8 Aug 2025
August at Sotheran’s and Comellas Rare Books: an open-book operation
This summer, our bookshop is pleased to present an original initiative, born from friendly exchanges between two independent houses sharing the same taste for rare books: Henry Sotheran Ltd, in London, and Comellas Livres Rares, in Paris and Barcelona.
This is not a major event, but rather a mutual nod between booksellers: each has chosen a few titles from their own shelves to introduce to the other’s clientele.
The books do not change place (which is perhaps just as well, in these times of great summer migrations), but they travel differently — through words, images, and shared curiosity.
A natural meeting
This initiative was imagined by Chris Saunders, Director of Collections at Sotheran’s, whom we have the pleasure of knowing. Here is how he presents himself:
Henry Sotheran Ltd was founded in 1761 and is the oldest antiquarian bookseller in Europe. Over the years we've dealt with highlights such as Charles Dickens's library, the Warwick Castle Shakespeare Library for the Folger collection, and the world's most valuable binding, an Omar Khayyam that went down with the Titanic.
In our most modern iteration we operate from premises in the heart of London's rare book quarter and deal in a wide range of subjects but with special interests in literature, natural history, travel and the avant-garde.
Julien has been dealing mainly with Chris Saunders, Director of Collections at Sotheran's, whose twenty-one years of service are the blink of an eye in such an old company. His specialisms are science and natural history but, like everyone at Sotheran's, he finds his attention can be grabbed by anything rare and beautiful. There are always new discoveries to be made, which is why he began book dealing in the first place and hasn't been able to give it up.
A shared selection
At Comellas, we have therefore chosen to briefly highlight a handful of books from Sotheran’s shelves, which we found worthy of interest — for their content, their history, or their beauty.
And in turn, a few books from our own collection will be presented to their readers, in store or online, as a small sample of our work.
A modest but genuine exchange
This initiative does not aim to revolutionise bibliophily, but simply to remind us that bookshops are also places of dialogue and circulation. Showcasing the choices of a fellow bookseller, highlighting a book from elsewhere, is a discreet way of opening another door for curious readers.
We therefore invite you to discover below a short selection of titles chosen in London, and we hope that this collaboration, unpretentious but driven by a genuine pleasure in sharing, will spark your interest.
For any enquiry, please write to sotherans@livres-rares.com
