History

Founded in York in 1761, established in London in 1815, Henry Sotheran Limited has a long and distinguished history.

For over 250 years we have been offering unsurpassed opportunities to collectors and enthusiasts, from the purchase of the libraries of Laurence Sterne in 1768, and Charles Dickens in 1870; the complete stock and copyright of the ornithologist and publisher John Gould; to the successful bid in 1980 for the final draft manuscript of Gilbert White's Natural History of Selbourne, bought on behalf of the Gilbert White Museum.

The great American collector of Shakespeare, H.C. Folger, acquired much of his collection, including the Halliwell-Phillipps library, through Sotheran's, and we were agents in the purchase of the world-famous Althorp Library from Earl Spencer for the John Rylands Library in 1892.

Other significant sales included the sale of a Gutenberg Bible on vellum to J.P. Morgan in 1896, and the acquisition of the Warwick Castle Shakespeare Library, which was later sold to Henry Clay Folger for his 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 famous bookbinders Sangorski & Sutcliffe to create a jewelled, gilt-edged copy of Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam—a copy that was tragically lost aboard the Titanic in 1912. This loss has since become part of literary lore, a symbol of the grandeur and fragility of rare book history.

Sotheran’s is delighted to continue dealing in rare books and prints, preserving, celebrating, and sharing printed matter—from modernist masterpieces to early manuscripts to rare materials that reveal the curiosities held within their pages and bindings. Publishing ventures are forthcoming to bring works into the light that have been forgotten, restoring them to their rightful place in the literary world.