Margaret Ford
International Head of Group, Books & Science | Books & Manuscripts
A recognised authority on early printing, Meg has handled rare books ranging from editio princeps of classical texts, beautiful botanical books, ground-breaking scientific texts, and great world literature, setting auction records in all these fields, with books such as Pacioli’s Summa de Arithmetica ($1.215m, 2019), Adam Smith’s own copy of The Wealth of Nations (£908,000, 2018), Besler’s Hortus Eystettensis, (£1.9m, 2016), and a deluxe vellum copy of the 1470 Virgil (£1.2m, 2013). She led the team in the record-breaking sale of a printed Columbus Letter ($3.9 million, 2023), an autograph manuscript with Isaac Newton's revisions of his Principia for the second edition (£1.7m, 2021) and masterminded the series of Beltrame and Braune science sales. She was responsible for the only auction coinciding with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death (Shakespeare, The Four Folios, 25 May 2016) and likes to think that she may be the only person since the 18th century to have sold 7 copies of the First Folio in as many years; she regularly features on documentaries about Shakespeare’s First Folio. Her rare book research has led to numerous discoveries and detecting books stolen from the Danish Royal Library.
Meg is the author of the two-volume catalogue of incunabula in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam (1989); a contributing author to The History of the Book in Britain, vol. III (Cambridge University Press: 1999), and of numerous articles in scholarly journals. She has been an invited speaker at the Library of Congress, the British Library, the Grolier Club and elsewhere and has given bibliographic masterclasses at Cambridge University Library. Meg is a past-President of the Bibliographical Society, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a member of the Grolier Club and the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie, and she sits on the development board of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Meg speaks German fluently.
Meg is the author of the two-volume catalogue of incunabula in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam (1989); a contributing author to The History of the Book in Britain, vol. III (Cambridge University Press: 1999), and of numerous articles in scholarly journals. She has been an invited speaker at the Library of Congress, the British Library, the Grolier Club and elsewhere and has given bibliographic masterclasses at Cambridge University Library. Meg is a past-President of the Bibliographical Society, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a member of the Grolier Club and the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie, and she sits on the development board of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Meg speaks German fluently.
