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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(N.p.): Murray, 1990. Octavo. (14)ff., loose. One of 60 copies, signed by Coe. A distressing and confrontational collection, Coe's suite of engravings demands attention to the ways in which humans mistreat dogs, how they conceive of dogs as perpetrators when, in fact, they are abused and their innate loyalty manipulated..... More
(Santa Barbara, CA): Simplemente Maria Press, 2020. Octavo volume and strand of ten paper prayer flags. (22)ff., + 20ff. One of twenty copies, signed by the artist. Mary Heebner's flags bear her five invocations to a distressed planet, with one prayer for each element: fire, earth, air, water, and aether..... More
Tualatin, OR: Clinker Press, 2015. Octavo. (iv), 14, (4)pp. One of twenty copies, signed by the artist and printer, Andre Chaves, and by Herman. A stunning production in Arts & Crafts style, and a fitting ode to Muir, whose persistent environmental activism was essential leverage for the preservation of the..... More
(Stanmore, NSW, Australia): Ant Press, 2018. Oblong quarto. (16)pp. One of seven copies. In drypoints, transfer-printed photographs, and bold typographic styling, Oppen sets altered landscapes before the viewer and confronts the oppression of the natural features of Australia by humankind. Her panoramic etchings show vistas lying barren and dark, while..... More
1860. Single leaf measuring 5 by 7 3/4 inches. A drawing of a young man and woman glancing shyly at each other, with their noses drawn in an angular fashion so as to point at each other. Below the figures is penned words “i cant [sic] stop long this time.”..... More
(N.p. c. 1850). Small broadside, measuring 6 1/2 inches tall by 5 7/16 inches wide, with a hand-colored diagram of a pyramidical maze. The route leads the viewer from Despondency, through Chagrin and Hope, to Cheerfulness, with the final goal at the very top of the pyramid being a temple..... More
(The Netherlands: c. 1890). A late nineteenth-century chromolithographed and embossed Dutch postcard, measuring 5 3/8 by 3 1/2 inches (137x88mm). The postcard is made up of two layers, between which spin three wheels printed with the days of the week, dates, and months. The front of the card shows three..... More
Zurich: Maison Kratz, 1956. Lithographic print measuring 23 1/4 by 18 7/8 inches. One of 200 numbered copies, this one signed by the artist, with his name incorporated into a small drawing of a bull's head, and inscribed vertically, "For Martin Oberstein cordially 30 12 56." The lithograph is printed..... More
Florence, Italy: Michael Angelino Press, (c. 1930s). Small quarto. 264pp. With woodcut cover illustration and five erotic, half-tone reproductions of paintings by Mahlon Blaine. This book is part of the swelling trend in the 1930s for "privately printed" erotic books, which would often be published by anonymous or pseudonymous authors..... More
London: Guild and School of Handicraft, Essex House, 1894. Octavo. 166pp. Ornaments on the prefatory material and the final page evince Ashbee's skills Art Nouveau style, and bring illustrative care and craftsmanship to Ashbee's treatise on what makes for good citizenship in an increasingly industrial state. Bound in full red..... More
(London: Essex House Press, 1902). Octavo. 45pp. One of 165 copies, printed entirely on vellum. With hand-colored illustrations and initials by Edith Harwood, comprising one full-page and one double-page illustration, and eighty historiated initials. Alan Crawford describes Harwood's work for Essex House Press as harmonious and in keeping with the..... More
Campden, Gloucestershire: Essex House Press, 1904. Octavo. 94pp. One of 200 copies. This copy accompanied by one of Savage's original engravings for the book: the scene on p. 24 of the titular heroine tumbling from her spooked steed. A delight printing by C. R. Ashbee, who here applies his talents..... More
(Oakland: Eucalyptus Press, 1989). Folio. (6)ff. One of seventeen copies. Illustrated throughout with linoleum block prints altered so that the images in each book are slightly different. One two-page spread depicts the foolish villagers peeking over the edge of the soup pot with surprised expressions on their faces. Printed, illustrated..... More
Zurich: Quaterino Verlag Luzern, 2013. Small quarto. 286pp. With facsimile illustrations of the manuscript, which is Zentralbibliothek Zurich, Ms. Rh. 167, along with close-up shots and other diagrams relevant to the particular essays on the manuscripts various features and history. Bound in full burgundy cloth with gilt stamping, along with..... More
Leipzig: Pavla Riube, (c. 1880). Small quarto. 8pp., + six plates laid in throughout. The chromolithographed images illustrate the major events of the story commonly known to English-speaking audiences as "Sleeping Beauty," from the princess's birth, to the pricking of her finger on the spindle, and, finally, to her reawakening..... More
New Orleans: Pelican Bookshop Press, 1926. First edition. From an edition of 400 copies, this is one of 250 numbered copies. With illustrations of Sherwood Anderson and other famous Creoles, by William Spratling. Bound in green boards. This copy bears the white label, one of three variants, to the front..... More
(N.p. Ferguson, William, n.d.). Print measuring 10 1/4 by 13 inches. One of 76 copies. A windmill design in green and brown, with the words "arena," "monte," "cielo," and "nieve" on the four blades. SIgned by the artist. Fine. More
Barcelona: José Porter, 1945. Octavo. xvi, 96pp + 50 plates. One of 330 copies. Brugalla's treatise on bookbinding, illustrated with both in-text figural drawings and color plates of bindings, offers an educated and thorough historical and technical analysis of the craft. Brugalla demonstrates his own skill on this copy's binding..... More
(Columbus, OH): Logan Elm Press, 1990. Quarto. (38)pp. One of 115 copies, printed on handmade paper and signed by the poet, David Citino, the artist, Anthony Rice, and the designer of the book, Robert Tauber. A stunning production crafted in advance of the quincentennial celebration of Columbus’s voyage. Illustrated throughout..... More
Middletown, CT: Price, Robin, 1998. Quarto. (36)pp. One of 150 copies. Signed by the illustrator, Keiji Shinohara, below the colophon. Decorated throughout with woodcuts in soft grays, greens, browns, and reds. The woodcuts interplay with the text itself, recreating in a visual way the experience of sitting in person for..... More
(Flansham, Bognor: Pear Tree Press, 1937). Quarto. 32, (ii)pp. One of 250 copies. Illustrated with a colored wood-engraved frontispiece portrait of Edward Thomas by Robin Guthrie, and with several engravings, colored vignettes, and two intaglio plates by James Guthrie. One of these intaglio plates reproduces an advertisement for Thomas's first..... More
(Los Angeles): Turkey Press, 1988. Small quarto. (60)pp. One of 125 copies, signed by the poet and the illustrator. William T. Wiley's drawings, which face each of Hannon's poems, encapsulate chaos through discordant lines and endow their paired verses with a sense of foreboding. Bound in black cloth with brown..... More
Newtown: Gregynog Press, 1931. Octavo. (10), 25, (3)pp. From an edition of 250 copies, this is one of twenty-five printed on Japanese vellum and bound after a design by Blair Hughes-Stanton himself. It marks Hughes-Stanton's first contribution to the Press' run of special bindings, and the advent of a shift..... More
Champaign, IL: Finial Press, 1975. Oblong octavo. (20)pp. One of fifty copies. Eight serigraph illustrations, printed in either silver or pink, scattered thorughout. Printing and binding executed by students in the graphic design program at the University of Illinois. Bound in full black cloth over boards, with serigraph repeated on..... More
Alford, MA: 1962. Small quarto. 28ff. One of forty copies. Etched title page and twenty-six fine etchings by Fink, ranging thematically from portraits to botany to insects. Many of Fink's etchings have a decidedly Baskinesque aesthetic, but Fink's circle centered primarily in New York, where he was friendly with Jack..... More
