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. Interprint, late 20th century). Quarto. 23pp. One of 300 copies designed by Sarah Janson. This book is dedicated to Nina Vaughan, who died in 1970 at the age of 25, shortly after completing the image around which the story is based. The fantastical picture and the accompanying story, "represents...
(Vatican City): Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1965. Folio. (296)ff. One of 1990 copies, printed to celebrate the 700th anniversary of Dante's birth. A full-color facsimile edition of the Vatican's much-illuminated and illustrated manuscript of Dante's Divine Comedy (Codice Urbinate Latino 365). This edition is number XXIX from the series Codices E....
Milan: Ing. C. Olivetti & C., 1978. Quarto. lxx, (36), 109, (5)pp. One of 250 copies. From the series "Documenti sulle arti de libro", of which this is number twelve. A studious discussion of manuscripts, with Bussi's introduction in Italian followed by facsimile manuscript pages and transliterations in Latin. Bound...
Tokyo: Kodansha International Ltd., 1971. Oblong quarto. 154, (7)pp. One of 1500 copies. A thorough academic and artistic discussion of the Genji Scroll, which is generally considered the Eastern equivalent in historical significance and exemplary craftsmanship to the Bayeux Tapestry. The production of the book reflects, as much as it...
NY: Smith & Haas, 1933. Octavo. First edition. Faulkner's last poetry collection published during his lifetime has a title-page vignette and dust wrapper illustration by Lynd Ward. In A William Faulkner Encyclopedia, Stephen Hahn writes that "The poems in A Green Bough are remarkable for the degree to which they...
New Orleans: Pelican Bookshop Press, 1926. From a total edition of 400 copies, this is one of 250 numbered copies. First edition, first issue. 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...
(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.
(Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1896). Folio. (556)pp. One of 425 copies. Contains 87 wood-engraved illustrations designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. William Morris, in addition to the "Chaucer" type designed expressly for this book, provided 26 nineteen-line initials, and numerous foliate and floral borders and initials. Burne-Jones called the book "a pocket...
NY: Macmillan and Company, 1894. 12mo. 274pp. A unique copy with beautifully executed original pen and ink drawings throughout showing the sights and landmarks of Shakespeare's country. Profusely illustrated with hand-drawn vignettes of the thatched cottages of Stratford-upon-Avon, landscape vistas of Warwick and Windsor, and other known British locations. The...
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...
(Nutley, N.J.): Gianettino & Meredith, Inc., 1977. 12mo. (24)pp. From an edition of 275, this is one of fifty lettered copies in a cloth binding, signed by the artist, Jill Karla Schwarz. This humorous holiday list of thirteen "recipes" for turkey was appropriately filed by the author under the heading...
NY: Vincent FitzGerald & Co., 1987. Quarto. (17)ff. One of 75 copies, signed by the translator, Michael Feingold, and the artist, Neil Welliver, whose five color etchings and double-page fold-out lithograph were printed by Shigemitsu Tsukaguchi. The translator served as the lead drama critic for the Village Voice until it...
NY: Vincent FitzGerald & Co., 1989. Folio. (32)pp. One of fifty copies, signed by the artist, Susan Weil. Throughout the text are scattered collages, papers, and etchings that work together to create an interactive, multimedia experience for the reader. In this way, the reader physically engages with the work in...
(Wakefield, Yorkshire): Fleece Press, (1986). Large quarto. (10)pp., + (19)ff. One of 200 copies printed from the original blocks on handmade paper. Illustrated with twenty wood engravings by Underwood that were cut in the 1920s and 1930s. Underwood's Brook Green School produced a great many accomplished wood engravers, among them...
Denby Dale: Fleece Press, (1995). Folio. 80pp. One of 240 copies. When John Buckland Wright died in 1954 his studio contained a number of his engraved woodblocks, mostly those for which he had a particular fondness. This volume publishes "all the engravings of bathers or of women in watery landscapes...
(Wakefield, West Yorkshire): Fleece Press, 1993. Octavo. 28pp., + 42ff. One of 206 copies. Illustrated with forty-one plates of Buckland Wright's wood engravings, which represent a cross-section of his work in white line and silhouette engraving between 1929 and 1954. Extremely fine in vellum-backed Japanese wood veneer paper boards, housed in publisher's slipcase.
(c. 1965-1975). Folk art chess set and table. This non-traditional chess set is based on the theory of evolution, with dinosaurs facing off against mammals. The field is alternating squares of brown earth and green & blue ponds. The pawns on each side grow through the early evolutionary stages: the...
Leipzig: Robert Crayen, n.d. (c. 1830). Two oblong octavo volumes comprising seven parts. (118); (120); (122); (122); (120); 120; (ii), 120; (iv), (124)pp. A collection of sheet music and lyrics for pianoforte gathered from a variety of composers, including Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. This set features wrap-around fore-edge paintings by...
London: W. Bulmer, 1795; 1796. Quarto. Two books bound together in one volume: xx, 76; xv, vii, 126pp. First editions thus. With a fore-edge painting by the "double-line" painter depicting the pastoral village of Lissoy where Oliver Goldsmith spent his youth, standing in for the pseudonymous town of Auburn in...
NY: Dodd, Mead, 1899. Three quarto volumes. xxvi, 330pp. From an edition of 268, this is one of thirty copies on Imperial Japon. In addition, this is a unique copy with an extra set of the 126 color photogravure plates printed on white satin and backed in celadon silk. The...
NY & London: Macmillan, (1974). Quarto. 159pp. One of 140 copies signed by the artist. This copy is inscribed by Frasconi and his family to Anne and David Bromer, dated December 1976. Illustrated throughout with examples of Frasconi's woodcuts in black, white, and red and several full-color plates, this is...
South Freeport, ME: Ascensius Press, 2015. Small quarto. 44ff. From an edition of forty-one, this is one of twenty-six lettered copies, bound in full calf. Frost's second book of poetry is here published in a centenary edition by Scott Vile of the Ascensius Press. In homage to Joseph Blumenthal, Frost's...
(NY: Henry Holt, 1924). Single sheet folded once to make a four-page pamphlet. First edition. One of 2000 copies printed for distribution at Frost lectures at East Coast colleges. With two woodcut vignettes by J.J. Lankes. Signed by Frost below "The Pasture," which appears on the first page. Paper evenly...
1896-1905. A collection of nine color Christmas cards for the years 1897 through 1905, designed by Georgie Gaskin for Laurence W. Hodson and his family. The cards feature delicate vining borders intertwined with banners that extend the Christmas greeting for that year. The subjects of the cards include the Hodson...
1896-1905. 5ff. An original pen & ink drawing and two proofs, one hand-colored and one printed, plus a final printed copy of a Christmas card designed by Georgie Gaskin for Laurence W. Hodson and his family. The card is for the year 1896 and depicts Santa Claus, heavily laden with...
