California Antiquarian Book Fair

04/11/2026

The ABAA Virtual Book Fair: Spring Edition ends tonight!

Dealers have refreshed their booths with additional material; so even if you shopped the fair already, there's more to discover today!

Shop the Fair at www.abaa.org/vbf

Doors will remain open continuously until 7 pm ET tonight, Saturday, April 11, 2026.

04/08/2026

Applications are now open for mentees for the 2026–2027 ABAA Mentorship Program!

This longstanding program offers early-career professionals a unique opportunity to connect one-on-one with an experienced ABAA member for guidance, insight, and support. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to deepen your knowledge of the trade, the program is designed to help you navigate your path to becoming an antiquarian bookseller.

The structure is flexible and tailored to your goals. Mentors and mentees set their own schedule and format. In addition to personalized mentorship, participants will receive complimentary passes to all ABAA Book Fairs upon request, and the ABAA will waive the application fee for mentees who apply within two years of completing the program.

No matter what stage you are in your career or where you are geographically, we welcome you to apply or share this opportunity with someone who may benefit.

More details and application information can be found here: https://www.abaa.org/articles/2026-abaa-mentorship-program-open

03/03/2026

The 57th California International Antiquarian Book Fair has concluded. We wish to thank our media sponsors KQED, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Nob Hill Gazette for their support.

https://www.abaa.org/events/57th-california-international-antiquarian-book-fair

02/27/2026

One of Bolerium’s crew, Cecelia Shaw, won this year’s Young Collector’s Prize for her tenant activism collection (which is an outgrowth of her real-life work to protect tenant rights). A selection is on display on the second floor of the book fair, opening tonight and continuing through the weekend!

02/27/2026

The 2026 California Book Fair opens TONIGHT! Here's one of the highlights you'll find offered there:

PTOLEMY, Claudius The Compost of Ptolomeus, Prince of Astronomie. Very necessary and profitable for all such as desire the knowledge of the famous art of astronomie.

London, By M. P[arsons] for Henry Gosson, and are [to be sold by Edward Wright, 1638[?]

4to. 72 unnumbered leaves. A-I . Black letter some Roman. Large astronomical woodcut of ‘K. Ptholomeus’ and an astronomer (just chipped at fore-edge) on title, woodcut and typographical headpieces, small floriated initials, sixty three woodcuts in the text, including a figure of the heavens, the 12 signs of the zodiac, a world map, physiognomoligcal portraits, a large woodcut of a dragon in landscape on verso of last, chiromantic hands, and stars etc, monogram ‘H. R.’ with shelf mark on fly. Light general age browning, heavier in places, title slightly dusty, light waterstaining on first few leaves, occasional mark or stain. A good copy in English calf circa 1800, covers bordered with a single gilt rule, spine gilt ruled, title gilt lettered, a.e.r. a little rubbed.

Exceptionally rare edition of this popular astronomical text, very charmingly illustrated with numerous woodcuts, the last of the early editions, the only edition printed in the seventeenth century.

Offered by Sokol Books, booth 219 this weekend's California International Antiquarian Book Fair (Feb 27-Mar-1, 2026) at Pier 27, The Embarcadero, San Francisco.

02/27/2026

The 57th California International Antiquarian Book Fair opens TONIGHT at Pier 27 on The Embarcadero, San Francisco!

Join us to shop two floors of rare books, print ephemera, and much, much more!

02/27/2026

The California Book Fair opens tonight! Here's a preview of one of the highlights you'll find offered there:

5 BOOKS BY JACK LONDON

The Game [Original Autograph Manuscript, Signed] offered with A.L.S. to Richard Watson Gilder, editor of the "Century Magazine".

The Game [Presentation Copy]. New York: Macmillan, 1905. First Edition, second printing. [PRESENTATION copy, INSCRIBED to one of the book's illustrators, Henry Hutt]

Typescript of the South Sea story, "Mauki". [Setting Copy] "Hampton's Magazine" 1908.

The People of the Abyss [Proof Copy, Inscribed and with corrections in London's hand] New York: Macmillan, April 1903.

The Iron Heel [Presentation Copy] London: Everett, 1908. Inscribed to "Comrade Sweet, ...Yours for the Revolution, Jack London".

Offered by Archives Fine Books, booth 251 at this weekend's California International Antiquarian Book Fair (Feb 27-Mar-1, 2026) at Pier 27, The Embarcadero, San Francisco.

Learn more: https://www.abaa.org/articles/2026-california-book-fair-highlights

02/27/2026

Join us tomorrow (Friday) at Pier 27 on The Embarcadero, San Francisco, for the California Book Fair!

Shop two floors of rare books, print ephemera, and much more!

The Fair runs for 3 days (Feb. 27-Mar. 1, 2026) at Pier 27, The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA.

Get your tickets now: https://www.abaa.org/event/buy-tickets

02/26/2026

The California Book Fair opens on Friday! Here's one of the highlights you'll find offered there:

LANDACRE, Paul (1893-1963).
The Gold Fields

[Los Angeles, CA: Paul Landacre, 1933]. Wood Engraving. 7 15/16 x 9 15/16 inches. Printed on sheet that measures 9 1/16 x 11 15/16 inches. Hinge-mounted on stiff board 16 x 20 inches that has a hinge mounted top board with a display window and a hinge-mounted plastic protective sheet. The sheet printed by Paul Landacre has both an Origins of Art rubber stamp, a red kestrel rubber stamp, and a pencilled annotation “ForML” in Landacre’s hand. Some soiling and the outer corners of the stiff boards, the boards are bumped at the corners, not affecting the print. Fine.

UNSIGNED PROOF outside the edition of 30. “‘The Gold Fields’ was printed in a signed, titled and numbered edition of 30, although only 22 such impressions are recorded. Jake Wien notes that in the months following Paul Landacre’s death the Origins of Art rubber stamp was placed on the verso of prints “found in Landacre’s studio.” Here, the Origins of Art rubber stamp is in the margin of the recto of this print, as is the red kestrel (or petrel) stamp. Both are described by Wien as a “form of estate stamp.” Neither of these stamps “in no way detracts from the beauty or value of a Landacre print.” Personal correspondence from Jake Wien.

The most interesting aspect of this particular print is the pencil notation in the lower right margin, “ForML.” Wien writes that Landacre “annotated many different prints this way as a kind of life insurance of Margaret [Gertrude McCreery Landacre (1891-1963)]. But, as you know, Margaret died first. Prints so annotated ‘For ML’ are generally superb impressions.”

Offered by ABAA-member John Howell for Books, booth 146 at this weekend's California International Antiquarian Book Fair (Feb 27-Mar-1, 2026) at Pier 27, The Embarcadero, San Francisco.

Learn more and buy tickets: https://www.abaa.org/events/57th-california-international-antiquarian-book-fair

02/25/2026

The California Book Fair opens on Friday! Here's one of the highlights you'll find offered there:

Eric Sweet
XIV Olympiad, London 1948.
Original manuscript.

20pp. A remarkable calligraphic ode to the first iteration of the Olympic Games to take place after the Second World War. After the title page almost entirely in gilt, the manuscript begins, appropriately, with the Olympic rings against a background of doves. A subsequent epigraph conveys the spirit of the Games in the postwar era: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning, but taking part. The essential in Life is not conquering but fighting well." Then Sweet records the winning competitors in their respective sports, with names and specific events in black, national affiliations in red, and details in gray. The sporting categories are themselves written in blue and with a gilt initial, and the "A" in Athletics receives special treatment, with a background of cross-hatched blue and linear details extending the length of the page.

Notable athletes of 1948 were Dutch sprinter F***y Blankers-Koen, the seventeen-year-old American decathlete Bob Mathias, and Finnish gymnast Veikko Huhtanen. The conclusion supplies the winners of the final gold medal count, as well as a nod to the past, present, and future of the Games with a clever combination of the flags of Greece, England, and Finland (Helsinki would host the 1952 Olympics). Bound in full brown morocco with cover design an angular riff on the five Olympic rings, rendered both in gilt and in blind. Spine in six compartments with gilt titling. Mild rubs to corners, else near fine in original dropback box.

Offered by ABAA-member Philip Salmon & Company Rare Books, booth 151 at this weekend's California International Antiquarian Book Fair (Feb 27-Mar-1, 2026) at Pier 27, The Embarcadero, San Francisco.

Learn more and buy tickets: https://www.abaa.org/events/57th-california-international-antiquarian-book-fair

02/25/2026

From The Bay Area Reporter : "A trio of LGBTQ scholars and archivists will be featured in a panel about q***r rare books as part of the California International Antiquarian Book Fair that will be in San Francisco February 27-March 1."

A trio of LGBTQ scholars and archivists will be featured in a panel about q***r rare books as part of the California International Antiquarian Book Fair that will be in San Francisco February 27-March 2.