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
(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
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
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): Goode Bros. c. 1875. (47)pp. Illustrated throughout with black & white lithographs, this little book includes excerpts from several Old Testament stories. In dark violet gilt-stamped wrappers. An unusually fine copy. (Bondy 162). (2 1/4 by 1 5/8; 58x40mm.). More
NY: Esquire Magazine, c. 1966. 16mo. First edition. Accordion-fold booklet with three illustrations by Gorey. Esquire's pitch to prospective advertisers is framed around a Sherlock Holmes vignette in which Watson uses Holmes's deductive reasoning to conclude that if one wants access to the heaviest periodical readers, one should advertise with... More
NY: Crown Publishers, 1986. First edition. Signed by Gorey on the title page. A collection of trivia questions, sometimes humorous and often obscure, illustrated with Gorey figures in playful, languid, or dour positions. Gorey's own work appears as part of the pictorial quiz in the middle of the book. Fine... More
Boston: Bromer Booksellers, 1996. Small quarto. 26 pp. From an edition of 2,000 copies, this is one of 200 copies signed and numbered by Edward Gorey. Bromer special holiday catalog with previously unpublished, full-color cover design by Gorey, who created the artwork originally for a Nieman Marcus holiday catalogue. When... More
Reading, MA: Young Scott Books, 1971. First edition thus. Signed by Gorey on the title-page. With Gorey's large color illustrations surrounding Ennis Rees' whimsical poetic interpretations of Aesop. Near fine in orange pictorial boards and matching very good dust wrapper. (Toledano B47a). More
Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963. First edition. Illustrated by Pat Marriott, with jacket design by Gorey. Bound in red cloth over boards with black wolf stamped to upper cover. General mild edgewear, else very good in very good price-clipped dust wrapper. (Toledano D-Aiken). More
NY: Gotham Book Mart, 1988. First edition. One of 300 numbered copies, signed by Beckett and Gorey. Adapted by Samuel Beckett and Jack MacGowran. Design and typography by Ronald Gordon and Dean Bornstein, and illustrated throughout with vignettes by Gorey, printed in blue. Fine in patterned paper over boards. (Toledano B76b). More
NY: Targ Editions, 1982. One of 250 copies. With a signed frontispiece by Gorey, and inscribed by the author, D. R. Bensen, to the noted book collector Stuart B. Schimmel. Bound in purple cloth with a translucent glassine dust wrapper, which is illustrated with four different-colored images by Gorey. Small... More
NY: Gotham Book Mart, 1971. First edition. One of twenty-six lettered copies, signed by Gorey. A suspenseful, nonsensical tale intended “to make all serious men mad, mad, mad, and to amuse children little little little.” Slight toning to spine and rear wrapper. Overall, nearly fine in illustrated wrappers. (Toledano B49a)..... More
San Francisco: Troubador Press, 1979. First hardcover edition. One of 750 copies containing a previoulsy unpublished drawing by Gorey and puzzle by Evans not in the wrapper edition. A collection of hidden picture puzzles, codes, and mazes features some of Gorey's signature characters. A very fine copy, still in original... More
NY: Meredith Press, 1968. First edition. "An opera book without libretto or score". Some edgewear to book, slight splay to upper board, else very good in very good dust wrapper. (Toledano A27a). More
NY: Dodd, Mead, 1976. First trade edition. Illustrated throughout in color and black & white, cleverly combining "two subjects of consuming interest": postcards and bicycles. Some wear to corners, else near fine in very good dust wrapper. More
NY: Adama Books, 1987. Illustrated with red, blue, and yellow bugs in all sorts of activities as they strive to maintain the order of their community social life. In white pictorial boards, slightly skewed, with some foxing to text block. Very good. (Toledano A5c). More
