About Us

Laurelle Swan, the proprietor, was drawn to old books as a child. Having completed a successful career in business and corporate sales, Laurelle decided to share her love of fine books with others and thus Swan’s Fine Books was born.

Swan’s Fine Books opened its doors in May of 2013 as a general collectible / antiquarian shop in order to serve the Walnut Creek community and our neighbors.  During covid we were temporarily closed and were online only - however, in April of 2021 we were thrilled to re-open in our new location in the "Ygnacio Adobe".

We are pleased to also offer our books to friends across the globe via our web site, and also by our listings through various third-party web sites.

We are members of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA), its international affiliate, the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB), and the Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA).  As such, we adhere to a strict code of ethics and strive for customer satisfaction with every transaction.

Laurelle is also a member of various book-related associations including The Roxburghe Club of San Francisco, the Grolier Club, the Colophon Club, and the Book Club of California; if you would like additional information on any of these, please contact us for more details.

About Our Collection

Swan's Fine Books offers rare and collectable books in a wide range of general interest subjects.  While some of these books are listed online, many are not and we encourage you to contact us with any special needs you may have.

Our specialities are Fine Press, Illustrated, and Artist books, and it is these that you will most likely find on our web site and at book fairs.  We particularly love the early British fine presses, such as the Kelmscott Press, the Ashendene Press, the Cresset Press, and the Golden Cockerel Press.  Illustrators of which we are particularly fond include Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, and Eric Gill – but there are so many it’s impossible to name them all.

We also adore the creativity and ingenuity of book artists such as Susan Allix, Charles Hobson, Dmitry Sayenko and Caroline Saltzwedel.  The joy that comes from book forms other than the traditional codex, and from variations such as cut-outs or inserts consisting of old sheet music is indescribable!  Each of these book artists design and create their works with their own hands, publishing extremely limited editions of their work.

Considering Downsizing?

We invite those with quality collectable books for sale to contact us, we purchase individual books as well as entire libraries.  We are happy to discuss your collection in more detail and make arrangements for viewing it and discussing purchase terms.