Meet the Team
Our dedicated team of passionate booksellers ensure that every item on our shelves is authentic, researched, and accurately described. We pride ourselves on offering expert guidance, unrivalled choice, and a friendly and honest service.
Chris Saunders
Science and Ideas
Chris Saunders joined Sotheran's in 2004 as the Saturday boy after completing his bachelor's degree in English at Oxford University and then a PhD on the work of the poet Edward Thomas. Cataloguing a collection of Charles Darwin books inspired him to specialise in natural history and the sciences. He became a director of the company in 2018. In his spare time he grows vegetables, plays the guitar and reads voraciously across all subjects. His own collecting interests are early twentieth century poetry and nineteenth century natural history.
Guido Beduschi
Early Books and Manuscripts
Guido completed his PhD in History at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, with a focus on scholarship and information in early modern Europe. After an internship at Christie’s in the Books and Manuscripts department, he spent a year working at Bernard Quaritch. He joined Sotheran’s in 2024 and now works primarily in the early printed books department. He is also Books and Manuscripts Specialist at CASSIUS & Co.
Georg Kastl
People and Places
After having studied humanities with a focus on history of arts in Augsburg Georg entered the rare book trade 30 years ago as an apprentice at a Munich book auction house, then decided to move on into the retail trade. His first such employer was Quaritch in London (science department, human science department), and he has been in the London book trade ever since. Over eleven years ago he joined Sotherans in the travel department, occasionally dealing with material not related to travel, and books in foreign languages. He considers himself a Londoner, as he loves walking this vast and ever changing urban landscape. Georg's personal interests are history, politics, architecture, the arts (music, classical and otherwise), reading fiction and non-fiction, cooking and history of gastronomy, etymology and languages. He is trying not to be a book collector, mostly with success; however, he collects the odd object which just looks good and means something.
Richard Shepherd
Prints
Richard joined Sotheran’s in 2010 having previously worked at The O'Shea Gallery after obtaining a degree in Business Administration from Brighton University. Specialisms include Travel Posters and luggage labels, primarily from the Golden age of the 1920s and 30s. Ski posters from Switzerland and Irish posters from Donegal are personal areas of interest. Richard is a keen tennis player and enjoys swimming in the sea at all times of the year.