About

We buy and sell books and manuscripts in all fields, especially medieval illuminated and text manuscripts; material on California, Hawaii, and Pacific voyages; illustrated books and fine bindings from the 15th through the 20th century; children's books from 1750 to 1950; and fine press printing. William Blake, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Thomas Frognall Dibdin remain special interests.

We hope you will contact us for any of your book needs: restoration and repair of books and manuscripts; bibliographical information and up-to-date retail and auction prices; informal valuations to formal appraisals of single items or entire collections; auction purchases worldwide (including eBay); and of course, purchases for and sales of your own collections. We guarantee every transaction unconditionally and, as members in good standing of the ABAA, ILAB, and PBFA, we subscribe to the code of ethics endorsed by reputable antiquarian booksellers worldwide.

About John Windle

John Windle was born in England in 1945. Educated at St. Ronan's, Wellington College, the Université de Poitiers à Tours, Sussex University (B.A. hons. English and European studies), and the University of California Berkeley (Ph.D. fellowship in the library school -- incomplete with honorable withdrawal), he moved to California after training with Bernard Quaritch Ltd. in London. He worked for John Howell-Books in San Francisco from 1971 to 1974, and opened his own business at 68 Post Street in partnership with Ron Randall to form Randall and Windle on April 1, 1975. That business later moved to 185 Post Street before Ron left for Santa Barbara in 1980 (where he ran Randall House until 2020) and John took the decade off to move to Venice CA, write and publish two bibliographies, travel around India studying Tibetan Buddhism and traverse America (on foot), finally reopening his shop in 1989 in San Francisco where he maintains his bookshop and gallery to this day. He has published or contributed to numerous books and articles including studies of William Blake, Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas Frognall Dibdin, William Morris, and the Grolier Club "100 Books Famous in Children's Literature", along with two slim volumes of poetry from his own press. His facsimile reprint of "The Grapes and Grape Vines of California" sold out in the de luxe edition and was reprinted by Harcourt Brace in a trade edition which also sold out. It was included in the Zamoranao Select catalogue of the 120 most important books published on the history of California. He partnered with Taschen in 2010 to produce a fine facsimile of the 1847 color-illustrated edition of Euclid by Byrne, which sold out and was reprinted in paperback. More recently John published a series of three articles on William Morris and the Kelmscott Press for the Roxburghe Club of San Francisco in 2018, and a new version by Stephen Mitchell of "The Heart Sutra" with the Providence Press in Ojai.

John is a former Master of the Press of the Roxburghe Club of San Francisco and a founding member of the Colophon Club, a member of the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie (Paris), the Grolier Club NY where he served on the Committee for Special Events, the Caxton Club Chicago, the Book Club of California San Francisco where he served on the Board, was chair of the Publications Committee and the Library Committee, and was Vice-President, the ABAA (Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America), the ILAB (International League of Antiquarian Booksellers), the PBFA (Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association), and the IOBA (Independent Online Booksellers Association). He had previously served on several boards and committees and was a Governor of the ABAA and chair of the PR and Publications Committees. John has served as an expert witness on the rarity and valuation of books, manuscripts and book-related art work, and in 2016 his opinion prevailed in a case involving millions of dollars worth of books and art. In 2016 he opened an art gallery devoted to William Blake and his circle with a revolving inventory of about 2000 books, prints, and original artwork and he has spoken on Blake to audiences from Melbourne to New York to Los Angeles. He was also elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society. In his spare time he plays golf.

John is married to Chris Loker, curator and lead author of the landmark Grolier Club publication "One Hundred Books Famous in Childrens' Literature" (2014) and curator and author of scholarly reference books and children's books. She also wrote a book titled "A Shimmer of Joy: One Hundred Picture Books in America," published by The Book Club of California in 2019 . Their son Evan Loker lives in San Diego and attended SDSU where he earned his MBA; he now works for Consor, an intellectual property consulting and valuation firm in La Jolla. His wife Alexandra Lyman Loker is vice president of development at the Rady Children's Hospital Foundation in San Diego . Their first son, Ellis Loker, was born in 2017, and second son, Pierce Loker, arrived in 2019.