News Story
This summer's Firsts Online features talks with The Book Collector and Stephen Fry picks his Fair favourites
We are delighted to announce that we have worked with the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association (ABA) on some online talks for this summer's Firsts Online programming schedule to coincide with the Fair held from the 20th to 25th May 2021...
News Story
Charlotte Du Rietz Rare Books, based in Stockholm, Sweden is well-known among antiquarian booksellers. Charlotte specialises in books on Voyages & Travels, Exploration and Linguistics, with a primary emphasis on Asia and Africa, as well as Asian and international illustrated books on fashion, design and textiles.
Charlotte's family has been...
Interview
We continue our series of interviews with librarians with Katie Birkwood who has been the rare books and special collections librarian at the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) since 2012. She cares for approximately 20,000 rare books assembled over the RCP’s 500-year history, spanning medicine and many subjects beyond, and has curated exhibitions...
Interview
There are many avenues by which western culture speaks to our deepest emotions. Each of these ends up in print form one way or another and therefore among the wares of a bookseller. But how often do you find a collection of them, as in a catalogue, exerting the same raw tug as an individual text? Rarely: this is not the job for which catalogues...
News Story
On the evening of Tuesday 16 March 2021, The Bibliographical Society held their second meeting of the year via zoom, in which they welcomed guest speaker, Stephen Clarke, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool, Chairman of Dr Johnson's House Trust and of The Beckford Society, and member of...
News Story
When you visit someone’s home, or, more appropriately these days, see them via a Zoom meeting, you are no doubt instantly drawn to their bookshelves. You might even browse through them. We all do it, not just the bibliophiles, but why? Because it helps us to understand the person better. We learn if they like to read what we like, if their...
Interview
The Book Collector team has felt for some time that we are regularly interviewing collectors and dealers, but librarians don't often get a chance to talk about themselves. The pandemic has only highlighted their importance when it comes to securing our bibliophilic heritage and we aim to publish an interview with a librarian once a month online....
News Story
A year has gone by and Covid-19 has changed everyone's life in one way or another. For businesses it has often meant hardship, but also opportunities and in the case of the antiquarian book market the lack of actual physical fairs has led to a quick uptake by dealers and fair organisers seeing an opportunity in taking fairs online. Naturally, we...
News Story
Thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the National Libraries, Horsham Museum and Art Gallery has just acquired an incredibly rare 270-year-old booklet. The publication titled The Life of Thomas Munn, alias The Gentleman Brick-maker, alias, Tom the Smuggler tells fascinating tales of failed gay seduction, smuggling, robbery, and a 19-year-old...
News Story
It's been almost a year for many of us since we first experienced 'Lockdown'. It has changed our lives in so many ways and now we can add a Valentine's Day without overpriced dinners and being drowned in red hearts and marketing spiel. About time we returned to love poems, hand-made cards and reading a good novel instead of watching a cheesy...