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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(Indianapolis): Bobbs Merrill, (1911). Small quarto. First edition. Illustrated with reproductions of drawings by Howard Chandler Christy, an American illustrator best known for his patriotic portraits of military men and romantic depictions of society women. The illustrations accompany a story in verse by the American poet James Whitcomb Riley. The... More about When She Was About Sixteen
(Denmark: c. 1947-1960). All 16mo. 8-12pp. each. A collection of forty-seven promotional booklets for films based on books. Produced exclusively in Denmark and printed in Danish, these booklets were for sale outside movie theaters—the booklet for "Baby Doll" even has a ticket stub laid in, and the one for "On..... More about Promotional Pamphlets for Films
Surrey: Circle Press, 1978. Folio. 58pp. One of 250 copies initialed by the artist. With fourteen full-page, brilliantly colored silk screens based loosely upon African masks. An extra initialed print is laid-in, this being marked III for The Squire. A fine copy in dark blue cloth boards and slipcase, which... More about The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
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 about L'Oevre Grave de Michel Ciry. 1949-1954
Florence: Felice Paggi, 1883. Small octavo. 236pp., + iipp. of advertisements. First edition. The enduring children’s classic about a mischievous marionette whose nose grows every time he tells a lie, in the original Italian and wonderfully illustrated with a full-page frontispiece of the titular character, as well as sixty-one additional... More about Le Avventure di Pinocchio: Storia di un Burattino
(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 about The Dandy's Toilet, or, How to be a Beau
(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 about Chinoiseries / Costumes d'Antan
London: Ernest Benn, 1928. Quarto. (xvi), (144)pp., + 111 plates. First edition. One of twenty-five copies printed on handmade paper, specially bound, and with two color plates not included in the regular edition. Illustrated with plates in black & white and color, and with numerous text figures. A collection of... More about Robes of Thespis. Costume Design by Modern Artists
NY: Knopf, 1946. First edition. One of 100 copies printed especially for the author, with an original drawing completed and signed by Covarrubias ahead of the title page. Edition replete with photoreproductions and other illustrations of life on the isthmus, as well as a fold-out map. Bound in pink cloth-covered... More about Mexico South. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec
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 about The Brownies and Prince Florimel; or, Brownieland, Fairyland, and Demonland
NY: Benjamin Blom, Inc., 1972. Folio. 202, (5)pp. Publisher's facsimile of the famed edition of Hamlet issued by the Cranach Press in 1929. With reprints of Edward Johnston's typography, Edward Gordon Craig's 74 woodcuts, and Eric Gill's contributions of two initials, the title over the first woodcut, and spine titling... More about Facsimile of the Cranach Press Hamlet
(Dublin): Dolmen Press, 1954. Tall octavo. 32pp. One of 225 copies. Printed in black with red initials and with a decorative title-page spread, two full-page illustrations, and six pictorial headpieces by Mia Cranwill. The tragic myth of Deirdre and the sons of Usnech, who were slain by the jealous Conchobor... More about Longes mac n-Usnig: Being the Exile and Death of the Sons of Usnech
London: Bentley, 1840, 1842, 1847. Three octavo volumes. viii, 338; ix, 288; viii, 364 pp. First edition. Illustrated with engravings by George Cruikshank and John Leech. Aside from very light splitting to extremities of outer hinges, this is a nearly fine, handsome set bound by Riviere in full polished tan calf, gilt. T.e.g. Bookplates. More about The Ingoldsby Legends, by Thomas Ingoldsby, Esq
Paris: Nouvelle Librairie de la Jeunesse, (1890). Small quarto. (14)pp., including paste-down endpapers. A stencil-colored cut-figure book, with each page cut into three sections so that one can make numerous combinations of the head, body, and legs of "Mon Oncle Gaspard." The Gaspards range in profession and character, from a.... More about Mon Oncle Gaspard. Album a Transformations
(Chicago): The Compulsive Printer, 1977. Octavo. (30)ff. From an edition of 75 copies signed by the artist, Joseph D'Ambrosio, and the printer, Elmore Mundell, this is one of twenty-five with an extra signed serigraph and deluxe binding. The text is James Joyce's take on Aesop's "The Fox and the Grapes."... More about The Mookse and the Gripes. From Two Tales of Shem and Shaun
Seattle: Grey Spider Press, 1992. Oblong octavo. (26)ff. One of 75 copies, signed by the artist, Michael Dal Cerro. An illustrated alphabet, with woodcuts by Dal Cerro. The words and images chosen are nature-themed and carry a strong environmentalist message. Printed and bound by Chris Stern in green cloth, with... More about Small World Alphabet
(Albany: Print Club of Albany), 1989. Broadside measuring 15 by 19 inches. One of 100 copies, signed by the artist. The Print Club of Albany's Annual Print for 1988-1989, it's 55th Presentation Print. This lithograph is the last of a series of prints by Dallman that explores industrial and residential... More about Landscape with Hay Wheels
Venezia: Antonio Zatta, 1757-1758. Four quarto volumes: L’Inferno, Il Purgatorio, Il Paradiso, Prose & Rime Liriche. (16), xlviii, ccccviii; ccccxiii, (3); cccclii, (4), 104; xii, 408, (4), 264, lxxxiv, (2)pp. Illustrated throughout with 114 engraved plates, by F. Giampiccoli, J. Magnini, F. Rizzi, and B. Crivelli, after works by Italian... More about Opere di Dante Alighieri
1899. Etching showing the head of a dozing cat in profile. Above him, a dream floats: a small mouse, enclosed in a circle partially formed by its own tail. Executed with exquisite detail and full of character, from the mouse's slightly frightened eyes to the cat's regal but lazy bearing... More about Cat's Head in Profile to Left
Paris: Typographie de Firmin Didot, (c. 1810). 125pp., + (8)ff. Eight engravings on beige paper. The absurd adventures of Pierrot, born from a turkey's egg to La Fee Gourmande, and dedicated to gourmandise from that moment on, until his gluttony proves too much and dooms him. An extremely rare cautionary... More about Petite Histoire Grotesque de Pierrot Goulu
(Paris: Didot, Firmin, c. 1870). Folio. 72ff., consisting of the first 24 gatherings repeated three times. With fine steel engravings by Jules Jean Marie Joseph Huyot. Printed on vellum in red and black. It appears this work, a late collaboration between Ambroise Firmin Didot and Huyot, was never published and... More about Pontificalis. Trial sheets on vellum for unpublished edition
Texas: (c.1940s). (1)ff., measuring 9 7/8 by 8 inches. Black & white photograph of the Texan writer and folklorist standing at his desk. On the wall hangs a longhorn skull, and books are piled high on the desk. A few fingerprint smudges, likely from the developing process, are present at... More about Photograph of J. Frank Dobie
Paris: Jacques-François Chereau, (c. 1747). Large folio. (1), (25)ff., plates. A reissue or reimpression published after the artist, Charles-Antoine Coypel, was named "Premier Peintre du Roi" in 1747; this series of twenty-five engravings was first presented as a deluxe portfolio in Paris, in 1724. The engravings were done after a.... More about Les Principales Aventures de L'Incomparable Chevalier Errant Don Quichotte de la Manche
Paris: H. Piazza, (1919). Quarto. 148pp., + (27)ff. plates. French edition. One of 1,500 copies. The twenty-seven color plates by Edmund Dulac are tipped-in with tissue guards. Floral and foliate borders in yellow surround the text and plates, referencing Eastern illuminated manuscripts. According to White, the "bright, enamel-like" colors of... More about Sindbad le Marin (Sinbad the Sailor) et d'Autres Contes des Mille et Une Nuits
London: Hodder and Stoughton, (1909). Quarto. (3), (74)ff. One of 750 deluxe copies, signed by the illustrator. Complete with twenty enchanting tipped-in color plates surrounded by decorative borders printed in bronze ink. The text is also enclosed by ornamental borders. Bound in decorative gilt-stamped vellum, bearing the title in Arabic-inspired... More about Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
