Twenty-five years ago collectors and auctions houses alike sat up and looked with interest when a new auction house was launched in London. This was 1983, when Bloomsbury Book Auctions, now known as Bloomsbury Auctions, was created by Lord John Kerr, Frank Herrmann and David Stagg.
During the intervening quarter century Bloomsbury Auctions has been remarkably successful and today is the world’s leading auction house of rare books and manuscripts.

Managing Director, Rupert Powell says: ‘We sell more lots of books each year, ranging from Incunabula (books printed before 1500) right through to Harry Potter, than any other auctioneers in the world.’ And he adds: ‘We have regular auctions throughout the year, whether general sales (offering a variety of subjects and price ranges), single owner sales, or the more specialist sales with emphasis on specific areas of interests. Since our inception we have handled the sale of numerous important collections, such as the Yablon collection of Hebraica, the Angling libraries of Jeffrey Norton and David Beazley, the Weinreb Computer collection, the library of Egyptologist Ricardo Caminos and that of the Orientalist, David Loman.

‘Consignments from America include the libraries of the late Alan Fortunoff, Samuel and Marie Louise Rosenthal and Margaret and Stanley Winkelman all covering the book beautiful, from early printed books to modern Private Press; the Ornithological library of S. Dillon Ripley; books on India and Asia from the library of Robert and Maria Travis; and the wonderful collection of Architectural, natural History and other quirky antiquarian books assembled by the late Erica Spender.’

- Art, Architecture and Bibliography
- Children’s and Illustrated
- Continental Literature and History
- English Literature and History
- Hebraica and Judaica
- Manuscripts and Autograph Letters
- Modern First Editions
- Natural History and Sport
- Private Press
- Science and Medicine
- Travel and Topography

Of these categories, the auction house says that it is Modern First Editions category that has been the biggest growth area of collecting and dealing in the last decade: ‘Prices have rocketed for many of the classics of twentieth-century literature and the over-riding factor in determining any modern first edition’s value is its condition and, most significantly, the absence or presence of the original dust-jacket.’