Sonny Ideker, Bookseller Rare & Antiquarian, Leather & Vellum Bound Books

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Sonny Ideker, Bookseller Rare & Antiquarian, Leather & Vellum Bound Books Antiquarian & Rare Books, Leather and Vellum Bound. Important 1st Editions, Rare Manuscripts, Limited Edition Multi-volume Sets. Serving clients worldwide.

Today we had the pleasure of welcoming a group of high school seniors from New Creation Christian Academy to Sonny Ideke...
09/09/2026

Today we had the pleasure of welcoming a group of high school seniors from New Creation Christian Academy to Sonny Ideker Bookseller for a closer look at the history of the written word and the book itself.

We talked about how books have changed through the centuries, from manuscript culture and hand-written texts to the codex, early printing, bindings, illustration, and the preservation of the physical book. The students asked thoughtful questions and were especially interested in seeing books printed on vellum and other animal skins, as well as examples from the very infancy of printing.

There is something different about seeing these things in person. A date in a textbook becomes much more tangible when you can stand in front of a book that was made more than five centuries ago, examine the materials, see how it was constructed, and understand that the object itself has survived through generations of readers.

We enjoy being part of the community and especially enjoy opportunities to introduce younger people to the history, craftsmanship, and stories contained in old books. We are always glad to welcome students, teachers, collectors, curious readers, and anyone who simply wants to learn something they did not know before.

VisitSonny Ideker Bookseller
Inside City Antiques & Interior Arts
700 Holcomb Bridge Rd., Roswell, GA
Open 7 days a week

Shop online anytime: https://antiquarianrarebooks.etsy.com

That Rare Book Guy City Antiques & Interior Arts

07/31/2026

Visit 📍Sonny Ideker Bookseller to experience books dating back to 1480!!

Some of our favorite moments are watching first-time visitors discover the shop, ask good, thoughtful questions, and los...
07/26/2026

Some of our favorite moments are watching first-time visitors discover the shop, ask good, thoughtful questions, and lose themselves among the books. Whether someone stays for a few minutes or spends an entire afternoon exploring, we enjoy sharing what we know and hearing the stories, interests, and knowledge they bring with them. We learn something from nearly everyone who visits, so it truly is a win-win experience for everyone.

We especially love welcoming families. Young children are invited to choose a free book each time they visit, giving them another reason to look forward to coming back and beginning a collection of their own.

Thank you to everyone who has stopped by, and especially to those who found an interesting book to take home. Your purchases help us continue finding, researching, and sharing these wonderful books. Thank you.

Most of all, thank you to those who return with family and friends. Knowing you enjoyed your visit enough to bring someone you love means more to us than you may realize.

Come explore with us inside Antiques & Interior Arts in Roswell. We are open seven days a week, and there is always something new to discover.

City Antiques & Interior Arts That Rare Book Guy Sonny Ideker, Bookseller Rare & Antiquarian, Leather & Vellum Bound Books

🐦 Birds are not real. 😉But birds have inspired artists, explorers, scientists, and collectors for centuries, and that hi...
07/18/2026

🐦 Birds are not real. 😉

But birds have inspired artists, explorers, scientists, and collectors for centuries, and that history fills an entire section of our shop.

From the monumental works of John James Audubon, John Gould, Jacob Studer, Thomas Bewick, Alexander Wilson, William Yarrell, and Francis Orpen Morris, to field guides, natural history, and ornithological studies from America, Britain, Europe, India, and beyond, our ornithology shelves offer something for both the serious collector and the curious visitor.

Many of these volumes feature beautiful hand-colored plates, produced long before color photography. Each illustration was individually colored by hand, making every copy a small work of art. The richness of the colors, fine engraving, and remarkable attention to feather detail remind us that these books were created not only to educate, but to inspire wonder.

Whether your interest is waterfowl, birds of prey, songbirds, nests and eggs, migration, identification, or the history of ornithology itself, you'll find volumes ranging from the mid-1800s through the twentieth century, including finely bound sets, oversized folios, and scarce illustrated works.

There is something special about turning the pages of a book whose illustrations were carefully hand-colored more than 150 years ago.

We invite you to stop by, browse the shelves, and spend a little time among the birds. 🦜

📍 Sonny Ideker Bookseller
Inside City Antiques & Interior Arts
700 Holcomb Bridge Rd.
Roswell, GA 30076

Open 7 days a week. Shop 24/7 at https://antiquarianrarebooks.etsy.com

Looking for something specific? Email [email protected]

🗽Happy 4th Of July from Sonny Ideker Bookseller 🗽Sonny and I are at our desk today, surrounded by the books, history, an...
07/04/2026

🗽Happy 4th Of July from Sonny Ideker Bookseller 🗽

Sonny and I are at our desk today, surrounded by the books, history, and familiar faces that make this place what it is. As the country begins celebrating the Semi-quincentennial, we invite you to bring the family, wander the aisles, ask questions, and spend a little time with the past.

Not everything has to be rushed, clicked, or scrolled past. Some things are still worth seeing in person.

We are open today from 10–6 inside City Antiques & Interior Arts, 700 Holcomb Bridge Road, Roswell, Georgia.

Come celebrate with us.

City Antiques & Interior Arts That Rare Book Guy

For the Fourth of July, we are looking at American history through the books that explore it, shaped it, recorded it, an...
07/03/2026

For the Fourth of July, we are looking at American history through the books that explore it, shaped it, recorded it, and sometimes questioned it.

New in the shop is a fore-edge painting showing Mount Rushmore, the Capitol, and the Washington Monument; hidden on the edge of the pages until the book is gently fanned. Around it, we have gathered a few pieces that speak to the long, complicated, fascinating story of this country:

The Writings of Thomas Jefferson
The Life Of George Washington by John Marshall, with the scarce atlas
Works relating to Theodore Roosevelt
Catlin’s North American Indians
The Smithsonian Scientific Series
A Bible given to Jimmy Carter
And more from our American history, exploration, religion, natural history, and fine binding sections

These are not just patriotic books, or decorations. They are artifacts of memory, argument, ambition, belief, discovery, and national identity. Some celebrate America. Some complicate it. All of them ask us to look a little closer.

Come see them in person at Sonny Ideker Bookseller, inside City Antiques & Interior Arts, 700 Holcomb Bridge Road, Roswell, Georgia.

Open Monday–Saturday, 10–6.
Shop online anytime at https://antiquarianrarebooks.etsy.com

Questions welcome. Someone is always here to help.


City Antiques & Interior Arts That Rare Book Guy

We The People — in the most literal, weighty, beautifully made sense.This extraordinary limited edition portfolio was pr...
06/30/2026

We The People — in the most literal, weighty, beautifully made sense.

This extraordinary limited edition portfolio was produced in 1987 to mark the 200th anniversary of the writing of the United States Constitution. Numbered 102 of only 250 copies, it is less a book than a monumental tribute to the American founding documents.

Inside are facsimiles of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson’s draft, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, George Washington’s annotated copy of the Constitution, Franklin’s famous “Join, or Die” image, early patriotic engravings, and an original signed and numbered color triptych lithograph by Paul Jenkins.

The production is remarkable: oversized elephant folio format, red leather presentation case, gilt detailing, vellum, full-rag paper, hand-colored engravings, bronze medallions, and the kind of craftsmanship rarely seen in modern publishing.

According to a Sotheby’s catalogue description for another example, although the edition was numbered at 250, only a handful may actually have been produced. Its texts were hand-set in period-conscious type and printed using an 18th-century hand press, giving the work a deliberate connection to the world of early American printing.

This is far more than a Bicentennial keepsake. It is patriotic without being disposable, historical without being distant. Beautiful, massive, deliberate, and meant to be seen in person.

Available at Sonny Ideker Bookseller, inside City Antiques & Interior Arts, 700 Holcomb Bridge Road, Roswell, Georgia.

Come stand in front of it, turn the pages, and remember that the words “We The People” were not born as decoration. They were set down, argued over, preserved, and passed forward.

City Antiques & Interior Arts

In getting ready for a busy day, I was looking through the stacks, straightening and placing, and came across a second c...
06/27/2026

In getting ready for a busy day, I was looking through the stacks, straightening and placing, and came across a second copy of The Comic History of Rome I didn't realize we had... I opened it, intending only to enjoy a few of its hand-colored plates drawn by John Leech, but instead landed on a passage that felt less like ancient history and more like a warning(?) carried forward.

Writing about public games in Rome, the author, Gilbert Beckett, observes that those who staged the most extravagant amusements were often the most likely to rise higher in public office, because popularity belonged to those skilled in “dazzling, rather than permanently enlightening the people.”

That sentence stopped me.

The Romans understood spectacle. They understood distraction. They understood that public attention could be bought, diverted, and rewarded. The details change, the costumes change, the screens get brighter, but the pattern is not new.

Sometimes all it takes is reading a little more than what is glowing in front of us to recognize what we are seeing.

This has happened before. It will happen again. But it should still be seen for what it is.

Sonny Ideker Bookseller invites you to come spend some time in the stacks and see for yourself what history has been trying to tell us. The books are still speaking, if we are willing to listen.

Open 7 days a week within City Antiques at 700 Holcomb Bridge Rd in Roswell, GA. We hope to see you!

City Antiques & Interior Arts That Rare Book Guy

Address

700 Holcomb Bridge Road (inside City Antiques)
Roswell, GA
30076

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 6pm
Tuesday 10am - 6pm
Wednesday 10am - 6pm
Thursday 10am - 6pm
Friday 10am - 6pm
Saturday 10am - 6pm
Sunday 12pm - 6pm

Telephone

+17708533311

Website

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