"Keeps its finger on the pulse of the rare book world" - William Reese

As we gear up for this year's Olympia Book Fair, I would like to highlight some of the exciting items that will be on show in London during 5 - 7 June.

Some interesting items:

• Signed, first edition, first printing of The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming, £12,000 (Lucius Books)
• William Shakespeare, The Works (1728) Second Edition, 10 volumes, £3,750 (Paul Foster Books)
• A spectacular presentation copy from Charles Dickens to Hans Christian Andersen (David Brass Rare Books)
• Nicolaus Copernicus's, De Revolutionibus, $1,200,000 - 900,000 (Christie's)
• Incunabula, The 'Small Schedel' in beautiful contemporary colouring, Hartmann Schedel. Contemporary blindstamped calf over wooden boards, folio (32,4 x 22 cm) EUR 75,000 (Antiquariat Aix-la-Chapelle)
• Queen Victoria's 'Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands', 1868 signed presentation binding £620 (Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers)
• First edition, first printing of Beatles: In His Own Write, £15,000 (Lucius Books)

Children's:

• The first published edition of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" in the original cloth (David Brass Rare Books)
• A wonderful original watercolour drawing of Peter Rabbit (David Brass Rare Books)
• First edition, first printing of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling, a hardback copy that is one of 300 printed £20,000 (Lucius Books)
• First edition signed by AA Milne on the title page – The House at Pooh Corner, £4,250 (Paul Foster Books)

Poetry:

• Extremely rare first edition of Keat's "Poems" (David Brass Rare Books)
• James Joyce, Pomes Penyeach, Paris, The Obelisk Press, Desmond Harmsworth Ltd. London, 1932 - Oblong folio, £65,000, First English Edition (1 of 25 signed by the author) Extremely rare. (Peter Harrington Books)

Atlas' and Maps:

• Map of Africa – First edition of the first atlas devoted solely to Africa (Antiquariat Norbert Donhofer)
• Claudius Ptolemy (90-168 AD) Atlas (Donald Heald Rare Books)

• Original Photo Album from 1917 showing aircraft manufacturing in Charlottenberg, Berlin. Rare pictures of Baron Von Richthofen, Germany's famous World War I flying ace – recently featured in a movie starring Ralph Fiennes (Avedikian Rare Books)
• William England, 25 Photographs: Views of Switzerland and Savoy, $12,500 (Boston Book Company)

For more information about the Olympia Book Fair please visit:

When?
Thursday 5 June    4.00pm – 9.00pm
Friday 6 June      11.00am – 7.00pm
Saturday 7 June    11.00am – 6.00pm
(The 2008 Fair will once again be a 3-day event)

Where?
Olympia 2 Conference & Exhibition Centre
Hammersmith Road
Kensington
London
W14

By Emma Rickman