The third in the new series of seminars organised jointly by the Institute of English Studies (London University) and the ABA Educational Trust will be given by one of the most experienced and knowledgeable dealers in the area of printed ephemera, Valerie Jackson-Harris, Chairman of the Ephemera Society. Trading as Quadrille, Valerie has been dealing in ephemera for over thirty five years. Her expertise has enabled museums, libraries and private collectors around the world to acquire rare and difficult to find items to complement their collections. 

To quote from the Ephemera Society's website (www.ephemera-society.org.uk), "The term 'ephemera' covers a wide range of documents including leaflets, handbills, tickets, trade-cards, programmes and playbills, printed tins and packaging, advertising inserts, posters, newspapers and much more. In the words of the society’s founder, Maurice Rickards, “the minor transient documents of everyday life”.

The May seminar in the new book-collecting series organised jointly by the Institute of English Studies (London University) and the ABA Educational Trust will be given by Edward Bayntun-Coward, one of the rare book trade's most eloquent spokesmen, who owns and runs the George Bayntun bookshop in Bath, one of the world’s most famous bookshops and home to the Bayntun-Riviere bindery, which dates back to 1829.

The June seminar in the new series on book-collecting organised jointly by the Institute of English Studies (London University) and the ABA Educational Trust will be given by ABA member Paul Goldman.

Apart from being a distinguished dealer in rare books, Dr Paul Goldman is Honorary Professor at the Cardiff School of English, Communication, and Philosophy; a tutor in the MA in the History of the Book at London University (as well as at the London Rare Books School), and a former Assistant Keeper in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum.

The July seminar in the new book-collecting series organised jointly by the Institute of English Studies (London University) and the ABA Educational Trust will be given by Carl Williams of Maggs Brothers, one of the rare book trade's most engaging and offbeat characters – and one of its brightest.

Carl is a former runner and rare book dot-commer who studied Sociology and, later on, Diplomatic History at the LSE. He also worked as a curator on secondment to the Ludlow Santo Domingo Library in Geneva for about three years. He now trades in counterculture and its origins – i.e. beat, subversion, extremism, psychedelia, situations, the demonstrative, the errant, the proscribed, the carnivalesque,

The October seminar in the new book-collecting series organised jointly by the Institute of English Studies (London University) and the ABA Educational Trust will be given by Julian Browning of Julian Browning Autographs (www.historicalautographs.co.uk), a member of of the Professional Autograph Dealers Association (PADA – www.padaweb.org).

An accomplished and entertaining speaker, with over thirty years experience in the antiquarian book and manuscript trade, Julian specializes ...

The November seminar in the new book-collecting series organised jointly by the Institute of English Studies (London University) and the ABA Educational Trust will be given by Jolyon Hudson of Pickering & Chatto, who will try to demystify the Indian rope trick of the economics of the rare book trade – from the point of view of the dealer and the auctioneer as well as the collector.

Jolyon started as an auction porter in 1976, eventually becoming a director and auctioneer for Christie’s. In 1992 he left Christie's to become manager of Pickering & Chatto, who have been dealing in rare books for the best part of two centuries, and in 2006 he also became manager of Marlborough Rare Books. No-one can bring a wider variety of experience of the vagaries of the rare book trade’s finances. Website links are here - www.pickering-chatto.com and marlboroughbooks.com.

The December seminar in the new book-collecting series organised jointly by the Institute of English Studies (London University) and the ABA Educational Trust will be given by Roger Gaskell (www.rogergaskell.com), a leading dealer in early scientific, medical and technical books.

This seminar will spell out the importance of images in scientific books of all periods, analysing different kinds of graphics to show how they function in scientific communication. The Scientific Revolution in Restoration England is a particularly important for this story and examples will be drawn from the works of Robert Boyle, Sir Isaac Newton, Robert Hooke and other members of the Royal Society – including Sir Christopher Wren, not always remembered as a scientific draughtsman.