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
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... More
(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... More
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... More
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... More
NY: Museum of Modern Art, 1957. Oblong quarto. 12ff. One of 975 copies, designed, illustrated, and printed at the Gehenna Press by Leonard Baskin on handmade Italian and Japanese papers. Signed by Baskin, who illustrated the work with six original boxwood engravings and one cherry woodcut. Fine in wrappers with... More
Northampton, MA: Gehenna Press, 1969. Folio. (70)pp. From an edition of 200 copies, this is an out-of-series printer's copy inscribed by Leonard Baskin to Arno Werner, who bound the book. One of the major productions of Baskin's Gehenna Press. Illustrated with ten etchings by Baskin, nine of which are signed... More
Northampton, MA: Gehenna Press, 1970. Small octavo. 236pp. One of 300 copies. Baskin's drawings illustrate much of the volume, providing a both probing and somewhat comical insight into Goethe's poetry. Translation and commentary by Alex Page. This is volume one of seven books proposed by the Gehenna Press. Bound in... More
(Leeds, MA): Gehenna Press, 1989. Quarto. (13)pp, (25)ff. One of thirty-eight copies. A collection of etchings of cats by the Italian artist Anna Maria Bartolini, some of which are printed on pink mulberry paper and tipped in. All are signed by the artist in graphite. Some of the cats are... More
Northampton, MA: Gehenna Press, 1964. Quarto. 84pp + 21 inserted plates. One of 300 copies. Signed by Cornell twice at the colophon and under each illustration, and by Leonard Baskin, who designed the book. The plates, printed on blue paper, bear twenty-one different portraits of the major players in Babeuf's... More
Victoria, Australia: 2010. Square 32mo. (14)pp., accordion-fold, decorated on both sides of the page. An original artist's book by Jennifer Gibney, with hand-drawn text and pen illustrations in black, sepia, and sanguine ink, housed within a hand-painted and decorated wooden box. The story concerns a jester-like character who is overwhelmed... More
1924. On paper measuring 6 1/4 by 5 3/8 inches (159x137mm), mounted to a bifolium sheet. One of six copies signed by Gill in graphite at the lower corner. This is one of eight of Gill's delicate white line engravings that is featured in Enid Clay's Sonnets and Verses, published... More
(c. 1927). Pen and ink on paper, measuring 8 by 2 3/4 inches, matted and framed. This is Gill's design for a border that appears three times in the Golden Cockerel Press edition of Troilus and Criseyde, and it shows Chaucer sitting in a tree writing "Troilus" in a book... More
London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 1938. Octavo. xiv, (24)pp. One of 550 copies signed by Eric Gill and printed by Hague & Gill. Illustrated with four full page wood engravings by Gill. Slight bumping to foot of spine and corners, else a near fine copy in black cloth... More
Capel-y-ffin, Abergavenny: Francis Walterson, 1927. Octavo. (vii), 46pp. One of 200 copies printed at the Shakespeare Head Press for Francis Walterson, signed by both Eric Gill and David Jones. This was the only book to be issued signed by the two. Illustrated with a frontispiece engraved by David Jones titled... More
London: Sheed & Ward, (1931). Octavo. iv, 121 pp. First edition. One of 500 copies signed by Eric Gill and Rene Hague and printed by Hague & Gill. This is a presentation copy, inscribed on the colophon. Illustrated with twenty-five figures, including ten type specimens and four illustrations from wood... More
(Ditchling: St. Dominic's Press, 1929). 32mo. (5)pp. With a cover illustration, dragon headpiece, and four square vignettes by Eric Gill, depicting a child's encounter with night-time fears. In this poem by Press founder Hilary Pepler, a boy asks his nurse if dragons, ghosts, and goblins exist as he is tucked... More
Berkeley, CA: Pacific Film Archive, 1973. Broadside measuring 24 by 18 1/4 inches. One of 500 copies. Designed by California artist David Lance Goines and printed in 10 colors, this advertisement for a film series at the Pacific Film Archive features an image of Veronica, daughter of Solome, who took... More
Oakland, CA: Karl Kardel Co., 1974. Broadside measuring 24 by 18 1/4 inches. One of 1,850 copies. Designed by California artist David Lance Goines and printed in 8 colors, this advertisement for Karl Kardel Co. features a bumblebee over an ochre background. The design was inspired by an unknown philosopher's... More
(London): Golden Cockerel Press, 1945. Quarto. 92pp. One of 500 copies. Six engravings by Webb, illustrating various military exploits and battles recounted in the text. The original work, titled Gesta Francorum et Aliorum Hierosolimitanorum, was the diary of a cavalry officer in Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine. The original mauscript... More
(London): Golden Cockerel Press, 1934. Tall octavo. (16)pp. One of 500 numbered copies. Illustrated with one full-page wood engraving and a four-line initial capital by Gill. This edition of Gill's "sermon," reflecting on the 136th Psalm, marks the first use of Gill's Perpetua Roman and Felicity Italic typefaces. Bound in... More
London: Golden Cockerel Press, 1952. Tall quarto. 80pp. From an edition of 360 copies, this is one of 60 deluxe copies, signed by the artist, John Buckland Wright, and the author, Phyllis Hartnoll. Illustrated by Buckland Wright with eight aquatints, printed from the copper plates. Only the deluxe copies had... More
(Waltham Saint Lawrence): Golden Cockerel Press, 1928. Quarto. 101pp. One of 500 copies. Illustrated with wood engravings and all but two initial capitals by Robert Gibbings. The remaining two capitals—“Lamia” on the title page and “IT” on page 18—were engraved by Eric Gill. A fine copy of what the Press..... More
London: Golden Cockerel Press, (1939). Small quarto. 28pp. One of 100 copies printed on handmade paper and bound in full blind-stamped mustard morocco. The eighteen copper-engravings by John Buckland-Wright took two years to produce, and were inspired by the Roman sarcophagi in the Louvre. These were produced using a sugar... More
(Waltham St. Lawrence): Golden Cockerel Press, 1931. Quarto. 269pp. One of 500 copies, printed in Golden Cockerel type on Batchelor handmade paper. With sixty-five illustrations from wood engravings by Eric Gill. This work stands as the crowning achievement of the Golden Cockerel Press, as well as Gill’s finest work as... More
