Firsts London 2025: Book Fair Report

Dealers at this year's Firsts London reported a genuine buzz as more than 4,000 people came through the doors at the Saatchi Gallery including many visitors from the US and sales of over £4.7 million were reported. 

Buyers were a good mix of public, institutions and trade, with all the talks and tours very well attended. Several dealers reported that the online preview was very useful, often resulting in potential buyers coming to the fair to look at the items and purchasing them, including three librarians from Scotland who hopped on a train to take a closer look at a book offered by Keel Row Bookshop that they saw online.

Happy buyers included Ben Kinmont from California who many years ago had bought the manuscript of a cookery book and at this year's fair found a corresponding printing plate for the book. "It's most remarkable as the manuscript and the printing plate would never have been in the same hands," he said, "so it's complete serendipity that they may meet at last."

Dealer highlights included: 

* one of John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller from California's William Blake customers came along and bought the second most expensive book on the stand in the region of £75,000

* Bauman Rare Books sold a very nice six-figure book to a major private collector on Preview Night

* among Christian White Rare Books from Yorkshire's favourite sales was the diary of a young landowner (asking price £2,200) who had written it on his trip to Florence and filled it with sketches, but noted in the diary that he wasn't happy with his drawing skills. The buyer is opening an arts space in Yorkshire and is planning to use it in art classes.

* Janette Ray Bookseller sold York Quaker schoolgirl Amy E Morrisey's natural history diary from 1902 with 34 hand painted watercolors of wild flowers and accompanying text about each and excursions to collect the samples (offered for £295)

* PY Rare Books sold a Russian books of flowers for £25,000, while a book on Central Asia with rare Uzbekistan illustrations also went to a private international collector in the region of £10,000, and a colourful Estonian flower book which had been illustrated by the brother of the first Estonian president

* Lucius Books sold books every day to the public and new collectors as well as original art work for books - its highlight was a first edition of T. S. Eliot's Prufrock and Other Observations (asking price £26,000)

* Justin Croft sold a sketchbook of 82 drawings of London and its Environs attributed to Edward Augustus Giraud and dated 1795-1798 (asking price £4,500) to an institution

* Camden Lock Books sold Miniature Language of Flowers and Alphabet of Floral Emblems from 1848. The book is only 92mm high and consists of 128 printed pages including four full-page woodcut illustrations (asking price £100)

* Tom W Ayling sold Casanova's copy of Jacob Sprenger's Malleus Maleficarum (Venice, 1574, asking price £17,500)

* Antiquariat Forum from the Netherlands sold Pasquale Canna's extremely rare series of stage designs for the Real Teatro di San Carlo in Naples which had a price tag of £58,550

* Antiquariat Inlibris Gilhofer from Austria sold five great poems of Nizami Ganjavi (asking price £35,000) and the Sanskrit Mahabharata in all 18 books of its Persian incarnation, the Razm-nama (The Book of War) sold in the region of £70,000

Antiquates owner and co-chairman of Firsts Tom Lintern-Mole said he was especially happy not only with the steady flow of visitors, but particularly with reports of consistent sales across all floors, and at all price ranges. "I was particularly pleased to see so many international buyers," said Bernard Shapero, new President of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association. "Firsts has gone from strength to strength."