News Story
This week Sotheby’s is to offer a questionnaire completed by Oscar Wilde as he sat on the cusp of stardom in 1877.
It is a fascinating recording of the young writer's passions and preferences across thirty-nine questions..
Wilde was in his early twenties when he contributed to the album of “Mental Photographs” in 1877. He was still at Oxford...
News Story
The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association announced yesterday that its annual flagship event Firsts – London’s Rare Book Fair will move to a brand new venue at Saatchi Gallery next year, with an expanded event schedule taking place from 20th-23rd May 2021. The UK’s most prestigious rare book fair expects to call the contemporary exhibition space...
News Story
The Book Collector is taking a break from Podcasts and Newsletters this August, and during this time we thought we would keep the minds of our readers and followers busy with a little challenge…
Recently a portrait of EM Forster set an Auction record for painter Roger Fry (1866-1934) when it sold for £260,000 at Bonhams in London on 1st July....
News Story
CHRISTOPHER PLANTIN was born 500 years ago this May and is being commemorated by Antwerp’s Plantin-Moretus Museum in a series of exhibitions intended to run through the rest of 2020 (corona volente).
The museum has made available online and in high-res some 14,000 woodcuts, including those from Plantin’s Biblia sacra (1583), which cover all...
News Story
Covid-19 has changed our daily lives in many ways and for book fairs it has certainly meant a speedy transfer online. ‘Firsts London’, the prestigious and highly esteemed book fair, due to take place in early June, decided to go digital instead. It was the first such venture for the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association and deemed such a whopping...
News Story
The Making of Joseph Banks' Florilegium, Part II: 1771 to 1990
Joseph Banks’ botanical discoveries during the Endeavour voyage of 1768-71 revolutionised European understanding of natural history. But it took more than 200 years to realise his plans for a scientific catalogue of botanical finds from around the world.
Dr Anke Timmermann FLS...
News Story
The Arts Institute of the University of Plymouth came up with a splendid way to alleviate the dolours of lockdown: to get forty of the world’s best and brightest authors and artists to read, in turn, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
Jeremy Irons and Glenn Brown led the way, followed by Jeanette Winterson and Lisa Wright, and in number forty (‘A...
News Story
Peter Harrington's latest literature catalogue "In Other Worlds - Fantasy, Science Fiction and Beyond" focuses on genres that seem a lot more real to us after spending three months in lockdown. During this strange time, many of us thought occasionally that we are living in a world we used to read about in books and many of us escaped this new...
News Story
Join Type & Forme’s Dr Anke Timmermann FLS to explore how Joseph Banks and his associates gathered, processed, described, and drew plants from around the world on the Endeavour voyage of 1768-1771.
This is the first part of a two part video created by Type & Forme as part of their 'Banks Month' celebrations.
All engravings from the videos...
News Story
At 60 the Lilly Library is one of the younger, important libraries in the United States.The Book Collector has an especially strong connection with it as it has been home to our founder Ian Fleming's book collection since 1970.
This week's podcast, read by English actor Rupert Vansittart, is part of our Contemporary Collectors series. In it,...