Bernard Shapero | |
---|---|
Born | August 1963 (age 59) London |
Education | Highgate School |
Occupation | Rare book dealer |
Spouse | Emma Lewis |
Children | 3 |
Bernard John Shapero (born August 1963) is a British dealer in antiquarian rare books and works on paper, the founder of Shapero Rare Books of 106 New Bond Street, Mayfair, London. [1] In 2005, Slate called him "London's most successful rare-book dealer and arguably the top dealer in the world today". [2]
Bernard John Shapero was born in August 1963, [3] and started dealing in books in the late 1970s, while still a pupil at Highgate School. [4] [5] His father was a collector of armour and gold coins. [2]
In October 2005, Shapero purchased the Doria Atlas for £1.46 million, the highest price ever paid for an atlas, although this record was surpassed by the Cosmographia the following year. [6] In April 2004, the atlas had been saved from a fire at Wardington Manor in Oxfordshire, when local residents formed a human chain to remove items from the library. [7]
Shapero Rare Books owned about 6,000 books, ranging in price from £50 to over £200,000, and £6,000 on average. The business was sold by Shapero to Philip Blackwell, a director of the family business Blackwell Publishing. [8]
Shapero lives in Hampstead, London, in a house which is half Victorian and half an "ultra-modern" extension, [1] with his wife Emma Lewis, and their three children. [9]
Hampstead is an area in London, England, which lies four miles northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from the A5 road to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the London Borough of Camden, a borough in Inner London which for the purposes of the London Plan is designated as part of Central London.
Highgate is a suburban area of Northwest London at the northeastern corner of Hampstead Heath, 4+1⁄2 miles north-northwest of Charing Cross.
Hampstead Heath is an ancient heath in London, spanning 320 hectares. This grassy public space sits astride a sandy ridge, one of the highest points in London, running from Hampstead to Highgate, which rests on a band of London Clay. The heath is rambling and hilly, embracing ponds, recent and ancient woodlands, a lido, playgrounds, and a training track, and it adjoins the former stately home of Kenwood House and its estate. The south-east part of the heath is Parliament Hill, from which the view over London is protected by law.
Book collecting is the collecting of books, including seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever books are of interest to a given collector. The love of books is bibliophilia, and someone who loves to read, admire, and a person who collects books is often called a bibliophile but can also be known as an bibliolater, meaning being overly devoted to books, or a bookman which is another term for a person who has a love of books.
Highgate School, formally Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, is a co-educational, fee-charging, private day school, founded in 1565 in Highgate, London, England. It educates over 1,400 pupils in three sections – Highgate Pre-Preparatory School, Highgate junior school and the senior school (11+) – which together comprise the Highgate Foundation. As part of its wider work the charity was from 2010 a founding partner of the London Academy of Excellence and it is now also the principal education sponsor of an associated Academy, the London Academy of Excellence Tottenham, which opened in September 2017. The principal business sponsor is Tottenham Hotspur FC. The charity also funds the Chrysalis Partnership, a scheme supporting 26 state schools in six London boroughs.
Xavier Driffield, also known as Driff Field, drif field, driffield, dryfeld or simply Drif, was a figure in the British bookdealing world during the 1980s and 1990s and published several editions of the acerbic Driff's Guide to secondhand and antiquarian bookshops in Britain.
Hampstead Heath Ponds are a series of some thirty bodies of water on or adjacent to Hampstead Heath, a vast open area of woodland and grassland in north London.
Charlotte Mary Wilson was an English Fabian and anarchist who co-founded Freedom newspaper in 1886 with Peter Kropotkin, and edited, published, and largely financed it during its first decade. She remained editor of Freedom until 1895.
Siân Rebecca Berry is a British politician who served as Co-Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales alongside Jonathan Bartley from 2018 to 2021, and as its sole leader from July to October 2021. From 2006 to 2007, she was one of the Green Party's principal speakers.
The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers is a non-profit umbrella organization of bookseller associations, with its legal location in Geneva, Switzerland. It federates 22 National Associations of Antiquarian Booksellers, representing nearly 2000 dealers in 32 countries. Antiquarian booksellers affiliated to the League adhere to the ILAB Code of Ethics, and the League aims to server as a global network for the rare book trade.
The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association (ABA) is the senior trade body in the British Isles for dealers in antiquarian and rare books, manuscripts and allied materials. The ABA organises a number of book fairs every year including its flagship fair held at Olympia, London in May, which features exhibitors from all around the world, and the Chelsea Antiquarian Book Fair in November. Fairs are held in Edinburgh in March and Bristol in July in conjunction with the Provincial Book Fairs Association. The ABA sponsors the London Rare Books School, the York Antiquarian Book Seminar, and a series of seminars at the University of London. The ABA Office is located on Bell Yard, off Fleet Street and next to the Royal Courts of Justice.
Richard Abraham Gekoski is an American-born British writer, broadcaster, rare book dealer and a former member of the English Department at Warwick University.
The Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar, founded in the late 1970s, provides training for dealers in out-of-print, used, and antiquarian books.
The Ham & High, officially the Hampstead & Highgate Express is a weekly paid newspaper published in the London Borough of Camden by Archant.
Margaret Audrey White, Lady Wardington was a red-headed English model who was refused a job as a BBC announcer in case her powerful looks "alarmed timid men from Wigan and country districts." Later she had a career in fashion journalism before concentrating on charity work.
The Doria Atlas is a 16th-century atlas commissioned by and named for the Genoese military leader Giovanni Andrea Doria. Likely compiled around 1570, it is a composite atlas featuring 186 printed and manuscript maps from two distinct atlases of the Lafreri school. It also contains rare Italian maps dating to the 1620s, in addition to a series of manuscript maps, written by little-known publishers during the 1620s and 1630s and detailing the commercial, political and military interests of the Doria family. As of the 21st century, it is one of the world's most expensive books.
Oak Knoll is a bookseller and publisher based in New Castle, Delaware, United States. Oak Knoll includes Oak Knoll Books which specializes in the sale of rare and antiquarian books and Oak Knoll Press which is a publisher and distributor of in-print titles. Both divisions specialize in "books about books" on topics such as printing history, bibliography, and book arts. Oak Knoll has also been the sponsor of the book arts festival Oak Knoll Fest.
Bernard Hartmut Breslauer was a German antiquarian book dealer and collector, who lived in turn in Germany, England and the United States.
Admiral's House is a Grade II listed house in Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden. The house's name is a misnomer, as no admirals have ever lived there. The house is featured in multiple paintings by John Constable.
Shapero Rare Books is a bookshop that deals with antiquarian and rare books on Bond Street, London. It was established in 1979 by Bernard Shapero. The shop is a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association.