In the Press

Exhibitors and fair organisers declared the 64th edition of Firsts, London’s Rare Book Fair a resounding success, with visitor numbers up almost 30% on the 2019 edition and strong early sales setting the tone for what proved to be a productive four-day event for exhibitors. The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association’s premier event, which took place from October 21-24 at Saatchi Gallery, welcomed 4,500 attendees this year – a record number of visitors – despite having to overcome travel restrictions and other pandemic-related challenges to event attendance.

The 64th edition of the annual rare book here showcasing rare, unique and unusual items from a host of international dealers in rare books and works on paper.

Firsts, London’s Rare Book Fair – the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association (ABA)’s annual flagship event – will move to its spectacular new home at Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea, London, a fitting return for the UK’s most prestigious rare book fair. Firsts London, which will take place from October 21-24, expects to call the contemporary exhibition space home for the foreseeable future, part of an ongoing move by the ABA to invest long-term in the fair’s success and growth.

Visit one of the world’s largest and most prestigious antiquarian book fairs. Firsts London is the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association’s premier annual fair and historically has attracted hundreds of visitors. Discover rare, unique and unusual items from more than 120 leading UK and international dealers. “We are very lucky to have this kind of fair… it’s not elitist, it’s not specialist, you don’t have to be a scholar, you just have to be someone with an immense thirst for the glory of books,” says Stephen Fry, actor, writer and book collector.

After a Covid-enforced break, the 64th edition of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association’s (ABA) annual flagship event returns to a new home at Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea... For the ABA’s president and fair chairman, Pom Harrington, the new venue provides a “well-deserved and much anticipated” opportunity to reconnect after nearly two years of pandemic disruption for the rare book trade.

This year will see Firsts, London’s Rare Book Fair – the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association (ABA)’s annual flagship event – move to its spectacular new home at Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea, London, a fitting return for the UK’s most prestigious rare book fair. Firsts London, which will take place from 21st-24th October 2021, expects to call the contemporary exhibition space home for the foreseeable future, part of an ongoing move by the ABA to invest long-term in the fair’s success and growth.

What do Bill Gates, JP Getty, Keith Richards and Brad Pitt have in common? They're all book collectors, and come October, you too can join their ilk at the London Rare Books Fair – officially number 202,120 of fabulous things to look forward to once this interminable lockdown is finally over. Keep those splendid reading habits of the past year going in style at London’s premier destination for one-of-a-kind books, maps, manuscripts and other historical items from over 100 international booksellers.

Visitors to the ABA's Firsts - London's Rare Book Fair spent more than £3m over the event's three days.

People & Places, Riverside Radio at Firsts London

Summer Rare Book Fair opened by Stephen Fry

Incredibly rare ancient map of London discovered, 1572.

Earliest surviving map of London 1572 showing bear baiting in Southwark

The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association (ABA) are back with their annual 'Firsts' festival, and they're bringing Stephen Fry with them.

First things first The grandest event is the ABA’s Firsts: London’s Rare Book Fair, sporting a new title. It highlights a stance of embracing more recent and less traditional material along with antiquarian books. “Firsts are what we deal in,” said chairman Pom Harrington of Peter Harrington. “It might be the first book to show a tomato, the first map depicting America or a first-edition Harry Potter.”

Spend a morning exploring London’s green tapestry of hidden gardens, then seek out Stephen Fry at Firsts Rare Book Fair.

One of the highlights at the Firsts fair is a rare opportunity to see a Shakespeare First Folio on public display. New ABA president Roger Treglown said: “We’re delighted to have ATG as a sponsor of Rare Books London for the fourth year in a row. It’s wonderful to have the newspaper supporting and promoting the rare book trade so actively year after year.”

A trio of exhibitors at London’s rare book fair 'Firsts' ponder the market, their motivations – plus flooded shops and heavy metal.

Bookseller Biblio is a partner this year and Shakespeare’s Globe is the charity partner. John Wolfson, the Globe’s honorary curator of rare books, will curate an exhibition of 16 extremely rare editions from his own collection.... This year there will also be an opportunity to use virtual reality to give visitors a chance to fly over Turgot’s monumental 18th century Plan de Paris, which shows the French capital during the reign of Louis XV.

There will be plenty on view with more than 150 exhibitors from fifteen countries presenting signed first editions, maps, manuscripts, art, and ephemera.

The folio is returning to the UK after a forty-year absence and will be exhibited with other historic source books from the John Wolfson Rare Book Collection, alongside stage props from the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the Fair’s charity partner.

Visitors to Firsts – London’s Rare Book Fair, which is being held in Battersea Park from Friday 7th – Sunday 9th June, will have a thrilling opportunity to see Shakespeare’s First Folio (1623) which returns to the UK after a forty year absence.

We’ve been enticed to The Globe’s indoor space is to view one of the less than 250 extant copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio

This is the first time the book has left New York since collector John Wolfson acquired it in the 1970s.

Such opportunities to gawp must be seized: it has become relatively uncommon to see a First Folio out in the wild.

The Fair is being held from Friday 7th to Sunday 9th June in Battersea Park and the event is one of the world’s largest independent marketplaces for rare and out-of-print books. More than 150 exhibitors, from 15 countries around the world, will offer rare, unique and unusual works including signed first editions, maps, manuscripts, art and ephemera.

His involvement is part of a larger theatrical theme for this staging of the fair, led by a new partnership with Shakespeare’s Globe.

The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association (ABA) has joined forces with Shakespeare’s Globe as its charity partner for the next edition of its June flagship fair.

The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association has signed up US online marketplace Biblio as chief sponsor of its flagship annual fair on June 7-9.

Fair Chairman Pom Harrington tells ATG how the Official Partnership will work as Firsts London seeks to grow.