This is a delightful wee map of Dorset from 1715 by Robert Blome. This is a posthumous edition from an atlas of English counties. Hand-coloured of course.

Loads of repros around but so rarely see the originals of these British Railways posters. This is a quad royal size 1950s poster advertising the delights of Oxford as depicted by the artist Alan Carr Linford.

This is a catalogue from Bernard Quaritch from 1897 of over 600 titles printed between 1455 and 1500. Such a catalogue would be almost inconcievable today even from one of the biggest names in the trade.

Loving this small archive of newspapers from 1969 telling the breathless story of the moon landings to an American public. How newspapers from Hartford, Connecticut and Boston have ended up in Petersfield nearly 60 years later is a story we don't know.

Strange things are sometimes found in boxes of books. I know this is a prehistoric flint hand tool but if anyone with actual qualifications on the subject would like to offer an opinion I would love to learn more...

Being enjoying a bundle of vintage paperbacks from the wilder shores of the 70s today. Including a collection of books from the New English Library Underground Classics series.

Flora Twort was a local artist still much celebrated in this area and further afield. Also a founder of this shop. She was particularly adept with pastels as this very insightful portrait of an unknown sitter shows. (Any local insight into the sitter is welcome)

I can tell that it was a quiet day in the shop yesterday when I wasn't here: all the pencils have been sharpened!

Word to the wise... early computing is reckoned to be a growing collecting area.

This appears to be a really scarce little HMSO booklet about naval signalling and Nelson's famous Trafalgar signal. What makes it even more fun is that is that this copy belonged to the Captain of HMS Victory in the 1980s

Six volumes of Kaye's and Malleson's History of the Indian Mutiny of 1857-8. This set was published in 1909 and is smartly bound in half leather. We would, I am sure, talk about things differently now, but it is a piece of history in its own right.

Hot take: this all in one volume paperback edition of The Lord of the Rings from the 70s is the only decent reading and re-reading edition.

Fairly sure that an alien ship must have crashed near by and somehow they forgot to evacuate us from within the cordon. I assume that's why there's no one about!

Just an old paperback... yes, but also the true first edition of one of the most iconic British books of the 20th century. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy was first printed by Pan paperbacks in 1979.

I think someone who set thid stand up knew what they were doing!

One of those things that makes work more than work. We recently helped a woman source a first edition Virginia Woolf book for a granddaughter's significant birthday and we met again today and she tells me the gift was met with tears of delight!

Today, tomorrow and Sunday we are at The Petersfield Antiques Fair.... come see us.

More interesting architecture discovered behind bookshelves in our big move around!

The third edition, tenth impression, 1975, in spanking condition (yes, that is a technical term). Always nice to host Hobbits in the shop, they are very neat and never stay long.

Pulling together the books we want to take to a fair is always a time when we discover books we forgot we had! In this instance a beautifully bound copy of The Oxford Book of French Verse with a gift inscription from the editor.

Yes, given the "nature of the work" I am sure the Bookshop would be up for submitting a quote for some tree surgery!! 🙄

In amongst all the changes going on in the shop we are discovering lots of interesting bits of "architecture"!

This 200 year old "Cyclopedia of Law" is a fine gallimaufry of legal tidbits and jottings from the time. Anyone have to buy a present for a lawyer?

And its a bit of a Mabinogion day here. J M Dent's Temple Classics Series in a pocket size with really high production quality. This is the Lady Charlotte Guest translation.

The amazing covers by David Johnston on Evangeline Walton's retelling of The Mabinogion published by Pan in the early 70s.

Four astonishing ceramic figures by Sarah Bloch at the Foldhay Pottery. Gandalf, Frodo, Gollum and Treebeard.

Big changes going on today!

Another scarce wee book. This time from 1914. Just as WW1 begins this is "Notes on Visual Training and Judging Distance In Relation to Musketry"

A very scarce survival. A thin booklet from 1843. It charts the service, illness & pious death of a domestic servant called Maria as tribute to her and an example for others. Interesting social history: leaving us to wonder what Maria's own version would have been like.

Really enjoying my reading for our August Dead Poets Salon and Open Mic. This man was a glorious eccentric and the biography is a rollicking ride.