News
News and happenings from the book collecting world.
Treasures
10th October, 2024
Silke Lohmann speaks with Leo Cadogan about their latest catalogue, Treasures. Your latest catalogue, beautifully designed by the way, covers ten treasures from 1480 to 1700. What’s your personal…
A Thing of Beauty
26th September, 2024
Peter Harrington’s specialists Sammy Jay and Dr Philip W. Errington have chosen Keats’s words as the title for their latest catalogue A Thing of Beauty – celebrating the art and craft of…
Janette Ray
11th September, 2024
‘I came into bookselling through a route taken by many specialist dealers, approaching from knowledge of my subject rather than experience of the trade. In my youth I wanted to…
Captain Bligh Part 3: ‘A Long and Turbulent Journey’
19th July, 2024
By the time Bligh returned a year later, having finally brought the breadfruit to the West Indies, the tide was out. Rather than great public acclaim and a grand official…
Detective Fiction
18th July, 2024
Jarndyce have just published their latest catalogue on Detective Fiction. It includes an impressive 356 books with prices ranging from £10 to £8,500 and covers books from 1827 to 1967, with the bulk of…
Captain Bligh Part 2 – ‘A Bunch of Thieving Jellyfish’
3rd July, 2024
One could go mad trying to understand Christian’s actions in the days before the mutiny while accepting that the mental pressure he was under was immense. He seems to have…
UNIQUE Exhibition
2nd July, 2024
The society of Designer Bookbinders in holding an exhibition of recent works by its members at The Benjamin Spademan Gallery in St James’s. ‘UNIQUE’ will run from 5th to 13th July 2024. We…
Continental Books
21st June, 2024
Quaritch has recently released catalogue 1456, which is all about continental books and represents a real team effort. We speak to Alex Day, who joined Q in 2003 with an…
Captain Bligh Part 1: The Devil knows how to row
18th June, 2024
“I have been run down by my own Dogs.” – William Bligh. A portrait miniature in the National Library of Australia depicts a man in full naval regalia, complete with his captain’s…
Serge Plantureux
5th June, 2024
There are various versions of how I got started in bookselling. The one I choose today goes something like this. When I was about eight years old, a relative died…
Interview with a Librarian: Dunia Garcia-Ontiveros
22nd May, 2024
The Society of Antiquaries of London is well-known to bibliophiles, regularly hosting meetings and offering access to a rather remarkable library in Burlington House. This month, our Librarian Interview is…
Bill Fletcher
10th May, 2024
‘I sold my first book in 1914 when I was eight years old. After school, I went to work for my father in Porchester Road. It never occurred to me…