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Bookshop in London, England
Sotheran's
![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Sotheran%27s_clock.jpg/220px-Sotheran%27s_clock.jpg) |
Industry
| Retail
|
---|
Founded
| 1761
; 263 years ago
(
1761
)
|
---|
Founder
| Henry Sotheran
|
---|
Headquarters
| ,
UK
|
---|
Website
| Official website
|
---|
Sotheran's
is a
bookshop
in
London
, England, claiming to be the oldest continuously operating bookshop in the United Kingdom and the oldest
antiquarian
bookshop in the world. It is located at 18
Upper Brook Street
in the
Mayfair area
of London.
History
[
edit
]
Founded in 1761 in
York
by Henry Sotheran, Sotheran's established a presence in London in 1815. In 1901, it was granted the
Royal warrant of appointment
as booksellers to
King Edward VII
.
[1]
In 1892, Sotheran's managed to get
Althorp
’s complete library, including its very rare collection of
Caxtons
, for £210,000 (equivalent to almost £33.5 million in 2024); the collection was sold to
Enriqueta Augustina Rylands
, who erected in
Manchester
a permanent memorial of her
husband
in the
John Rylands Library
.
[2]
In 1896, Sotheran's sold to
J. P. Morgan
a
Gutenberg Bible
on vellum, for £2,750, and an even more expensive collection of
Byron
manuscripts; the following year, it secured the
Warwick Castle
Shakespeare
Library for
Henry Clay Folger
.
[1]
[3]
From 1936 to 2024, the shop was located at 2-5
Sackville Street
, London.
English bookseller and
Charles Dickens
scholar
John Harrison Stonehouse
joined the firm as an apprentice in 1884. He ultimately became the managing director through his skills of literacy, invention, and marketing.
[4]
[5]
Under his direction, Sotheran's ordered several significant
bindings
and
fore-edge paintings
from renowned binders, including finely painted 'Cosway' bindings.
[6]
In 1909, Stonehouse commissioned the bookbinders
Sangorski & Sutcliffe
to produce the famous jewelled copy of
Edward FitzGerald
's
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
, lost with the
Titanic
in 1912.
[7]
[8]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Sotheran's: 250 Years of Bookselling"
.
ILAB - FR
. Retrieved
2024-06-09
.
- ^
Farnie, D. A. (1989).
"Enriqueta Augustina Rylands (1843-1908), founder of the John Rylands Library"
.
Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. 1989;71(2):3-38
. Retrieved
2024-06-11
.
- ^
"Papers re Warwick Castle Shakespeare Library, Mar 1896-Aug 1897. Papers of A.B. Railton. University of Manchester Library. GB 133 ABR/7"
.
- ^
Herrmann, Frank (2012).
"Review of Bookmen: London. 250 Years of Sotheran bookselling"
.
The British Art Journal
.
13
(2): 102?103.
ISSN
1467-2006
.
JSTOR
43490556
.
- ^
Roberts, William (1895).
The Book-hunter in London: Historical and Other Studies of Collectors and Collecting
. A.C. McClurg. p. 233.
- ^
Fore-edge Paintings at Syracuse University
. 1992.
- ^
Gray, Victor (2011).
Bookmen, London: 250 years of Sotheran bookselling
. London: H. Sotheran. pp. 204?205, 212?214.
ISBN
978-0-9508219-6-2
.
- ^
Kennedy, Maev; arts; correspondent, heritage (2005-07-07).
"Legendary book goes to British Library"
.
The Guardian
.
ISSN
0261-3077
. Retrieved
2024-06-09
.