In Jacksonville, Florida, I stumbled upon a very nice shop for people interested in heraldry to visit. Black Sheep Books, a used book store, has a much better heraldry section than almost any other store I've encountered. This is because the proprietor is a heraldry buff. He was very friendly and helpful to me, and I recommend that anyone living near or passing through should make a stop.

Are there stores in other cities that we should make sure we check out?

Here in Minneapolis-St. Paul I could show you several excellent used book shops and take straight to the heraldry "section," but it is unusual to find more than 5 titles on heraldry. Now that I have over 100 books on the subject, its rare to find something that I don't have already.

I seem to recall McIntyre and Moore Booksellers in Somerville, MA near Harvard having a pretty good selecion (I actually had to choose just a few affordable heraldry books instead of buying every book on the subject which I did not yet have). http://www.mcintyreandmoore.com/

Charing Cross Road in London is also rich territory for any type of book. Foyles has several floors full of books and they had an awesome heraldry selection: http://www.foyles.co.uk/

The champion is the specialist heraldry bookshop called Heraldry Today.

http://www.heraldrytoday.co.uk

I would guess that 99% of their business is mail-order, and I have gotten some of my most hard-to-find items from them, such as The College of Arms, Queen Victoria Streetand Heralds of England and A History of the College of Arms. Imagine my joy on the day that a big parcel came to my door wrapped in a nylon ROYAL MAIL bag (I still have the bag).

I had the great fortune to visit the actual shop 10 years ago on a trip to the UK. It is located in Ramsbury, Wiltshire, a classic little English village a few miles from Marlborough. The shop is in a centuries-old carriage house or stable next to a large old house. Wonderful books! I bought a stack of books and came *this close* to buying a framed Grant of Arms from the 1550s signed by Gilbert Dethick (Garter) and William Flower (Norroy). It was GPB900 which worked out to about $1600US back then. Couldn't justify spending that on something to hang on my wall but I wanted wanted wanted it!

Terrific post! Many thanks. Wherever I go on my next trip to Britain, I will have to make sure to veer off to Ramsbury. Here in the US of course one does not run across 500 year old relics. I feel your pangs.

Thanks for all the good leads.

Moe's in Berkeley, CA also has a better than average heraldry section (they actually have a section!) at the beginning of their English History section. I've gotten many nice books there!

Thanks, staffordcastle. I will put Moe's on my list too. Appreciate the tip.

I had the good fortune to live in the greater London area back when Heraldry Today still maintained a small shop in Knightsbridge -- back-and-behind on a side street. Finding it was almost like finding Sirius Black's house in Order of the Phoenix; you can't do it until someone else takes you there for the first time. :)

And their catalogs were a heraldist's Wish Book!

Foyles was a lot of fun. It's cobbled together from two or three buildings, so there are odd little up and down staircases to accommodate the differing floor spacings among them.

And speaking of the Twin Cities, I picked up a (spare) like-new copy of von Volborth's _The Art of Heraldry_ at the Maplewood Half-Price Books for $6.98 a few days ago. Treasures are where you find them.

I spent far too much money at the Heraldry Today bookstore in Knightbridge. Sadly, when I put the SCA behind me, I got rid of my heraldry collection. Hopefully they are still floating around the SCA being used and loved as I loved them. Just thinking about the bookstore and the books brings a flood of fond memories of friends found and lost.

Apart from Heraldry Today, the bain of my heraldic and onomastic existence is Oxbow Books. Their online listings don't have a separate category for heraldry or onomastics, so you have to browse through the larger categories to find the books, which means, if you're like me, you're liable to find lots of other titles that you're interested in. My most recent order of 19 books just arrived today...