These links were last revised and tested in Spring 2009, but if you spot any dead links please get in touch. Although this selection is by no means comprehensive, I have tried to include some of the most significant book and map-related associations, events, publications and general gateways: plenty to get one started, plus one or two sites which are off the beaten track but may still be of interest.
We are active members (Tim Bryars is currently a Member of Council) of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association, the senior trade body founded in 1906, and as such we subscribe to the ABA Code of Good Practice. Through the ABA we are members of the international professional body, the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, and we list stock on the excellent ILAB website.
We are also members of the International Antiquarian Mapsellers’ Association , formed recently to promote the professional trade in antiquarian, collectible maps and related books..
Our shop is located in Cecil Court, a picturesque pedestrian street just off the Charing Cross Road which was rebuilt in its present form in the late Victorian era. The Court is lined with antiquarian book, map and print-sellers and renowned among bibliophiles worldwide. We are right in the heart of Theatreland in London’s West End - Leicester Square Tube station is a stone’s throw away (take Exit 1, Charing Cross Road South towards the National Gallery, and then take the second left; here you are). The Cecil Court website gives details of the opening hours and specialities of most of the booksellers here. David Drummond at Pleasures of Past Times is Chairman of the Cecil Court Traders’ Association and Tim Bryars is currently Secretary, so if you have general questions about Cecil Court feel free to get in touch. Tim Bryars is also, in between earning a crust, writing a history of the Court; a ‘stub’ is already live on the Cecil Court website, and if you can help expand it (in the best Wiki tradition) with anecdotes, photos or other mementoes, please do. With so many bookshops in such a central location, offering everything from children’s books and modern first editions to sixteenth-century folios, theatre posters and early world maps, Cecil Court is the ideal place to begin present-hunting or a dedicated bibliophilic tour of London. The website www.thebookguide.co.uk would also be very useful when planning a trip and www.londonprintdealers.com contains useful listings.
For the last few years we have been joint organizers of the London Map Fair, the largest specialist fair of its kind in Europe. The fair takes place in June each year in the historic and highly appropriate surroundings of the Royal Geographical Society’s buildings in South Kensington. Up to forty dealers exhibit, about half of them from overseas, including dealers from Italy, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands and the US. The London Map Fair website contains more information, including a list of exhibitors. We are delighted to host the IMCoS AGM, and support the association where and how we can. We also sponsor the London Map Fair lectures. In 2008 our guest speakers were Peter Barber of the British Library and Laurence Worms of Ash Rare Books, who spoke on aspects of London maps and mapmakers. Our guest speaker in 2009 is Francis Herbert, former Curator of Maps at the RGS-IBG, who will speak on ‘Back to the drawing board: 120 years of map-making in the RGS’, to be followed by a tour of the building.
Members of the International Map Collectors’ Society (IMCoS) include map collectors and dealers, and the Society promotes both map collecting and academic research. They also have a useful page of links, including information on collecting and the history of cartography, and issue a quarterly journal.
Tim Bryars is a Fellow of the Rare Book Society, founded in 2004 with a practical educational purpose. The Rare Book Society is already offering an internet-based course on Cataloguing for Beginners, and courses on Selling on the Internet, Book Collecting for Beginners and Dealing in early Printed Books will follow. The courses are not intended to be easy, but they are intended to be useful. They are geared towards members of the trade, librarians and collectors – in other words they are for everyone with a willingness to learn more, whether one is building on existing knowledge or exploring new areas of interest. The RBS website contains fuller information about the courses and enrolling.
Through his work on the ABA education sub committee, Tim Bryars is also involved with the London Rare Books School which operates under the aegis of the Institute for English Studies at the University of London. The LRBS is partially sponsored by the ABA and draws upon the expertise of members of the book trade, among others, for course tuition. The 2009 courses include two relating specifically to maps and mapping.
The long running ‘Maps & Society’ lectures on the history of cartography are held at the Warburg Institute, University of London. Tony Campbell keeps an up-to-date listing here. It’s no fault of the organisers that a 5pm start is the norm. If you can slip away from work early you’ll find it a welcoming environment. There’s generally a chance to chat with fellow cartophiles over a glass of wine afterwards.
