Firsts Online is the quarterly digital staging of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association’s premier summer fair, Firsts, London’s Rare Book Fair. Developed initially as a replacement for the 2020 edition of the fair. Firsts Online now provides our members and ILAB affiliate dealers a convenient means of showcasing their stock or highlights on a high-quality digital platform, throughout the year. Following the online fairs in June and September 2020, the brand Firsts, has now been separated into two distinct areas; the physical fair taking place each spring, and the online fairs which occur approximately every quarter.
Firsts Online will showcase rare books, manuscripts, ephemera, and other works on paper from international booksellers.
-This will be the third digital-staging of Firsts Online, following strong sales and visitor attendance to the website at both June and September fairs. Each of the fairs had over 115 participating exhibitors from over 15 countries.
- Following the continued need for social distancing affecting physical fairs, there continues to be a need to produce opportunities for members and booksellers to showcase their work online. In response to this need, the ABA have launched a new website dedicated to the online fairs www.firsts-online.com.
- This weekend would have been the Chelsea Rare Book Fair this weekend, therefore, the forthcoming winter-staging of Firsts Online is dedicated to booksellers who normally would attend Chelsea and Edinburgh fairs.
Exhibitors will each be offering up to 20 highlights on the Firsts website which will be live from 2pm on 27 November.
Highlights will be fresh to the market with new items added throughout the event. We encourage you to visit the website regularly to see the newly added highlights.
We also look forward to welcoming visitors in person to Firsts, London's Rare Book Fair from 21-23 May 2021 now taking place at the Saatchi Gallery in Sloane Square. Marking the 64th edition of the fair, the event historically attracts over 120 exhibitors from over 15 countries around the world.
The ABA Office
First Floor, 21 John Street
London, UK
51.5226388, -0.1159279
3rd edition of Firsts Online Rare Book Fair
