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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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... More about Prefazioni alle Edizioni di Sweynheym e Pannartz
Zurich: Quaterino Verlag Luzern, 2013. Small quarto. 286pp. With facsimile illustrations of the manuscript, which is Zentralbibliothek Zurich, Ms. Rh. 167, along with close-up shots and other diagrams relevant to the particular essays on the manuscripts various features and history. Bound in full burgundy cloth with gilt stamping, along with... More about Der Rheinaur Psalter
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... More about The Tale of the Genji Scroll
Leipzig: Pavla Riube, (c. 1880). Small quarto. 8pp. plus six plates laid in throughout. The chromolithographed plates illustrate the stages of the story, commonly known to American audiences as "Sleeping Beauty", from the princess' birth, to the pricking of her finger on the spindle, to her reawakening by the prince... More about Spiashchaia Tsarevna [The Sleeping Princess
(France: c. 1850). 48mo. 16ff. accordion-fold. Each page with an engraved illustration, hand colored with details precisely illuminated in gold. The story follows the brutal, cannibalistic terror of a local ogre, who is finally slain by a valiant French knight. Bound in protective boards covered in red brocade paper, with... More about Tale of the Death of an Ogre
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... More about A Green Bough
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 about Sherwood Anderson & Other Famous Creoles: A Gallery of Contemporary New Orleans
(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 about Para un Molinero de Vientos
(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... More about The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer now Newly Imprinted
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... More about Shakespeare's England
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 about 26 Etchings by Shelly Fink
(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 about Turkey Remains and How to Inter Them with Numerous Scarce Recipes
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 about Poems
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... More about Giacomo Joyce
(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... More about Leon Underwood: His Wood Engravings
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... More about Baigneuses. Introduced by Christopher Buckland Wright
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire: Fleece Press, 2000. Quarto. 87 pp. One of 44 deluxe copies with a print pulled from John Buckland Wright's copper plates entitled "Nymphe Surprise No.II", engraved during his period at the Atelier 17. It was a previously un-editioned copper engraving, printed by the Black Star Press and... More about Surreal Times. The Absract Engravings and Wartime Letters of John Buckland Wright
(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 about The Press, That Villainous Engine
(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. More about Bathers and Dancers. The White Line and Silhouette Engravings of John Buckland-Wright. With an...
London: Folio Society, 2016. Folio, plus accompanying octavo volume. 153; 32pp. The folio is a full-sized facsimile, true in printing and binding, of one of the extremely rare signed first printings of the edition produced by Grant Richards in 1915 in London. The facsimile includes reproductions of Coburn's forty photographs... More about The Door in the Wall
(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 about Evolutionary Chess Set
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 about Arion. Sammlung auserlesener Gesangstücke mit Begleitung des Pianoforte
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... More about Poems by Goldsmith and Parnell; together with The Chase. A Poem. By William Somerville
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 about Pictures of Early New York on Dark Blue Staffordshire Pottery. Together with Pictures of Boston...
1984. Wood-engraved color print. Signed. (16 by 12 in.). More about All Joy Was But a Mockery
