. Illustrated throughout with head- and tail-pieces by Robinson, as well as an example of calligraphy by Suzanne Moore and one by Elizabeth Curtis. A celebration of McGrath upon the fiftieth anniversary..... More
Shirley, Solihull: Cherub Press, 1986. 48mo. (14)pp. From an edition of 160 copies, this is one of 85 sewn into Strathmore covers with Roselle marbled endpapers. With two full page engravings by Renton capturing the romance of Keat's poem. Fine. More
London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1867. Small quarto. (36)pp. Illustrated with thirty-two chromolithographs, each with verse or prose captions. The book is divided into four subjects: Sunny Days, Home for the Holidays, Right and Wrong, and Picture Rhymes of Happy Times. Most of the scenes take place on farms and..... More
NY: E. M. Leavens Co., 1918. Quarto. (12)pp. Bold, colorful illustrations of the American West, including American Indians, cowboys, stage coaches, and frontier cabins, accompany explanatory text, printed in blue, red, and brown. Bound in color printed wrappers. Some bumping to corners, tiny tear at bottom of rear cover, else..... More
London: Griffith & Farran, 1876. Quarto. 21pp. Illustrations and text printed together anastatically. Kemp's elaborate calligraphy and illustrations imbue her rhymes with whimsy, making them more worthy of the category of fairy tale rather than nursery rhyme. Exceedingly rare. Bound in red cloth stamped in black and gold. Light soiling..... More
London (but Hertfordshire): John Marshall (but Anne and Peter Stockham), 1801 (but 1976). One of forty-eight copies. In this "cabinet," there are two miniature books and a collection of twenty-eight hand-colored engravings of the objects listed in the books. The books are bound in full leather, one maroon and one..... More
NY: Oxford University Press, 1947. Octavo. 118pp. Inscribed by Tudor on the second free flyleaf. Illustrated throughout in color and black-and-white by Tudor, with her signature floral wreaths, dreamy landscapes, and playful children. Bound in green cloth over boards with paper label to upper cover. Freckles of foxing throughout, though..... More
Esslingen: J. F. Schreiber, 1920. An unusual unused booklet with "magic leaves," which reveal a picture when lightly passed over with a pencil. For obvious reasons, it is especially rare to find such as this with a clean interior. Oblong 32mo. (8)ff. Bound in pictorial wrappers featuring an old-fashioned horse..... More
Paris: La Bibliotheque de Arts, 1968. Quarto. 130pp. Of an edition of 600 copies, this is one of 40 with two original engravings numbered signed by Ciry. In this copy, one engraving is of Salome, completed in 1949, and the other is of Saint Sebastian, completed in 1950. The catalog..... More
(England: c. 1825-1835). (4)pp., + 8ff. Original manuscript set of costume overlays depicting the evolution of a "Youth just ceased to grow" into a "Dandy quite complete." The Youth's ambition is to be a "Beau," and in each successive overlay, he puts on more of the trappings of dandyism until..... More
Zurich: J. H. Locher, (c. 1848). 48mo. (21)ff. accordion-fold. A panorama of color illustrations for each of the twenty-two Swiss cantons. Each image depicts Swiss citizens in traditional garb and at work or leisure characteristic to their canton; two cantons, Valais and Tessin, share an illustration. Date derived from the..... More
(France / China: c. 1900). Octavo. (22)pp. Album of Chinese landscapes in original watercolors, facing depictions of women's antique costumes painted on silk, interleaved with tissue. "Chinoiserie" refers to European art characterized by imagery of a romanticized China, a notion that similarly underpins the genre of costume books, which presented..... More
London: Gogmagog Press, (1977). Octavo. (30)pp., frenchfold. One of 90 copies printed on handmade mingei paper, and signed by the author/artist. Illustrated with four dramatic two-page colored intaglio prints by Cox, showing Victorian death scenes, two of them somewhat surrealist in influence. Cox's poems offer a modern twist on sentimental..... More
NY: Century Co., (c. 1933). Octavo. (x), 246pp. Copiously illustrated by Palmer Cox. This was the first adventure of the Brownies written in prose, and it is advertised as having "a detailed, connected story, with a beginning, a middle and an end." A later issue, with the text, binding, and..... More
(Weimar): Cranach Press, 1931. Tall octavo. 32, (2)pp. From the French edition of 164 copies, this is one of 50 on Japon. Printed in blue and black, and illustrated throughout with eleven wood engravings and decorative initials by Eric Gill. This ancient dialogue between the Bride and Groom is one..... More
