Antiquarian Booksellers' Association

22nd Chelsea Antiquarian Book Fair - 2nd to 3rd November 2012

30 October 2012

The hugely popular 22nd Chelsea Antiquarian Book Fair opens on Friday, November 2 and Saturday, November 3, 2012 in the stunning Chelsea Old Town Hall, King's Road (opposite Sydney Street). Over 80 exhibitors will be taking part, both local and from around the UK and abroad, who specialise in all types of books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera.

The Chelsea fair has become a fixture in the November calendar for book collectors and dealers from Britain, Europe and America. Warmer than Boston, more intimate than York, less formal than Paris – Chelsea has it all. Most exhibitors come back year after year, and that’s because sales continue to increase, and the customers return, again and again.

Guided Book Fair Tours

New to Chelsea 2012 is a series of 'Guided Tours' for small groups of up to six visitors who wish to learn more about books on a particular subject. Each tour has a particular theme:

Back to Childhood

Finding the Perfect Gift

Books are Art

Quirky Chelsea

Vive La France!

James Bond Books

Exhibition: Three Contemporary Bookbinders

This years' exhibition at Chelsea is devoted to thhe bookbinders Kathy Abbott, Jen Lindsay and Tracey Rowledge. The objects on show reflect three individual responses to the general aims of bookbinding: to protect the book and to enhance it. And they show that bookbinding is more than mere protection: it is an unique artform.

The Chelsea Antiquarian Book Fair is organized by the Antiquarian Booksellers Association (ABA), the UK's oldest and grandest association of antiquarian booksellers and part of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB).

Book Signing: Obsessions and Confessions of a Book Life

Publisher turned bookseller, Colin Franklin will be signing copies of his current book 'Obsessions and Confessions of a Book Life' on Friday, November 2nd. This most entertaining book waners freely through themes which have absorbed the

author: the world of publishing, adventures in bookselling, and the irreplaceable scholarly eccentrics who dominated that world a generation ago.

With Christmas around the corner, are you looking for an unusual and memorable present? Or is there a subject, author or period of history that especially attracts you? Perhaps you have been thinking of collecting books but are unsure

of where to start, what to look for, who to approach or what on earth booksellers mean by yapp edges, pochoir plates or slightly foxed? If so, then Chelsea is the place to meet and talk to antiquarian booksellers who will be happy to answer – or attempt to answer – whatever questions are thrown at them.

Whether you are a bookseller, a collector or you are simply curious about old, antiquarian and collectable books, maps and ephemera, then the Chelsea Antiquarian Book Fair is not to be missed.