Frequently asked questions

Our preferred method is through wire transfer.

We also accept all major credit and debit cards through our payment processor Stripe. Your payment details are securely handled by Stripe and we have no knowledge of any of them; we only receive confirmation of your payment after processing.

We do not accept payment through PayPal.

No. You can order as a guest and never create an account at all. If you would like one, you can open it as you check out, which keeps your order history and your saved books in one place, but nothing is set up for you unless you ask for it.

Yes. Our telephone number is on the contact page, and we are glad to talk about a book in as much detail as you would like before you commit to it. If you would rather we called you, send us a message and say when suits.

Yes. Every price on the site is in UK pounds. Delivery is added at checkout, and is free on orders of £1,000 or more. If you pay with a card issued in another currency, your own bank converts the amount at its rate on the day.

Printed antiquarian books are zero-rated for VAT in the United Kingdom, so no VAT is added to the price of a book. Some other material, such as prints, maps and objects, can be treated differently. If you need our VAT position on a particular item in writing, please ask before you order.

Because they are two different copies, and with antiquarian material no two are alike. Condition, the binding, the plates present, an early ownership inscription, an association with a previous owner and the edition or issue all move the price. Each entry describes the copy actually in front of us, so read the two descriptions side by side and the difference will usually be plain.

Yes, gladly. Tell us which item you are interested in and what you would like to see, whether that is the binding, the title page, a particular plate or a fault mentioned in the description, and we will photograph it for you.

Please ask. We can usually put an item aside for a short time while you think it over or arrange funds. We are also happy to accommodate the needs of institutional clients.

Often, yes. Our stock changes constantly and we buy in the same fields year after year, so tell us what you are looking for and we will let you know when something suitable arrives. Sold items stay on the site, so you can also see the kind of material that passes through our hands.

Yes, by appointment. We are based in the Cotswolds, with a second location in London. Viewings are strictly by pre-arranged appointment, so please contact us first and we will have the item ready for you. We also exhibit at book fairs throughout the year, which is another good way to see our stock in person.

Delivery is £3.35 in the UK, £6.90 to Europe and £11.40 to the rest of the world. It is charged once per order, however many books you buy, and orders where the books come to £1,000 or more (after any discount) are delivered free. Every item is fully insured in transit. UK deliveries are normally sent by a next working day delivery service, and overseas shipments by courier with online tracking.

Yes. UK orders are normally sent by a next working day service, and overseas orders go by courier with online tracking. Delivery is £3.35 in the UK, £6.90 to Europe and £11.40 to the rest of the world per order, free on orders of £1,000 or more, and every item is fully insured.

UK orders are normally despatched for next working day delivery once payment has cleared. Overseas times depend on the destination and on customs, and are usually a matter of days rather than weeks. We will confirm when your order has been sent and pass on the tracking details.

Yes. Every item is fully insured by us from the moment it leaves us until it reaches you.

By hand, and with a good deal of care. Each item is wrapped, padded against movement and boxed. If an item needs a made-up box or a portfolio, it gets one.

Any customs duty, import tax or carrier handling fee raised in the destination country is the responsibility of the buyer, and is charged by that country rather than by us. We declare every shipment accurately and completely. If you would like to know what to expect before you order, ask us and we will tell you what we can.

Yes. Any item can be returned for a full refund within 30 days, provided it returns to us in the same condition it left us.

Tell us straight away, before you do anything else, and keep the box and all the packing material as it arrived. Photographs of the damage and of the packaging help. Every shipment is insured, and we will put it right.

As members of rare book associations such as the ABA, PBFA and ILAB, we adhere to a strict code of conduct. We value professionalism and honesty, and reiterate this in our cataloguing. If you have any concerns over the physical descriptions of our books please contact us and we will do our best to clarify.

Yes. We deal only in genuine antiquarian books, maps, prints and objects, and we are members of the ILAB, the ABA and the PBFA, whose codes of practice govern how we describe and guarantee what we sell. If an item ever proves not to be as we described it, return it and we will refund it in full.

Yes, on request.

Yes. Books with plates, maps or complicated make-up are collated against the standard bibliography before they are catalogued, and anything missing or supplied from another copy is stated in the description. If a copy is not complete, we say so and price it accordingly.

No. We sell only genuine antiquarian material. Where a plate or a leaf in a book has been supplied in facsimile by an earlier owner or binder, that is recorded in the description.

Yes. We are always interested in unique and rare items of comparable quality to the ones we list on our website, and we also buy collections and whole libraries. We offer competitive prices and can pay in UK Pounds, US Dollars or Euros.

In every case: the author name; the title exactly as it appears on the printed title page inside the book, rather than on the cover; the edition or printing statement if one is given; the place of publication, the publisher and the date; the binding, whether leather, boards, cloth or a dust jacket; and any major defects such as torn leaves, stains or broken joints. Photographs of the title page and the binding help a great deal. You can use the form on the sell to us page or email the details to us.

We will do our best to get back to you within a week if we are interested. Please understand that while many items may be important or valuable, they may not be a good match for our market. If you do not hear from us within a week, it is likely we are not interested in your item.

No. We will not pay for items until we have examined them.

A valid form of identification and a proof of address. This is standard practice in the trade and it protects both of us; it also means we can pay you promptly once we have agreed a price.

Please wait until we have confirmed that we are interested before bringing anything to us, so that you do not have a wasted journey. Send us the details first and we will tell you quickly whether it is something for us.

If you would rather not sell outright, ask us. There are occasions when handling an item on your behalf makes better sense for you than an outright purchase, and we are happy to discuss which would suit you better.

We do not consider items that are currently offered on eBay or at online auction. If a listing has ended and the item is unsold, do come back to us.

By bank transfer, once we have agreed a price and seen your identification and proof of address. We can pay in UK pounds, US dollars or euros, whichever suits you.

Not necessarily. Age on its own moves a price very little: what matters is demand, condition, the edition or issue, completeness and, sometimes, who owned the copy before you.

An edition is everything printed from one setting of the type. An impression, or printing, is a single run from that setting, so a first edition can have a second impression. An issue is a group of copies within an edition that the publisher put out as a distinct unit, often with a changed title page or a new binding. A state is a smaller variation made during printing, such as a corrected misprint. Collectors usually want the first impression of the first edition, in the first issue.

Foxing is the light brown spotting that appears on some old paper as it oxidises, named for its rusty, fox-coloured tone. It is very common in books and prints of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is not a sign of damp or damage in itself, and affects value only when it is heavy or falls across an image.

Provenance is the recorded history of one particular copy: who has owned it and how it came down to the present day. Bookplates, ownership inscriptions, armorial bindings, library stamps and sale records are all evidence of it. Good provenance can add a great deal to a book, and we record everything we know about a copy in its description.

An association copy is one with a close link to the author or the subject, such as the author’s own copy. The closer the connection, the more the copy could be worth.

A signed copy carries the author signature and nothing more. An inscribed copy carries something written by the author beyond the signature, usually a dedication to a named person. A presentation copy is one the author, illustrator or publisher gave as a gift, and is normally inscribed at or near the time of publication. Presentation and association copies are the most sought after of the three.

They describe how the printed sheet was folded to make the book, and so its approximate size. A folio is folded once and is large, usually over about 35cm tall; a quarto is folded twice, roughly 23 to 35cm; an octavo is folded three times and is the size of a normal modern book, roughly 15 to 23cm. Anything smaller is a duodecimo or less. We also give exact measurements, height by width, in every description.

An incunable, or incunabulum, is a book printed in Europe before 1501, in the first fifty years of printing from movable type. The word comes from the Latin for a cradle, meaning printing in its infancy. They are scarce, and are always catalogued individually against the standard reference works.

Uncut means the edges of the leaves were never trimmed smooth by the binder, so they are rough and uneven. Unopened means the folds at the edges of the gathered sheets were never slit, so parts of the book cannot be read without cutting them. Neither is a defect. Both are evidence that a copy has survived close to the state in which it was issued, and collectors value them.

Boards are the stiff front and back covers of a book, whether covered in leather, cloth or paper. Wrappers are paper covers, stitched or glued to a slim volume, of the kind pamphlets and early printed works often carry. Original wrappers are fragile and frequently lost, so a copy that keeps them is usually preferred to one that has been rebound.

They are the three binding materials you will meet most often in our descriptions. Calf is cowhide, smooth and usually tan or brown, and was the everyday binding leather for centuries. Morocco is goatskin, with a distinctive grain, harder wearing and used for finer work. Vellum is treated calfskin, pale ivory and very durable, though it warps in dry heat. We name the material, and the period, whenever we can establish them.

A plate is a full-page illustration printed separately from the text and bound in with it, which is why plates can go missing and why we collate them. A frontispiece is the plate facing the title page, traditionally the first image in the book. Our descriptions state how many plates a copy has and whether they are all present.

Marshall Rare Books has been dealing in rare books, maps, prints and manuscripts for over fifty years. The business was established in 1972 and has been in the same hands ever since.

Near Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire, at the northern edge of the Cotswolds. The full address, our telephone number and a map are on the contact page. Viewings are by pre-arranged appointment.

We can also accommodate viewing in Shepherd’s Bush, London.

Travel and exploration, natural history, atlases and maps, science and navigation, manuscripts, literature, witchcraft and demonology, and globes and scientific instruments. You can see the whole of our current stock on the browse page, or work through it by subject from the collections.

Yes. We are members of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB), the Antiquarian Booksellers Association (ABA) and the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association (PBFA).

Yes. We have issued over sixty catalogues and lists, and you can read the recent ones on the catalogues page. If you would like to be told when a new one appears, join the mailing list and choose the subjects that interest you.

Yes. Book fairs are the best way to see our stock in person and to talk about what you are looking for. Our forthcoming fairs are listed on the book fairs page. If there is something you would like brought to a fair for you to look at, tell us beforehand and we will bring it.

Yes, and you choose what you hear about: you can tick the subjects that interest you, so you are told about new arrivals and catalogues in those fields rather than everything. We will send you a confirmation email to make sure the address is yours, and you can leave at any time.

Write to us at info@marshallrarebooks.com, or use the form on the contact page. If you are asking about a particular item, quote the title and we will come back to you with whatever you need to know.