33 stores · curated ORBIS register
Hand-sewn bindings and gold tooling are the focus at Abdelzaher Atelier, the Cairo atelier established in 1936. Helsinki's Antikvaarinen Kirjakauppa Johannes takes the antiquarian route, trading from Yrjönkatu through a bookshop history dating to 1930. At Vienna's Belvedere Shop, museum catalogues sit alongside Klimt editions and objects inspired by the Wiener Werkstätte. Those museum publications give the Vienna shop a different emphasis from the binding work and antiquarian books elsewhere here.
31 Mohamed Abdou Street, behind Al-Azhar Mosque, El-Darb El-Ahmar, Cairo 11675, Egypt / Cairo / Egypt
Family bookbinding shop opened 1936; third/fourth generation still hand-sews and gold-tools leather bindings by hand (Condé Nast Traveller Middle East; Middle East Eye).
Best for Hand-sewn, gold-tooled leather bindings from a family workshop opened in 1936.
Yrjönkatu 1, 00120 Helsinki, Finland / Helsinki / Finland
A working Finnish antiquarian bookshop, founded 1930 and still at Yrjönkatu 1 with largely original fittings.
Best for Old and rare Finnish books in largely original 1930 shop fittings.
Vienna, Online
The Belvedere's store carries the imagery of Vienna 1900 — Klimt editions, Wiener Werkstätte-inspired design and the museum's catalogues — from the palace that houses The Kiss.
Best for Klimt’s Kiss and Viennese design
Berlin / Germany
Buchbinderei Klünder has bound books at Rathenower Straße 60 in Berlin-Moabit since 1923, over a century at the same address — the kind of continuity that survives a city's rebuilding only when a trade keeps being needed rather than merely tolerated.
Best for Hand binding, antiquarian restoration and thesis binding in Berlin
Buchbinderei Klünder has bound books at Rathenower Straße 60 in Berlin-Moabit since 1923, over a century at the same address — the kind of continuity that survives a city's rebuilding only when a trade keeps being needed rather than merely tolerated. The workshop covers books in fabric, leather, or vellum by hand, and makes portfolio boxes and protective cases alongside small-batch work like photo albums and thesis bindings, the last a category that only exists because German universities still require a physically bound dissertation copy.
Restoration of antiquarian books runs alongside new binding as a standing service, not a side offer — a distinction that matters, since a bindery that only restores is a conservator and one that only binds new work has no answer for an owner's existing damaged books. Klünder's own site describes the workshop as "offen und experimentierfreudig" (open and eager to experiment), a self-characterization that sits a little against the century-old address, and the site frames this as willingness to take on unconventional projects without abandoning the traditional binding techniques the business was built on.
The workshop’s own site is the source for the founding year, address, material list and restoration and small-batch services. Its claim of more than a century at one address is a first-party history rather than an archival finding, but the useful visitor-facing facts are current: what it binds, what it restores and where the work is done.
Waterfront Shops, Duck, NC
Housed in a 1921 hunting cottage on Currituck Sound, Duck's Cottage has sold coffee and Outer Banks books since 2002. Jamie Anderson, who ran the bookstore from day one, bought the shop from co-founder Allen LeHew in 2023.
Best for Coffee and Outer Banks books inside a 1921 former hunting cottage
Duck's Cottage occupies a building that dates to 1921, when New York investors built it as the Powder Ridge Gun Club — a hunting cottage that remains, by the shop's own account, the only hunt club ever built in the town of Duck, and one of its oldest surviving structures. The original layout held three bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen with an attached porch, a shared living-dining room and a screened front porch, plus outbuildings for guides and a boathouse. Its last private resident, known locally as 'Duck' Braithwaite, became a local fixture for sunset gatherings on the property with his wife, Betty.
In 2002, childhood friends John Power and Allen LeHew converted the cottage into a coffee-and-bookshop, bringing in Jamie Anderson to run the book side from the start. LeHew ran the espresso machine for nearly two decades before retiring to the mountains and selling the business to Anderson in 2023 — a handoff that kept the shop within its founding circle rather than passing to an outside buyer.
Today the shop, at 1240 Duck Road in the Waterfront Shops on Currituck Sound, pairs a curated stock of bestsellers and Outer Banks-specific titles with coffee poured by a barista staff whose combined experience the shop puts at more than 114 years — depth unusual for a shop of its size.
Historic & Traditional, Rome / Online
Rome antiquarian bookshop specializing in rare books, maps, and engravings, family-run by the D'Aniello family since 1991. Currently at Piazza Sallustio 14. Founded 1974, not 1931 as sometimes stated.
Best for Antiquarian books and prints.
Ex Libris is a Rome antiquarian bookshop specializing in rare and antique books, maps, and engravings, with particular emphasis on first editions. According to the shop's own 'Chi siamo' page and its listing with A.L.A.I. (the Italian antiquarian booksellers' association), the business was founded in 1974, not 1931. The D'Aniello family took over management in 1991; the shop was more recently run by Emidio and Leone D'Aniello, alongside Maria Pia Lanzoni until her death in 2022. It is a member of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers. The shop is currently located at Piazza Sallustio 14 in Rome's Ludovisi-Sallustiano district, open Tuesday through Saturday.
Neustadt
Independent Hamburg bookshop, antiquarian dealer and art gallery founded in November 1923 by Felix Jud, a Nazi resistance supporter later imprisoned at Neuengamme; still operating in the Neustadt district as one of Hamburg's key literary institutions.
Best for Antiquarian books and an art gallery, trading since 1923.
Felix Jud founded his bookshop, originally called the Hamburger Bucherstube, in November 1923 together with business partner Erna Kracht, opening at Colonnaden 104 in Hamburg's Neustadt district. Jud was an outspoken opponent of National Socialism: he supported the White Rose resistance group and was imprisoned in the Neuengamme concentration camp, continuing to sell banned literature to trusted customers during the Nazi era. The shop survived the war, and Jud ran it until his death in 1985. Now formally Felix Jud GmbH & Co. KG, the business continues to operate in Hamburg-Neustadt.
Milano / Via Bonvini
Milan stationery-printing shop opened 9 July 1909 by brothers Costante and Luigia Bonvini in the Corso Lodi/San Luigi district, and restored to working order in 2014 with its original treadle press, 1930s Imperia platen press and wooden type drawers intact. Today it operates as a working letterpress and bookbindery, running typography and traditional paper workshops.
Best for Working 1909 Milan letterpress shop and bookbindery with original presses
Fratelli Bonvini opened as a stationery shop on 9 July 1909, when siblings Costante and Luigia Bonvini set up along Corso Lodi in Milan's then-industrial San Luigi district. The business quickly expanded into printing to serve the growing neighborhood, turning out everything from letterheads to price lists on machinery that included a late-19th-century treadle press, a 1930 Imperia platen press and a 1950s Heidelberg Stella -- all still on site today. Costante's daughter Leila Bonvini and her husband Luigi Cambieri kept the family workshop running for decades afterward.
In 2014, the associates of FBM S.r.l. carried out a conservative restoration of the premises at Via Tagliamento 1, preserving the original layout, printing machines, bookbinding equipment and wooden typographic drawers rather than converting the space. Bonvini 1909 reopened as a working shop and cultural venue combining a functioning letterpress, a bookbindery and gallery space for exhibitions.
The workshop today runs typography and bookbinding services alongside courses -- including a paste-paper (carta colla) workshop teaching the centuries-old technique for decorating book endpapers and covers -- positioning Bonvini 1909 as one of Milan's few surviving working print-and-bindery botteghe rather than a museum piece.
Paris / Quartier Latin / Online
Gibert Joseph is a Latin Quarter bookseller descended from Joseph Gibert. He began selling books from bouquiniste boxes on the Quai Saint-Michel in the 1880s and opened a secondhand textbook shop on the Boulevard Saint-Michel. The Gibert Joseph name dates from 1929, when the founder's elder son opened at number 30. The shop now covers several buildings on the boulevard, mixing new and secondhand books with records.
Best for Second-hand books, textbooks, and Left Bank browsing.
Gibert Joseph is a Paris bookseller whose story starts with Joseph Gibert, a former teacher of classical literature from Saint-Étienne. He arrived in Paris in the 1880s and sold books from four bouquiniste boxes on the Quai Saint-Michel opposite Notre-Dame. He then opened a shop on the Boulevard Saint-Michel dealing in secondhand school textbooks. It thrived as Jules Ferry's laws made schooling free and compulsory. After his death in 1915 his sons took over, and in 1929 they went separate ways. The elder, Joseph, opened his own shop at 30 boulevard Saint-Michel under the name Gibert Joseph. Régis kept the original quayside business as Gibert Jeune. The Gibert Joseph shop grew to six floors and spread along the boulevard to numbers 26, 30 and 34, drawing students from the nearby Sorbonne. From the 1950s it added records, then videos and stationery. A specialist record shop opened at number 34 in 1996. In 2017 Gibert Joseph took over the struggling Gibert Jeune, ending 88 years of separation. Secondhand books still make up a large share of what the company sells.
CBD
Hill of Content is an independent Melbourne bookshop founded in 1922, with a long reputation for curated literature and nonfiction. Since 2025, the shop has traded at 1/32 Bourke Street.
Best for Bourke Street historic bookshop, curated literature, and non-fiction
Liosbán, Tuam Road
Founded by Des and Maureen Kenny in 1940, this Galway bookseller handles new, secondhand and rare books alongside a gallery of contemporary Irish art and a bindery running since 1974. It moved from its long-time city-centre premises to a larger space on the Tuam Road.
Best for Rare and Irish-interest books
Dadaocheng / Datong
A family-run independent bookstore in a restored Japanese-era shophouse on Dihua Street. The family enterprise began here as Kuo Yi-mei general store in 1922 and was later converted into a bookstore by the founder’s grandson.
Best for Independent bookstore in a restored 1922 Japanese-era shophouse on Dihua Street
1st floor, 36 Abd al-Khaliq Tharwat Street, Downtown, Cairo, Egypt / Cairo / Egypt
Lehnert and Landrock moved their photography business to Cairo in 1924; stepson Kurt Lambelet opened the first brick-and-mortar bookshop in 1936 (Middle East Eye 2021).
Best for Photography and books from a Cairo business established there in 1924.
Vienna / Austria
The Leopold Museum Shop in Vienna's MuseumsQuartier sells exhibition catalogues and art books tied to the museum's Klimt, Schiele, and Vienna 1900 collections, with in-person purchase daily and select titles orderable online. Recent releases include catalogues for the Biedermeier and Franz Hagenauer exhibitions.
Best for Klimt and Schiele exhibition catalogues and art books at Vienna's Leopold Museum
Achrafieh, Beirut / Online
Librairie Antoine is a Beirut bookseller founded in 1933, offering Arabic and French books alongside English-language titles. Educational books form part of its wider selection alongside stationery and toys available through online ordering or its branch network. Publishing and distribution through Hachette Antoine form another part of the business, separate from the stock at any individual shop.
Best for Arabic, French and English books with educational supplies
Librairie Antoine began in Beirut in 1933 and now combines bookselling with an online shop and a wider publishing business. Its book selection includes Arabic and French titles alongside English-language reading, covering general interests as well as education. That language range is useful when choosing a particular edition or looking for a book for someone else.
Books are not the whole offer: the company also lists stationery and educational toys, together with gifts and craft materials. Those categories serve different purposes, from school supplies to a present that does not depend on knowing a reader's preferred author. The wider business includes a partnership with Hachette Livre through Hachette Antoine, connecting retail with publishing and distribution.
Antoine operates several branches, so the network should not be confused with one shop holding every product shown online. Start with the title and language you need, then identify the relevant branch or online ordering option. A specific edition or school text merits a direct availability check before travelling for that item alone.
Centro Histórico, Mexico City / Online
The Porrúa brothers opened beside the Zócalo in 1900 and built Mexico's bookselling and publishing dynasty — the Sepan Cuantos classics, shops across the country, and the famous glass bookstore in Chapultepec park.
Best for Mexico’s bookselling dynasty since 1900
Avenida da Liberdade
Lisbon bookshop founded 1943 by German emigre Karl Buchholz on Avenida da Liberdade; moved in 1965 to Rua Duque de Palmela, where it still operates as a general and foreign-literature shop under Grupo LeYa.
Best for Historic German-language bookshop.
Livraria Buchholz was founded on 22 July 1943 by Karl Buchholz, a German bookseller who fled Nazi Germany after his Berlin business was destroyed in wartime bombing. It opened at number 50 Avenida da Liberdade, where Buchholz introduced innovations to the local trade - stocking foreign books beyond the usual French titles, themed window displays, and art exhibitions - and became a meeting point for cultural and dissident circles. In 1965 the shop relocated to Rua Duque de Palmela 4, where it remains today: a three-floor space combining new releases, records and art shows. It is now owned by publishing group Grupo LeYa.
Chuo-ku
Mariya has supplied handicraft materials in Sapporo since 1926, close to the Sapporo Clock Tower. Its range extends from embroidery supplies to weaving equipment, with craft books and classes also part of the business. The shop carries imported brands as well as Japanese products, so origin varies by item.
Best for Materials for embroidery, hand weaving and spinning
Mariya is a handicraft-supply shop near Sapporo's Clock Tower, founded in 1926. It remains organised around the materials people need to make things themselves. The company lists craft books and classes as part of its work, alongside a gallery programme. On the selling floors, embroidery supplies share space with equipment for hand weaving and spinning. The published range includes Japanese makers as well as imported names such as DMC and Ashford, so the shop is useful for comparing tools rather than assuming everything on its shelves was made locally. The dyeing materials extend the selection beyond sewing and knitting, and the shop also lists parts for making accessories. Shoppers planning a particular project can use the extensive category lists to decide what to ask about before travelling. The distinction between shop and gallery matters here: an exhibition can introduce finished textile work, while the retail stock is largely the thread and equipment, supported by reference material used to make new pieces.
Kumaratunga Munidasa Mawatha, Colombo 03
M. D. Gunasena began in 1913 and developed from printing into publishing and bookselling in Sri Lanka. Its present business includes educational books alongside general reading, with retail branches and an online catalogue. The company's Olcott Mawatha headquarters is distinct from its other Colombo branches, so a visit should use the relevant branch listing.
Best for Sri Lankan educational books, publishing and general reading
Pike Place, Seattle / Online
Metsker Maps sells printed maps and atlases alongside globes at Seattle's Pike Place Market. The business traces its roots to Charles F Metsker's work in Tacoma in 1901, later developing into a Seattle map shop. Its selection serves travellers and map collectors as well as people looking for a wall map or a different way to explore a place.
Best for Printed maps, globes and atlases in Seattle
Metsker Maps puts physical geography back into the shopping experience at Seattle's Pike Place Market. Maps and atlases share the selection with globes, making it possible to compare a place at several scales rather than viewing it only through a phone screen. The shop serves travellers and collectors as well as people choosing a wall map for home. Its history began with a different audience: Charles F Metsker founded the business in Tacoma in 1901, producing maps for industries such as surveying and logging.
The company's own history describes its later development in Seattle, followed by a move to Pioneer Square and eventually Pike Place Market in 2004. The current shop is in the Sanitary Market Building. Those changes matter because the long business history should not be mistaken for more than a century at the present address. Today the range extends beyond the Pacific Northwest, while the business retains ties to local cartography through Kroll Map Company. For a purchase, start with what the map needs to do: help plan a journey, show a region in detail or serve as an object to study on the wall.
120 O'Connell Street, Limerick
O'Mahony's Booksellers is a family bookselling business founded by J. P. O'Mahony on Limerick's O'Connell Street in 1902. Its Limerick shop carries children's books alongside general reading and specialist non-fiction, with an online store extending the business beyond the city. The shop has also hosted author visits and book launches, connecting its retail shelves with local literary events.
Best for Independent book browsing and specialist non-fiction in Limerick
O'Mahony's Booksellers began in Limerick in 1902, when J. P. O'Mahony opened a shop after working in the haberdashery department of Cannock's. The family history estimates that the first shop had three staff and occupied about 550 square feet. Frank O'Mahony later joined the company around 1918, carrying the business into a second generation. The official account describes trading through the First World War and the changes that followed, giving the present bookseller more than a century of documented family continuity. That history supports a catalogue with unusual depth. General books sit beside Irish fiction, Irish history and books as Gaeilge. School and academic sections add law and medicine alongside nursing and education. Agriculture and veterinary subjects form another specialist group. Children's books are divided by reading stage and age. Maps and stationery, together with professional titles widen the practical range. Author visits and signing photographs form part of the shop's own archive. O'Mahony's identity is therefore grounded in both place and duration: a Limerick business founded by a named bookseller, expanded through family succession and sustained by a catalogue that serves general readers and students alongside specialist professions.
Downtown / Main Street
Ohio Book Store began in 1940 and moved to its present Cincinnati address at 726 Main Street in 1961. Books and magazines occupy five floors including the basement, with an enquiry service for specific titles. Its binding department also handles repairs and restoration, on a separate schedule from the shop.
Best for Used books and bookbinding repairs
Ohio Book Store has occupied its present Main Street building in Cincinnati since 1961, although the business itself began in 1940. James Hardwick founded it at a different Main Street address, and James Fallon later bought the business after first joining as an employee. The current premises provide five floors including the basement, giving a browsing visit a different scale from a small specialist bookshop. Books and magazines cover many subjects, and the store also offers an inventory search or enquiry for a particular title. Its bindery adds a practical service for readers who already own the book they need: repair and restoration, as well as custom binding. Those services have their own working hours, which differ from the shop's weekend schedule. A buyer looking for a particular edition can enquire before arriving, while someone bringing a damaged volume should contact the repair department about the work required. The combination makes this both a place to find books and somewhere to seek help preserving them.
Zeppelinstraße 4, 50667 Köln, Germany / Cologne / Germany
Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger centenary feature: founded 1923 by Erich Ortloff; still the last large-city-centre Schreibwaren house of its kind in the Soennecken group; Zeppelinstraße walk-in with ~40,000 articles, inks mixed to order including Kölner Brückengrün.
Best for Independent books and paper goods.
Centro
A century-old specialist for stationery, art materials, writing instruments and craft supplies.Established 1914.
Best for Stationery, art materials, writing instruments, and craft supplies since 1914
France / Online
The recognizable orange stationery pad — French dot-grids and ruled sheets from the Clairefontaine family since 1934.
Best for The iconic orange dot-grid notepads from the Clairefontaine family
Rhodia originated in 1932 as Papeteries Verilhac Frères in Lyon, France, founded by brothers Henri and Robert Verilhac. The brand name and logo emerged in 1934 when operations moved to Sechilienne near Grenoble, derived from the Rhône River flowing past Lyon. The instantly recognizable bright orange covers have defined Rhodia pads for nine decades. In 1997, Clairefontaine acquired Rhodia, relocating production to Mulhouse in Alsace where it shares paper mills with its parent company; notably, members of the original Verilhac family continue working for the company. Rhodia's staple-bound pads feature 80-gram acid-free, pH-neutral paper micro-perforated on top for clean tearing. The paper quality matches Clairefontaine's own premium stock. Today Rhodia's portfolio extends beyond the classic orange and black pads to include the Dot Everything Collection featuring dot pads and webnotebooks, catering to creatives, architects, and writers who prize smooth, fountain-pen-friendly paper and portable functionality.
Shinjuku, Tokyo
Sekaido has sold art materials in Shinjuku since 1940. The main store at 3-1-1 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, fills five selling floors above the street. Stationery and paper give way to paints and modelling supplies, and the upper two floors are given over to frames. Twelve Sekaido shops trade in all, most of them in Tokyo.
Best for Five floors of art materials and framing at the Shinjuku main store
Sekaido opened in Shinjuku in 1940 as a shop selling picture frames and paintings. It was incorporated as a company in 1947, and through wartime shortages, including a cut-off supply of glass, it held to a motto of better goods at lower prices. Over the decades it widened its range to art materials and design supplies as well as stationery. The Shinjuku main store burned in 1990, and the company traded from a temporary shop nearby until a new headquarters and store building opened at Shinjuku 3-1-1 in 1994. That nine-storey building has sales floors on five levels and a gallery on the sixth. The first floor carries stationery and fountain pens, and the second holds papers and drafting tools alongside design and comic supplies. The third is given to paints and printmaking materials, with plaster casts and easels. Frames fill the fourth and fifth floors. Watercolour and photo frames sit below, and larger frames for hanging works and for oil paintings sit above. Canvas stretching and framing are done in house, and a branch opened at Ikebukuro Parco in 1969. Others followed in Nagoya and on two art school campuses, while the Shinjuku store remains the flagship.
New York / 828 Broadway at 12th St
Strand Book Store combines new titles with used and rare books at its Broadway shop near East 12th Street. Benjamin Bass founded the business on Fourth Avenue in 1927, before the move to its present Broadway location in 1957. The mix gives readers room to compare recent publications with older editions across a broad selection of subjects.
Best for New, used and rare books near Union Square
165 Mohamed Farid Street, intersection with Abdel Khalek Tharwat Street, Downtown, Cairo, Egypt / Cairo / Egypt
Founded 1928 as a bilingual English-Arabic bookshop and publisher; still operating downtown in 2025 (Middle East Eye; 2025 visitor note).
Best for English- and Arabic-language books from a shop and publisher founded in 1928.
15 Rajpur Road, Dehradun
Established in 1923 and run by four generations of the same family, this Rajpur Road bookshop pairs its shelves with a book cafe added in 2010. It awards the annual Snehlata Prize to people who promote reading and supports literacy initiatives across the Doon Valley.
Best for Books and a reading cafe
King Street
Retail arm of the Preservation Society of Charleston, the country's oldest community-based historic preservation organization, founded in 1920. It stocks Charleston-made prints, books, textiles, and the annual commemorative Christmas ornament, with proceeds funding advocacy for the city's historic buildings.
Best for Charleston prints, books, and ornaments
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
The Rugged Press is a boutique letterpress print shop and design studio in Indianapolis, printing greeting cards, stationery, and custom invitations one sheet at a time on a restored 1909 Chandler & Price floor press. The LGBTQ+-owned studio grew out of its founders' letterpress classes into a full design practice built on more than 15 years of combined graphic-design experience.
Best for Letterpress stationery and custom prints
127 Main Street, Ennis, MT
A fly shop in southwest Montana, trading on Main Street in Ennis since 1937 and an Orvis-endorsed outfitter since 1991. The counter rigs anglers for the Madison River with rods, flies, and apparel, and the outfitting side books guided float and wade trips.
Best for Fly-fishing gear and guided Madison River trips
Tübingen / Germany
wenke kunst pairs a contemporary art gallery with a bookbindery and framing workshop that has operated in Tübingen since 1903. The team frames artwork to conservation standards and binds everything from single books to small print runs by hand.
Best for Art Gallery, Bookbinding, Framing
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