ACANTHUS
                                  antiquarian booksellers

Iris read History of Art at the University of Utrecht. After graduating in Medieval Architecture, she opened her own shop, Acanthus, at the Old Canal, in 1990. The beginning was sometimes difficult, but none the less the quality of the stock could be upgraded every year.

In 1994, Acanthus moved to a 17^thcentury house, with cellars dating back from the 12^th century, a national monument behind Utrecht´s cathedral, and surrounded by churches. The beautifully decorated chimneys and exiting inventory create an atmosphere of beauty and adventure.

After 17 years, Acanthus has become an internationally active business, specialized in illustrated books, travel, natural history, children’s books and ephemera. In addition, it maintains a fine inventory of popular prints, catchpenny prints, and paper toys. On a less regular basis one can also find books on art, architecture, science, printing techniques, photography & related, mathematics, optics, music, chess, horsemanship, books in fine bindings and so on ... in short everything that we find interesting, beautiful, remarkable or even weird. 

As long as Iris' 3 children are small (the youngest is 7 years old) we will only participate in a small number of international bookfairs.

Iris M. van Daalen

You can also meet us at fairs in New York, London, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, and San Francisco

View some articles about us (Text in Dutch. Nederlandse tekst).