We guarantee the authenticity and completeness of all items (unless otherwise described), and are happy to provide a certificate to this effect. All items can be assumed to be in good condition, with any defects being described in our description.
We guarantee the authenticity and completeness of all items (unless otherwise described), and are happy to provide a certificate to this effect. All items can be assumed to be in good condition, with any defects being described in our description.
Hello and welcome to my first blog post as a marketing Intern at Shapero Rare Books. I thought I’d post something on my recent visit to the British Library’s Fantasy: Realms of Imagination exhibition, which I recommend to anyone needing to take their minds off the day to day. I hope you enjoy it but don’t forget to browse through our selection of strange and fantastical texts here.
The exhibition is an atmospheric, informative experience which is generous in its range of texts. Visitors to the exhibition are led through Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books, Bernard Sleigh’s Ancient mappe of Fairyland... and Pan’s Labyrinth, before moving on to the tales of Sinbad, Piranesi’s Prisons, Gormenghast, The Hobbit, The Sandman, and Utopia.
Realms of Imagination is divided into several sections each with its own distinct atmosphere and content. Opening with an exploration of fairy tales and the fantastical woodland, it continues to cover subject matter which includes imaginary cities and worlds, the uncanny and magical portals.
 |
 |
In our own celebration of imaginary realms and stories, we have unearthed some of our most rare and intriguing and fantastical books, authors and items:
 |
 |
One of the exhibition’s many striking exhibits includes an edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost illustrated by Gustave Doré. Paradise Lost has been published in countless editions since its first appearance in print in 1667, with Doré producing his distinctive illustrations in 1866. Sold over several years, the first edition of Milton’s work had its title page periodically updated, with a 1669 version on our shelves.
 |
 |
Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, opens, infamously, with Gregor Samsa who ‘awoke one morning from a troubled dream’ and ‘found himself changed in his bed to some monstrous kind of vermin’. An attractive copy of Kafka’s tale of alienation, human consciousness and social anxiety, in its scarce cellophane dustjacket. The striking initial scene is also here beautifully illustrated by Daniel Rohan Eason in My First Kafka from the British Library exhibition.
 |
 |
![The Book of The Thousand Nights and a Night [with] the Supplemental Nights | Richard Burton | Shapero Rare Books](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0733/4694/1233/files/106527_7_2106x950_a07ed326-084d-40d2-81b1-07beebed6faf_600x600.webp?v=1706199412)
Number 12 of a thousand copies of Burton’s translation, which, due to the explicit references in the source material and Burton’s discussion of them, was made available only to a limited number of subscribers. The story of One Thousand and One Nights is another widely adapted tale whose influence stretches across the borders of different nations. One such adaptation entitled 1001 Fantasy Pop Nights, is displayed in the British Library exhibition.
 |
 |
Arthur Rackham’s illustrated edition of Peter Pan in Kensington gardens, as seen in the British Library’s exhibition. Rackham’s pen and ink and watercolour illustrations, as well as his fantastical subject matter, make him a recognisable illustrator even to the present day.
 |
 |
Now on sale, a Rackham illustrated edition of The Ingoldsby Legends, signed by Rackham, with tipped-in colour plates and black and white illustrations in the artist’s distinctive style.
Shapero Rare Books is an internationally renowned dealer in London, specialising in antiquarian & rare books and works on paper, with particular expertise in fine illustrated books from the 15th to the 20th century, travel & voyages, natural history, modern firsts, rare children’s books, guidebooks, Hebraica & Judaica, Eastern European, and Islamica.
Shop online and enjoy free international shipping now.
First Dibdin octavo edition. A finely printed example of one of the most important works of English philosophy and social commentary. The first Dib...
View full details
First edition of the author's first book. First edition of the Booker Prize-winning author's first book; a foray into science fiction.First edition...
View full details
The first edition of this illustrated history of computers by one of the great science fiction writers of the 20th century.Isaac Asimov (1920-1992...
View full details
Rare first edition in English of Čapek's classic science fiction novel, which extensively satirises contemporary European politics, including colo...
View full details
Setting copy used for the British edition. A particularly interesting setting copy of this American classic in the scarce first issue dust-jacket, ...
View full details
The poet laureate, Cecil Day Lewis wrote a number of detective works under the name Nicholas Blake, of which this title is by far the best regarde...
View full details
Signed by Rackham. Limited edition, number 299 of 460 copies, signed by the artist; 4to (270 x 210 mm); 12 colour plates by Arthur Rackham, printed...
View full details
Manuscript dedication to the artist Sir Gerald Kelly (1797-1972): 'Some of these stories are failures completely. One or two are not bad but I lik...
View full details
First edition of the author's first book, a short story collection in which many of the tales have rural settings and touch upon the supernatural....
View full details
The first edition of the author's first novel, the first in a trilogy that was not completed until 2012. The book was popular and critically well-...
View full details
In anticipation of the approaching London Antiquarian book fairs, this May, we are spotlighting rare African exploration works. Featured, are four first editions, with inscriptions linking them to historical figures, enhancing their collectability.
Join us as we journey through time to discover some of the rarest books in the world. The following texts have shown an extraordinary ability to survive, with some books having survived the ravages of flood and fire, and others counting only a single surviving copy.
The public perception of the East India Company, an organisation which was to become one of Britain's most notorious colonial ventures, was mediated by a collective of artists. Diplomatic wrangling, imperial posturing, trade and warfare became the subjects of a significant artistic movement, aimed at depicting and dissecting the Company’s involvement in the political and social life of the period.
The woods and rivers, hills and hollows of fiction constitute some of our earliest and most beloved memories: from the Hundred Acre Wood to the home of Mr. McGregor. Join us this Easter as we travel through the imaginary places and winding roads of children’s literature.
Leave a comment