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
London: Fanfrolico Press, (1926). Quarto. (67)pp. One of 375 copies. Illustrated throughout with Alan Odle's drawings, many of them full-page, which have a strong element of the grotesque. Translated by Jack Lindsay, and with a Foreword by Brian Penton. The first book printed by the third incarnation of the Fanfrolico..... More
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..... 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
Praha [Prague]: Technologicko-Prumyslovým Museem [Technological Industrial Museum], 1914. 16mo. (v), 10, (4)pp. A student production, heavily ornamented with Cubist design principles, including three initials, a woodcut illustration, black decorative borders, fully illustrated endpapers, and an spectacular gilt cover design. The raw, saturated decorations reflect the weight of the book's text..... 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
(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
(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
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
Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1883. Octavo. First edition of the second Uncle Remus collection of stories. Widely illustrated with scenes from the familiar tales, including images of Brother Fox, Brother Bear, and Brother Rabbit. Bound in full yellow cloth elaborately stamped in black and with the title in..... More
(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..... More
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..... More
(Wakefield): Fleece Press, 1984. 16mo. 8ff. One of 250 copies. With seven wood engravings by Peter Forster, including cover label. Reprints a passage from Marvell's "The Rehearsal Transpros'd," published in 1672. Fine in marbled wrappers by Mark Whittaker. (Rogerson 6). More
NY: B. Shackman & Co., Inc., 1993. (40)ff. A charming flip book, in which a daring roadster jumps over a bus and six other cars. Bound in illustrated wrappers, all black and white. Minor rubbing to edges and few spots of foxing to top edge, else near fine. (1 1/2..... More
Berkeley, CA: Flying Fish Press, 1990. Innovative both in design and text, this book explores the idioms associated with "home" related words, e.g. house, home, wall, grass, and rug. The text pages are interspersed with half-size pages that match up exactly to change the illustration or text on the full-size..... More
(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..... More
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..... More
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..... More
London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1822. Octavo. (iv), 397pp. Eleventh edition. Here, Moore's wildly popular, and subtly pro-Irish nationalism, poem receives an impressive fore-edge painting. The poem's titular heroine stands before her poet suitor, and behind them are Arabesque archways framing an imaginative city in Bukhara. The base..... More
Madrid: Editorial Voluntad, 1927. Quarto. (vi), (121)ff., + 120 plates. Each plate shows a drawing by de Azpiazu, who in each captures the beauties of Spanish architecture, life, and landscape. The Quinteros provide commentary for each, and Serafina Alvarez Quintero contributed the frontispiece portrait of de Azpiazu. The book is..... More
London: Saunders and Otley, 1836-38. Three octavo vols. 304; 304; 304pp. Engraved titles with vignettes, as well as nearly 150 engravings throughout the set. A testament to British literature and artistry, with the poetic pillars of Chaucer, Spenser, Donne, Shakespeare, Dryden, Burns, Wordsworth, Shelley, Coleridge, and myriad other writers comprising..... More
Print Club of Cleveland, 1950. Woodcut measuring 21 by 14 1/2 inches. One of 250 copies, signed and dated by Antonio Frasconi, an artist born in Uruguay and known for his distinctive woodcuts and numerous illustrated books for children. In this depiction of Aesop’s fable, a hungry, curvaceous crocodile tempts..... More
