About us
Founded in 1761 by Henry Sotheran in York, established in London in 1815, Henry Sotheran Ltd is the oldest bookshop in Europe.
Over more than 250 years in the trade, we have offered exceptional opportunities to private collectors and institutions alike: from the purchase of the libraries of Laurence Sterne in 1768 and Charles Dickens in 1870; to acquiring the complete stock and copyright of the ornithologist and publisher John Gould; and securing, in 1980, the final draft manuscript of Gilbert White’s Natural History of Selborne on behalf of the Gilbert White Museum.
The great American Shakespeare collector H. C. Folger acquired much of his collection through Sotheran’s, including the celebrated Halliwell-Phillipps library, and we acted as agents in the purchase of the world-famous Althorp Library from Earl Spencer for the John Rylands Library in 1892.
Other notable sales include the sale of a Gutenberg Bible on vellum to J. P. Morgan in 1896, and the acquisition of the Warwick Castle Shakespeare Library, later sold to Henry Clay Folger for the renowned Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.
One of the most legendary episodes in Sotheran’s history occurred in 1909, when we commissioned the celebrated binders Sangorski & Sutcliffe to create a jewelled binding for Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. The volume was tragically lost when the Titanic sank in 1912, and the story has since become part of rare-book lore, symbolising both the splendour and fragility of book history.
For more than two and a half centuries we have handled and preserved rare books, manuscripts, and ephemera for collectors and readers alike, guided by the belief that the preservation and reading of the past bring context and joy to the present. Our departments span Early Books and Manuscripts, Literature and Poetry, Sciences and Ideas, People and Places, and Art and Avant-Garde, and our experienced booksellers are always on hand to guide readers among the original Victorian shelves.
Today we operate from two locations in central London. Our Bookshop is at 8 Cecil Court, while at the Athenaeum at 22 Charing Cross Road we house our rarer material. Here our specialists catalogue, preserve, and handle books and manuscripts, while also hosting readings, lectures, and events.
Cassius & Co., located at 63 Kinnerton Street, is Sotheran’s gallery partner, specialising in art books and ephemera.
We look forward to welcoming you.
