The Folio Society is an independent London publisher, publishing contemporary and classic works in fiction and non fiction, as well as children’s books and poetry spanning multiple genres. The company was founded by Charles Ede, Christopher Sandford and Alan Pott in 1947 and started life as a membership only book club, publishing four books a year. However, due to its popularity the Folio Society decided in 2011 to change this stipulation and now people can buy books without being constrained by a membership to the Society. The Society now has many titles under its belt and the editions are highly coveted and collectable- but why is this?
Visually, Folio Society books are distinctive. They are generally published in hardback with a slip case to protect the book from shelf wear and are of an extremely high quality, with many of their editions being made with traditional bookmaking and printing techniques. Each book cover is highly decorative; works of fiction generally have artist commissioned illustrations, and works of non fiction photographs and reproduced artwork. Many Folio Society books also contain illustrations within the body of the text, which again are specially commissioned by the publisher.
Bidding therefore is always competitive when Folio Society books are offered for sale by Golding Young and Mawer across our three salerooms. In recent years we have sold a collection of Agatha Christie works for £190, Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte D’Arthur bound in gilt tooled black goat skin for £200, The Benedictional of Saint Aethelwold for £130, and a six volume set of The Arabian Nights for £70. Mixed lots of works also feature in our sales, ranging from classic 19thC fiction, Sci-Fi, histories and fantasy.
Most notably, the recent single owner sale held at the Lincoln Saleroom for Lord and Lady Cormack contained an extensive collection of Folio Society books. Multiple bidders logged into the sale and bidding was fierce, with each lot making three figures.
If you are a collector of Folio Society and want to buy, or have editions on your book shelves and are looking to sell, visit goldingyoung.com or call any of our offices for further information.
