Sotheran's

{{Short description|Bookshop in London, England}} {{Infobox company | name = Sotheran's | image = Sotheran's clock.jpg | image_caption = | logo_upright =  | logo_alt = | type = | industry = Retail | predecessor =  | founded = {{Start date and age|df=yes|1761}} | founder = Henry Sotheran | defunct =  | fate = | successor =  | hq_location_city = 22 Charing Cross Road<br />Westminster, London, {{postcode|W|C2H 0HS}}<br />United Kingdom | hq_location_country = UK | locations = 2 (2026) | area_served =  | key_people = | products = Rare books and manuscripts | owner =  | num_employees = | num_employees_year =  | parent = | website = [https://sotherans.co.uk Official website] }} '''Henry Sotheran Ltd''', popularly referred to as '''Sotheran's''', is a bookshop in London, England, claiming to be the oldest continuously operating bookshop in the United Kingdom and the oldest antiquarian bookshop in Europe.

== History == Founded in 1761 in York by Henry Sotheran, the company established a presence in London in 1815. Over the decades, Sotheran's acquired and sold several notable libraries, including that of Laurence Sterne in 1768 and Charles Dickens in 1870.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Catalogue of the entire library of Laurence Sterne, 25 August 1768 | date=1768 | publisher=J. Todd & H. Sotheran |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CHpdAAAAcAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | last1=Sotheran | first1=Henry Co |title=Catalogue of the Library of Charles Dickens (June 1870) | date=1871 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s6Ko-Xq9fC8C&pg=RA7-PA9}}</ref> In 1892, it managed to secure 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Farnie |first=D. A. |date=1989 |title=Enriqueta Augustina Rylands (1843-1908), founder of the John Rylands Library |url=https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/uk-ac-man-scw:1m2215 |access-date=2024-06-11 |website=Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. 1989;71(2):3-38.}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-07-21 |title=The Gutenberg Bible |url=https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/online/bookmans-paradise/gutenberg-bible |access-date=2024-06-14 |website=The Morgan Library & Museum |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Papers re Warwick Castle Shakespeare Library, Mar 1896-Aug 1897. Papers of A.B. Railton. University of Manchester Library. GB 133 ABR/7 |url=http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb133-abr/abr/7}}</ref>

Following the death of Henry 'Cecil' Sotheran (1861–1928), the last member of the Sotheran family to run the firm, Sotheran's was purchased by the bookseller Gabriel Wells. Among the investors was the banker and collector Anthony de Rothschild, a connection that ultimately led to the Rothschild banking firm acquiring the company outright in 1957.<ref name="Herrmann2012" /> Sotheran's has since remained independently owned.

== Luxury Bindings == English bookseller and Dickens scholar John Harrison Stonehouse joined the firm as an apprentice in 1884, ultimately becoming managing director through his skills of literacy, invention, and marketing.<ref name=Herrmann2012>{{cite journal |last1=Herrmann |first1=Frank |title=Review of Bookmen: London. 250 Years of Sotheran bookselling |journal=The British Art Journal |date=2012 |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=102–103 |jstor=43490556 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43490556 |issn=1467-2006|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jOsDjgrakTwC&dq=Sotheran%27s&pg=PR12 |title=The Book-hunter in London: Historical and Other Studies of Collectors and Collecting |date=1895 |publisher=A.C. McClurg |pages=233 |language=en}}</ref> Under his direction, Sotheran's ordered several significant bindings and fore-edge paintings from renowned binders, including finely painted 'Cosway' bindings.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://surface.syr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1282&=&context=libassoc&=&sei-redir=1&referer=https%253A%252F%252Fscholar.google.com%252Fscholar%253Fstart%253D10%2526q%253DSotheran%252527s%2526hl%253Den%2526as_sdt%253D0%252C5#search=%22Sotherans%22 |title=Fore-edge Paintings at Syracuse University |date=1992}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gray |first=Victor |title=Bookmen, London: 250 years of Sotheran bookselling |date=2011 |publisher=H. Sotheran |isbn=978-0-9508219-6-2 |location=London |pages=204–205, 212–214}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Kennedy |first=Maev |date=2005-07-07 |title=Legendary book goes to British Library |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jul/07/books.booksnews |access-date=2024-06-09 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> The work took nearly two years to finish and included 1,050 jewels. It was described by James Sprague as 'relatively the most expensive book binding ever done in the 20th century'.<ref name=":0" />

== Warrants == In 1901, Sotheran's was granted the Royal warrant of appointment as booksellers and bookbinders to King Edward VII, renewed by George V in 1910. The company had been supplying books and bindings to Edward while he was still Prince of Wales, as early as 1881.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Sotheran's: 250 Years of Bookselling |url=https://ilab.org/fr/article/sotheranas-250-years-of-bookselling |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=ILAB - FR |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Premises == The company is located at 22 Charing Cross Road and 8 Cecil Court in central London. From 1936 to 2024, it was based at 2–5 Sackville Street, London.

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:Bookshops in London Category:British booksellers Category:1700s establishments in England Category:Antiquarian booksellers Category:Privately held companies of the United Kingdom Category:English booksellers Category:Bookstores established in the 18th century Category:British companies established in 1761 Category:Companies based in the City of Westminster