International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB)

ILAB International Bookseller Directory

ILAB International Rare Book Fairs 2024/2025

ILAB Member Associations Worldwide

ILAB – The global federation of 22 national antiquarian booksellers associations, established in 1947. Over 1600 individual rare book businesses based in 38 countries worldwide belong to the ILAB community.

ILAB Congresses, Symposia & Presidents' Meetings

Bookseller Education & Mentoring

ILAB Bookseller Catalogues

31508 ABA Chelsea Book Fair 2024 Facebook Twitter X Post FINAL

30 Oct 2024

The ABA Chelsea Rare Book Fair opens this Friday at its usual beautiful venue, the historic Chelsea Old Town Hall on the Kings Road in one of…

Group image outside ship Maritime Museum

Day 2 of the 2024 ILAB Congress: Smaller collections around Amsterdam & Treasures at the Dutch Maritime Museum

29 Oct 2024

Days in Amsterdam begin - at least for all congress participants this October - if not on a bike, then on a boat! A day of visiting smaller and…

77 years and counting: Amsterdam at the heart of ILAB & A day at the Rijksmuseum

28 Oct 2024

Amsterdam has a special place in the history of ILAB, as it was here that the idea of an international organisation for the rare book trade was born,…

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History of ILAB

In 1947 representatives from five countries, Denmark, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden, met in Amsterdam to discuss the formation of an International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB), with the aim of establishing new hope for international peace through open markets, to foster friendship and understanding, and to counteract the animosity and suspicion engendered by World War II. ILAB was formally incorporated in Copenhagen in September 1948.