Press
Featured in The Telegraph - July 22, 2026
Arch Books was featured in The Telegraph with an article on Captain Henry D’Esterre Darby’s 1799 HMS Bellerophon pocket book, a rare surviving record of command within Nelson’s fleet.
The article focuses on Nelson’s order implementing the death sentence of William White, a boatswain’s mate convicted of mutinous conduct after threatening to “split” an officer’s head.
Containing 46 memoranda and orders, including approximately 40 new additions to the established published corpus of Nelson’s correspondence, the manuscript provides an unfiltered view of naval discipline, intelligence, morale and command during the Bay of Naples campaign.
Featured in the Daily Mail - July 22, 2026
The Daily Mail featured Arch Books and Captain Henry D’Esterre Darby’s remarkable 1799 pocket book from HMS Bellerophon.
Kept while Darby served with Nelson’s squadron in the Bay of Naples, the manuscript contains orders and memoranda from Nelson, Thomas Masterman Hardy, Sir Edward Berry, Earl St Vincent and other leading naval figures.
The article focused on Nelson’s order implementing the death sentence passed upon William White for mutinous conduct, alongside further entries concerning intelligence, discipline, casualties and prisoners.
Featured in Fine Books & Collections - July 3, 2026
Arch Books was featured in Fine Books & Collections as “Rare Book of the Week” for the HMS Bellerophon pocket book of Captain Henry D’Esterre Darby, kept between April and October 1799.
The article highlights the volume as a rare surviving working command notebook from Nelson’s squadron, chiefly kept while Darby served in the Bay of Naples after the Battle of the Nile.
Containing 46 memoranda and orders, including 35 copied from originals bearing Nelson’s signature, it records naval command in real time, from the execution order for William White to the Battle of the Nile anniversary order, intelligence instructions, casualty reports and prisoners in irons.
The feature places it among an exceptionally small group of surviving Nelson command manuscripts.
Featured in Antiques Trade Gazette - May 30, 2026
Arch Books was featured in Antiques Trade Gazette with an article on material from the private wartime library of Air Chief Marshal Lord Portal of Hungerford, Churchill’s Chief of the Air Staff.
The feature highlights Portal’s signed Edward Steichen portrait of Winston Churchill, President de Gaulle’s signed Mémoires de Guerre, and the RAF flying log book of Sgt Hugh Owen, ending with the poignant entry: “Operation Genoa - Missing.”
Featured in Antique Trader - May 19, 2026
Arch Books was featured in Antique Trader with an article on the private wartime library of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Charles Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford, Churchill’s Chief of the Air Staff.
The collection brings together presentation copies, signed photographs, wartime reports, and association material connecting Portal with Winston Churchill, General George C. Marshall, H. H. Arnold, Charles de Gaulle, Field Marshal Montgomery, Prince Philip, and other figures at the centre of Allied command.
Described in the article as a remarkable record of command, friendship, diplomacy, remembrance, and strategic thought, the library offers a paper trail through Churchill’s war rooms, Allied conferences, air strategy, American policy debate, and the post-war question of how air power would shape the modern world.
Featured in Antiques Trade Gazette - April 25, 2026
Arch Books was featured in Antiques Trade Gazette following the sale of Roald Amundsen’s personal expedition copy of Fridtjof Nansen’s Fram over Polhavet (Farthest North), priced at £24,500.
Signed by Amundsen and inscribed as having accompanied him “on all [his] travels,” the two-volume set formed a remarkable link between the central figures of Norwegian polar exploration and appears to have travelled with Amundsen during the period leading to his South Pole expedition.
Featured in Fine Books & Collections - May 15, 2026
Arch Books was featured in Fine Books & Collections with an article on a remarkable group of books, photographs, presentation copies and wartime material from the library of Air Chief Marshal Lord Portal of Hungerford, Chief of the Air Staff from 1940 to 1945.
The feature highlights General George C. Marshall’s U.S. Army Chief of Staff Report, specially bound and named in gilt to “Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Charles F. A. Portal”, alongside inscribed and presented material connected with some of the most significant Allied military figures of the Second World War.
Featured in Country Life - March 25, 2026
Arch Books was featured in Country Life (March 25, 2026), with a note on a remarkable pair of polar exploration volumes associated with Roald Amundsen, sold to a private collector.
The books, described as ‘almost without parallel in the market or in private collections’, had accompanied Amundsen on his expeditions and were signed and annotated in his hand. Their survival offers a rare insight into the working library of one of the great explorers of the age.
Featured in the Polish American Journal - August/September 2026
Arch Books was featured in the Polish American Journal with an article on the remarkable Polish wartime material preserved within the private library of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Portal, Britain’s wartime Chief of the Air Staff.
The feature focuses on Destiny Can Wait: The Polish Air Force in the Second World War, a specially bound presentation copy given to Portal by Polish airmen in 1949, together with material relating to the Polish Airmen’s Memorial and other presentation copies from Portal’s library. The article places these objects within the wider story of Polish airmen serving alongside the RAF and their place at the heart of the Allied war effort.
Arch Books joins the PBFA
Arch Books is pleased to announce its membership of the PBFA, the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association.
The PBFA is the United Kingdom’s leading association for professional antiquarian and rare booksellers, promoting scholarship, integrity, and excellence within the rare book trade.
Founded with a focus on rare books, manuscripts, fine bindings, travel and exploration, military and naval history, Arch Books continues to build a carefully curated catalogue of historically and bibliographically significant works.
Membership of the PBFA marks an important milestone in the continued growth of the business, and Arch Books looks forward to participating in future fairs and working with collectors, institutions, and fellow booksellers throughout the trade.