| Sotheran's | |
| Industry: | Retail |
| Predecessors: | --> |
| Founder: | Henry Sotheran |
| Successors: | --> |
| Hq Location City: | 18 Upper Brook Street Westminster, London, United Kingdom |
| Hq Location Country: | UK |
| Areas Served: | --> |
| Owners: | --> |
| Website: | Official website |
Henry Sotheran Ltd 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.
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.[3] [4]
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.[5] [6] Under his direction, Sotheran's ordered several significant bindings and fore-edge paintings from renowned binders, including finely painted 'Cosway' bindings.[7] 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.[8] [9]