10400 Stevenson Road
Stevenson, MD 21153
p: 410 602 3002
f: 410 602 3006
For over twenty-five years The 19th Century Shop has been the leading international dealers of intellectual and artistic items of transcendent value including exceptionally important books, manuscripts, and photographs of all ages representing mankind’s greatest achievements, from the great literary works of Shakespeare to Einstein manuscripts on relativity, from the earliest Hebrew scrolls to modern biology including Darwin and DNA.
We work with major private collectors, museums, and libraries around the world building important collections of books and manuscripts. We have long provided the White House–under both Republican and Democratic administrations–with books for presentation by the president to visiting heads of state. Recipients of books from our stock have included Pope John Paul II, the Dalai Lama, the Sultan of Brunei, Netanyahu, Chirac, Rabin, Gorbachev, Blair, Mitterrand, and many others.
In recent years we have placed with our clients a wide range of great books including the first editions of Machiavelli's Il Principe, Copernicus's De Revolutionibus, the King James Bible, Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, John Smith's True Relation of Virginia, Shakespeare's Poems and several Shakespeare Folios, the Bill of Rights, several copies of The Federalist, Ricardo's annotated copy of Malthus's Political Economy, Poe's annotated copies of two of his books, Hawthorne's corrected proof sheets for The Scarlet Letter, Whitman's Leaves of Grass, and Einstein's own annotated copy of the theory of special relativity.
We also specialize in important historical and literary manuscripts. Among the manuscripts we have handled in recent years have been the earliest privately owned written text of Exodus in Hebrew, the only Poe short story in private hands, a 1492 letter by Ferdinand and Isabella concerning the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, important letters by Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, a substantial portion f the first draft of Thoreau’s first book, leaves of the original manuscript of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, a chapter from Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, and the most important Walt Whitman manuscripts in private hands.
Long-term professional relationships and expert consultation are hallmarks of our business. We urge you to contact us to explore the possibility of building a collection or finding a special gift.