Bernard Shapero

Bernard John Shapero (born August 1963) is a British dealer in antiquarian rare books and works on paper, the founder of of 106 New Bond Street, Mayfair, London.^[1] In 2005, Slate called him "London's most successful rare-book dealer and arguably the top dealer in the world today".^[2]

Early life[]

Bernard John Shapero was born in August 1963,^[3] and started dealing in books in the late 1970s, while still a pupil at Highgate School.^[4][5] His father was a collector of armour and gold coins.^[2]

Career[]

In October 2005, Shapero purchased the Doria Atlas for £1.46 million, the highest price ever paid for an atlas, although this record was surpassed by the Cosmographia the following year.^[6] In April 2004, the atlas had been saved from a fire at Wardington Manor in Oxfordshire, when local residents formed a human chain to remove items from the library.^[7]

Shapero Rare Books owned about 6,000 books, ranging in price from £50 to over £200,000, and £6,000 on average. The business was sold by Shapero to Philip Blackwell, a director of the family business Blackwell Publishing, which had been sold to the US John Wiley & Sons in 2007 for £572 million to become Wiley-Blackwell.^{[citation needed]}

In 2012, Shapero bought Dutch businessman Joost Ritman's collection of 300 old religious books and 60 manuscripts for €9.5million, with finance coming from a Ukrainian oligarch.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[]

Shapero lives in Hampstead, London, in a house which is half Victorian and half an "ultra-modern" extension,^[1] with his wife Emma Lewis, and their three children: Louis, Clara and Hugo.^[8]

References[]