Sophie Schneideman on Fine and Private Press Books

Sophie Schneideman has been an international rare book and print dealer for over 28 years, serving a long apprenticeship at Maggs Bros, an eminent book firm in Mayfair, and dealing as Sophie Schneideman Rare Books since 2007. She specializes in several areas of book collecting, the main focus being the Art of the Book, i.e. book illustration, private presses, fine binding, fine printing and livres d'artistes, particularly of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This includes prints and books by important illustrators, photographers and graphic artists. We met at her London studio and talked about dealing with beautiful things, starting a business, 'running' books, sniffing around and meeting people, having an international mindset, the best bookfairs, researching and cataloguing beautiful books and getting stories out of them, selling what you love, the Golden Cockerel Press, Doves Press, always buying the best copy, ephemera, trophy hunters, book collecting prizes, imperfections, the Ashendene Press, Cobden-Sanderson, books, harmony and the cosmos, the Kelmscott Press, the Nonesuch Press, limitations and rarity, the Folio Society, the Limited Editions Club, Gaylord Schanilec, Ron King at the Circle Press, and the Old School Press.