Rare books from Bromer Booksellers

Baltimore: Xavier Press, 1988. Taddeo, Paolo. vi, 18pp. Samuel Clemens's account of his formative time spent as a printer's apprentice, presented as a speech at a dinner for New York printers. Illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of Clemens and a vignette depicting a compositor setting type. This copy is in a designer binding by the Italian-British bookbinder Paolo Taddeo. Onlays of salmon, grey, and black morocco form the shape of a piece of lead type, outlined in palladium-leaf tooling, creating a symmetrical design on each of the covers. The artist chose the letter H for his design, citing the letter's visual stability and steadiness, "with both feet firmly planted on the ground." As someone whose first language is Italian, he also notes that his selection of the letter H is "controversial," since it is not pronounced in his native language and gives him difficulty in spoken English. However, he writes, "in my mother tongue it's a letter of vital importance in the way that it changes the… Read More

Seattle: Aubergine Atelier, 2019. Fenton, Jodee. Oblong 24mo. 36(ff)., + 14 Japanese kozo-paper leaves painted on both sides in gouache, tempera, watercolor, and polyacrylic varnish. From an edition of thirty copies, this is one of ten bound in half leather with decorative paper over boards. Each copy in the edition contains unique paintings by Jodee Fenton. These, distributed throughout as full leaves, cutouts, and paste-downs, encourage a new perspective on Yeats' seminal poem. Originally composed as a reaction to the pain of the early twentieth century-the aftermath of the First World War, the onset of the Irish War of Independence, and the 1918-1919 flu pandemic-Yeats' verses use apocalyptic allegory to capture the fear, brutality, and destruction of the era. Here, Fenton presents the poem as a series of images, mirrored on both sides of each painted sheet, and verses, broken apart by line and by word. The arrangement thus asks the reader to pause and draws insistent parallels between Yeats'… Read More

(Ditchling, East Sussex), 1930. Cribb, [Herbert] Joseph. Watercolor over pencil on paper. A devoted image of Saint Gertrude meditating on St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Not to be confused with Gertrude the Great, this is Gertrude of Nivelles, seventh-century abbess and founder of the Abbey of Nivelles, who is remembered for her particular kindness of foreigners, especially Irish pilgrims. Gertrude is usually depicted, as here, with a shepherd's crook, occasionally adorned with a mouse or rat in recognition of her assumed protection against the infestation of the Black Plague. Her nomination as rodent-scourge has led in the late 20th-century to an association with cats. Cribb's penchant for religious iconography stemmed from his early connection to and education by Eric Gill, with whom he converted to Catholicism. Trace motes of foxing, but safely matted and framed. (Frame measures 16 1/4 by 12 3/4 in.).

(N.p., but Germany, 1930. Wolf, Gustav. Twenty-two wood-engraved prints, loose. All signed by Wolf. The prints are held in a custom chemise and dropback box, on the spine of which is gilt titling and the claim that the collection went unpublished, a statement corroborated by von Borries' 1982 catalog raisonné. The prints, produced in a unknown number of copies, were meant for an unrealized edition, the title of which, "Dinge," was decided by Wolf; von Borries cites a title page in his copy. That copy also had two more prints for a total of twenty-five, as well as a colphon. The edition, and perhaps even the ability to produce full suites of proof images, was certainly stunted by the nascent rise of the far right in Germany, which induced Wolf to flee and abandon many of his projects. The set, in any state of completion, is a remarkable survival; the Nazi's destroyed much of Wolfe's "degenerate" art. Each print is an extraordinary, grotesque example of Wolf's occult expressionism, as much an… Read More

Verona: Officina Bodoni, 1969. Octavo. 151pp. One of 125 copies. Illustrated with a medal of young Bembo as a title device; a fold-out reproduction of "Il Noniano"; an engraving from "Bembo's Works," Venice 1729; and a facsimile leaf of Aii of Bembo's "De Aetna," printed by Aldus in 1496. The Latin version is followed by an English translation by Betty Radice and a Postscript by Giovanni Mardersteig. The Latin is set in Griffo type, and the English and Postscript are in Monotype Bembo, both based on the roman alphabet developed by Francesco Griffo for Aldus. Bound in quarter-morocco with red paper over boards, gilt-stamped with the press's device. Some toning to spine, else fine in matching slipcase. Prospectus laid in.

San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1941. Angelo, Valenti. Folio. (10)ff. From an edition of 75 copies printed for David Magee at the Grabhorn Press, this is copy number nineteen of 27 deluxe copies signed by Magee, with a stunning vellum leaf from a sixteenth-century Italian Gradual bound in. The leaf, which has been trimmed, shows an intricate initial nearly six inches high, decorated in blue, pink, green, and gilt illumination with a rose design. The text of the book contains fourteen large initials, including a four-inch opening letter, all hand-written and illuminated by Valenti Angelo. Generally externally rubbed about two-tone cloth covers over boards, else very good. (BCC 43; Chalmers 90, Magee 363).

London: Harvey and Darton, 1820. 32mo. 46, (2)pp. Frontispiece and final leaf feature double vignettes, plus title device and tail-piece, plus thirteen additional half-page engravings appearing throughout. The result is a highly visual adaptation of Aesop's fables, here relayed in simpler language suitable for young readers. This is the fourth edition, and though quite popular and with multiple later reissues, the engravings likely proved too costly and were eventually dropped. Bound in yellow printed wrappers with publisher's advertising to lower cover. Mild overall exterior soiling, else near fine.

Bosham, UK: Circle Press, 2013. King, Ronald. Square small quarto. 7 unbound triptych sheets. One of thirty copies, signed by Richard Price and Ronald King. Price's verses appear alongside King's illustrations, which have been deeply embossed into the papers, mostly in blind but with choice additions of color. Each triptych articulates the case for animals presently threatened by or having already succumbed to the catastrophes of climate change: the armadillo, the emperor butterfly, the chimpanzee, the dodo, the elephant, the fox, and the goose. That the alphabetical bestiary format remains unfinished implies the continuing urgency of the matter. Sheets housed loose in embossed paper wrappers, held in chemise and slipcase. Fine.

Boston, 1991. Davidson, Laura. Unique book art object, signed and dated by the artist, made from wood, acrylic, paper, ink, and metal keys. Constructed as a temple, the statuesque object has two swinging doors on which Davidson has inked a Hindu tale; this and other designs are presented over excised maps and travelogues, creating a multimedia collage. The pillared templed stands upon a platform ornamented with six keys, each labeled "a" through "d" (there are multiple for "b") to mirror the coordinate grid of the map. The whole is a companion piece to Davidson's first editioned book, To Open, completed in the same year. Fine. Housed in custom box. (12 by 10 1/4 by 3 5/8 in.; 340 x 264 x 94 mm).

NY: Vanguard Press, 1935. First edition. Inscribed by the author to Ira Gershwin, and with a secondary inscription from the author's brother-in-law, songwriter Lou Paley, to Gershwin, suggesting that "Buried somewhere in 'Studs' you'll find material for an excellent 10 hr. blackout." Consisting of three novels bound together-Young Lonigan, The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan, and Judgement Day-Farrell strives to show the fall into spritual povery of the average American during the Great Depression. Full brown cloth over boards with gilt titling to spine, top edge black. Some overall edgewear, fraying along rear spine joint, mild stain to rear board, else very good with a harmonious association.

(NY: Spiral Press, 1969. Frasconi, Antonio. Small folio. (38)ff. One of twenty-five copies signed by Frasconi, who illustrated this work with eighteen full-page colored woodcuts and a smaller colored colophon device. Issued in an unbound format, the illustrations are printed on Hosho paper and tipped-in to the Rives paper folders, opposite which Whitman's poetry has been set by Joseph Blumenthal at the Sprial Press. Laid into a dropback box of half cloth and marbled paper. A vibrant presentation of this very scarce Frasconi portfolio.

(N.p.: Book/Print Artist/Scholar of Color Collective, 2023. Octavo. (19)pp. booklet + suite of three prints incorporating an impressive range of technical processes, including papermaking, letterpress, screenprinting, and relief printing. Each one is signed, titled, and dated by its artist: Tia Blassingame, Ben Blount, and Aimee Lee. The booklet situates the project within, first, the Book/Print Artist/Scholar of Color Collective's mission of advocacy and diversity within the book arts; and second, the scholastic and artistic lineage of people of color in the bookmaking field. It includes a background by Blassingame, and reflections by Director of the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, Tamar Evangelista-Dougherty. All held in a paper folio. Very fine.

London: Ernest Nister, 1895. Square octavo. (12)pp. Four chromolithographed volvelles encourage the young reader to align the pictures with their appropriate letters. The first apparatus, for example, situates a drum with "D," a train engine with "E," and sacks of flour with "F." Accompanying these are verses, the first of which matches the mnemonic movables. This work is known in three institutional copies, none of which are in the U.S. Bound in pictorial boards backed in red cloth. Dampstain to upper rear cover, else near fine in rare publisher's printed dust wrapper, somewhat chipped at corners.

Prague: Nakladem Zoologicke zahrady v Praze-Troji, 1937. Octavo. 4pp., + 40 plates, each one printed in red and green for 3-D viewing, enabled by the astonishingly rare survival of four 3-D glasses held in a sleeve inserted into the front board. Each plate shows a different animal, altogether an exciting and almost realistic personal zoo. The history of three-dimensional printing owes its lineage to the parallel history of experiments in depth perception, and its incorporation into print culture begins with the stereoscope. But here the specific technique of "anaglyphic" printing arrived in the late 19th century, based on earlier principles but adding to the equation manipulations of light and color. Shortly thereafter, anaglyphic films entered the market. By the time of this compendium's publication, the technological procedure had become more widely diffuse, but nevertheless retained its novelty value (as it still does today, in the grandeur of IMAX cinema). The timing, too, deserves further… Read More

N.p., 1990. Small collection of works by the Pulitzer-Prize winning Mississippi author and photographer, Eudora Welty. A private collection formed primarily in the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, this group spans Welty's long career and includes several early magazine appearances. Most of Welty's regularly published books are present, and most present as near fine to fine. The collection includes the following: A Curtain of Green (no d/w); The Wide Net; The Golden Apples; The Bride of the Innisfallen; The Robber Bridegroom; Delta Wedding (2 copies); The Ponder Heart (including a copy of the theatrical edition signed by the cast); The Shoe Bird; Losing Battles, and several copies of The Optimist's Daughter (including the English edition); One Writer's Beginnings (signed, limited edition). In addition, the collection gathers a number of small press editions, including In Black and White from Lord John Press; two copies of Retreat published by Palaemon Press, A Pageant of Birds from Albondocani… Read More