Welcome to Sotheran's
Welcome to the new home of the Sotheran's Blog! Having been around for over 250 years (and counting) we've developed a shelf-load of opinions, book banter and expertise we're eager to share with you all.
Sotheran's current location after moving to Sackville Street in 1936
But before we go any further, I should probably introduce us properly for those of you who came across this by accident, subscribed in a biblio-manic haze or don't remember who we are. You should follow us for the following reasons:
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We've survived wars, recessions, bombings and London rent increases for longer than any other bookstore still around today.
- We're a longstanding member of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association, and follow the guidelines of good practice you can find here. We are arguably the best member, but they wouldn't let us carve that on our door, so you'll have to take our word for it.
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We have dedicated staff for our natural history, science, children's books, travel, prints and literature material - there's no-one in our store who doesn't contribute to our shared pool of experience.
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We keep active records of what our customers are looking for, if you ask us to, and we have many customers who've shopped regularly with us for decades.
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Our store is beautiful and creaking, with many original fittings we've salvaged whenever we had to move store (we finally settled in Sackville Street in 1936). Sure, there are a few war scars, but that's all part of the experience. (Don't mind the ghost, he's friendly.)
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We're progressive, feminist and LGBTQ+ friendly, naturally. We know the past intimately, but we're not shackled by it.
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Books are calming, and the world is a scary place right now, so come in and take a moment to remember that maybe everything isn't quite so bad as you thought it was.
Bookshelves saved from our previous residence
Wow. That does look good now I see it on the screen. Still, that's not all. We're busy making sure the rest of the year is as eventful as we can make it (whilst still finding the odd moment to sit down with a cup of tea.) Here's what to expect from us going forward:
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You can find us at Firsts Book Fair 7th - 9th June, in Battersea (Stand M01) where a selection of our staff who aren't too ugly to be seen in public (we keep the hideous ones locked in a basement) will be around to chat, give advice and throw shade at the other nasty booksellers who told you that you had to wear gloves to touch something.
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We'll be posting here regularly on our upcoming events, advice on book collecting and anything else we think would be helpful.
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We'll be updating our website with increased functionality, including a Glossary of book collecting terms and an FAQ for your burning questions like My book collection is on fire, what do I do?
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We're continuing to send out our monthly newsletter (Piccadilly Notes) and our short email selections along with our gorgeous printed catalogues - you can sign up here for the kind of material you'd like to see. We release at least one catalogue for each department every year, with some getting two (or even three!) if we can.
Sound good? Yes, I know. I don't know how we do it either. That's all for now, but we hope to see some of you at the fair next week, and the rest of you can watch out for our 2019 Children's & Illustrated catalogue, which should be arriving on doorsteps in the next fortnight.
Travel Department Display
You are wonderful. That’s all.