There are some fairly expensive, but beautiful items in the current Catalogue 135 from Bromer Books.  Edward Gorey’s The Sopping Thursday is priced at $18,500.  The book is one of twenty-six deluxe lettered copies, signed by Gorey, with an original drawing laid in.  The pen and ink drawing depicts a cat standing on the pavement in the rain, balancing a tall black umbrella on its palm.  This is an additional illustration which is not published in the book.  Gorey’s primary works very seldom include original drawings with the deluxe editions.

A clever ‘talking’ book that reproduces the characteristic sounds of animals is for sale at $2,850 and is entitled The Speaking Picture Book.  Each creature is illustrated in colour and on the facing page is a rhyme about the animal and an arrow pointing to which string to pull in order to create the animal sound.  The leaves of text are bound to a wooden box containing a vocal apparatus, intended to look like a book.

Joseph Clayton Clarke’s (Kyd) Original Character Studies Illustrating Miscellaneous Pieces containing twelve original pen and watercolour sketches – each of which is signed with the artist’s pseudonym – is valued at $1,250.  The illustrations depict characters from six short stories by Charles Dickens.  The freelance illustrator made his living by selling his sketches of Dickens ‘s characters to publishers.

A miniature book called The Rose Garden of Omar Khayyam by Eben Francis Thompson was published by Commonwealth Press in 1932.  It was known as the smallest book in the world at this time.  It is part of a set and a number of pieces of ephemera relating to the book are included in the price of $1,350.  Incorporated is a small keepsake menu in marbled orange wrappers entitled “Dinner Complimentary to Hamilton Brooks Wood and His Associates”.

A colourful telescopic view of the Berlin Industrial Exhibition’s main hall comprises six chromolithographed panels attached on the sides by accordion-folded paper.  The front panel shows the outside of the hall, and the viewer looks through a small hole to see the exhibits within.  On the back printed in black and white are labelled illustrations of some of the other buildings housing exhibits.  The price for this is $2,350.

A miniature painting by Brother Edgard Claes, ‘Le Chemin de la Ville de Lawn’ is one of twenty copies and is for sale at $7,500.  The text is a poem in French, translated from Czech by Martina Drinek.  The work is illustrated with three engravings of abstract landscapes by Anick Butré.  Bros. Claes original intent was to do restoration work in the monastery but his innovative artistry set him off on a different venture.