Bookseller Profile

Barnaby Rudge Booksellers ABAA
Laguna Beach, California, USA
[Browse Inventory]

My wife and I started in the book business in 1991 buying inexpensive older books because we thought they were interesting. We then started to see books that were better and more expensive and we decided to sell the first ones that we bought to buy some of the better ones. They sold so well that we actually started selling by appointment and after a year opened up a bookstore dealing only with rare and collectible books. After doing about 3 years research in children's and illustrated books I wrote a price guide keying on 26 of the top illustrators from the 1880's through the 1930's. Needless to say I specialize in children's and illustrated books as well as early printed books. Recently we decided to be a specialist in Modern Library books, because they are wonderful inexpensive books with a very wide interest. There is a certain charm and excitement about finding an important book that is 300 to 500 years old and thinking about the history of the ownership of those books.

The best advise I can give to people is to buy and collect what you like as well as do research on the books that you are interested in. -- Ed Postal

Other Bookseller Profiles

We asked Ed Postal of Barnaby Rudge Booksellers to highlight some books from their collections.

Gentleman's Magazine And Historical Chronicle 1771-1780
Sylvanus Urban
Vg. 1st Edition. 8vo. A beautiful matched set of the Revolutionary War years of The Gentleman's Magazines. All 10 volumes are complete with all maps and engravings bound in the original full leather. You probably will never find a set quite this nice. There is some minor rubbing on the extremities but overall very nice and the insides are crisp and clean. The 1776 volume has the Declaration Of Independance $14,000.00

A Tale of Two Cities (A)
Charles Dickens
London: Chapman & Hall, 1859. Wraps. Vg. 1st Edition. 8vo. In original 7/8 parts 1st issue with 213 misnumbered 113. 16 plates "advertiser" complet in parts 1,2 &4 including the cornhill Magazine leaf in final part . Part 1 with slip announcing discontinuance of Household words. additional advertisements publishers blue printed wrappers, partly unopened, lower wrapper of parts 7/8 substituted with part3, neatly rebacked in blue solendar box. $8,500.00

General Synopsis Of Birds (A)
John Latham
London: Chapman & Hall, 1859. Wraps. Vg. 1st Edition. 8vo. In original 7/8 parts 1st issue with 213 misnumbered 113. 16 plates "advertiser" complet in parts 1,2 &4 including the cornhill Magazine leaf in final part . Part 1 with slip announcing discontinuance of Household words. additional advertisements publishers blue printed wrappers, partly unopened, lower wrapper of parts 7/8 substituted with part3, neatly rebacked in blue solendar box. $7,500.00

An Account Of The Voyages...For Making Discoveries In The Southern Hemisphere And Successively Performed By Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret and Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, The Swallow and The Endeavour
John Hawkesworth
3 text volumes plus Atlas. Text volumes [12] Measures approx. 7 3/4"x 4 3/4" original or contemporay full calf, spines gilt in compartments with red and blue morocco labels. The Atlas with 48 ((of 52) lacking 4 of the plates) maps, charts and plates, many folding or double page. Rebound in modern full leather to match the rest of the set. Atlas volume is folio measuring 9"x12" Total of 4 volumes. Dublin edition of the text, grouped with the Atlas from the 1st edition published in London comprising all of the maps and charts and all but 4 of the plates. The set has been together since the 18th century, with the armorial bookplates of the Scott's of Harden in each volume and also the ownership markings of W. Scott. I believe it to be Sir Walter Scott but have not authenticated it yet although it is definitly in the family. Scott inscribed the Atlas as a gift from his brother Robert Scott in 1798. Of the 12 brothers and sisters that Walter Scott had, Robert was his closest brother. $6,500.00

Myographia Nova Sive Musculorum
Joannis Browne
Petrum Vander Aa, 1690 Full Leather. Vg. Folio. Rebound in period speckled calf with new endpapers. Lacking portrait but 40 full page engravings. $2,250.00