About Us

Julian Wilson Rare Books Limited

Flat 4 Lakeview Court
Wimbledon Park Road
London
SW19 6PP

Company registered in England and Wales under company number 16191126

Mobile: 0700 105 884
julian@wilsonrarebooks.com
wilsonrarebooks.com

Over 25 years’ experience in handling rare and antiquarian books, atlases and maps, with specialist knowledge of travel, natural history and science, especially geology and geological maps, as well as manuscripts, archives, prints, drawings and topographical art.

Biography

Julian Wilson started his career in the world of antiquarian books when he joined Maggs Bros Ltd in 1997, ostensibly to help Ed Maggs with the firm’s IT systems. Graduating from Exeter University with a degree in Ancient History in 1993, Julian then read for his M.Phil in Classics at Jesus College, Cambridge, before finding employment as a computer programmer, firstly with the NHS in a mental health unit in Guildford, and then with the firm of chartered accountants, Moore Stephens, in the City of London.

After 2 years in IT, he realised there was more to life, quitting in 1996 to become a porter at Bonhams auctioneers. This lasted 6 months before Maggs came calling, the work being split roughly 80% with the computer systems, and 20% apprenticed under the late John Collins in the Natural History department.

By 2003, Julian was running the Natural History books department, maintaining a stock of books of the highest quality, brokering large collections and libraries en bloc, undertaking insurance valuations, as well as researching and cataloguing individual books. Julian represented Maggs at prestigious high-profile auctions, including the sales of the libraries of Ortiz Patino (Sotheby’s New York, April 1998) and Joseph Freilich (Sotheby’s New York, January 2001). At Maggs, he was instrumental in helping to build – and later revalue with Christie’s – one of the largest and most important natural history libraries in the Middle East.

In 2008, Julian took the opportunity to join Christie’s as a Specialist, later becoming Associate Director and Senior Specialist in the King Street Book Department. His first job as a Christie’s Specialist was to catalogue the Foljambe Collection of natural history. This included selling a complete subscriber’s set of John Gould’s magnificent ornithological books for £1,252,500 (April 2008). He went on to handle many other important natural history, science and travel books, including maps and atlases: in December 2022, he brought to market a fine coloured copy of the complete first edition of Gerard Mercator’s Atlas, 1585-1595 (£882,000). Julian has also been responsible for such rare and valuable lots as: a pair of John Russell’s extremely scarce prints of the moon (£125,000, December 2016); two copies of Mendel’s offprint on genetics and the laws of inheritance, Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden (£242,500, July 2016 and £287,250, July 2019); a beautiful example of the famous Chinese ‘Blue Map’, Complete Geographical Map of the Great Qing Dynasty (£137,500 December 2018); and Marx’s presentation copy of Das Kapital to his cousin (£344,750, December 2019)

He has also enjoyed being involved with non-book lots, and pioneered new markets at Christie’s for objects such as Apple-1 computers (£133,250, November 2010) and Enigma machines (£67,250, same sale), setting new world records at that time.

Over the past decade, Julian has grown and developed successful sales of photographs, maps, posters and other ephemera relating to major 20th-century geo-political events, tying into his life-long interest with TE Lawrence. Julian also has a fascination with paleontology, geology and the earth sciences, and has helped catalogue a major private collection on the subject.

After 17 years at Christie’s, Julian stepped away from the auction world to create his new independent dealership in January 2025.