About Us

Collecting. Duncan McLaren has been collecting books and other antiquarian items for over 25 years, and during that time he has gained an unparalleled amount of knowledge in his primary  field of interest, 19th century Canadiana/Americana.  It is his love of antiquarian items, his desire to learn more, and his interest to assist other collectors which ultimately influenced his decision to become a professional antiquarian seller.

Lord Durham Rare Books Inc. (LDRB) was established as a professional full-time business in February of 2008 - since then, his personal approach and energy have helped seasoned and new collectors both build their collections and locate tomes which have been long sought after.

The core foundation of LDRB is built on both Duncan's positive and negative experiences as a collector. Two decades of owning and running a highly successful Marketing and Promotional agency in Toronto, McLaren Marketing Inc., also helped foster Duncan's entrepreneurial spirit and a perfect fit for running an independant antiquarian business.  The  paradigm shift in the book world away from Bricks and Mortar retailing to internet selling has also motivated him to become a seller, not just a collector.

As a collector however, he often found it difficult to locate information on my authors and fields of interest.  It's not that the information wasn't out there, it's just that it was difficult to find - often there is too much information to sort through!  Duncan leaned how to track down rare volumes or obscure bibliographical information as a collector and greatly improved this skill as a dealer.

Duncan realized there is a huge opportunity to significantly improve the kinds of personal services to both private and institutional collectors. As well, he want to constantly improve the kinds of personal services for collectors wanted and looked for. In some cases, customers simply want to buy a gift for family member or friend however make it more personal and special. After all, the options, choices, and selection of collectibles available to collectors have exploded over the years!

Granted, not even special collections librarians has the time or energy to "sort out and streamline" to their elusive wants list.  We do.  The approach we take at LDRB is very simple. We work with each LDRB collector in the way that Duncan would have liked to have been treated as a collector! 

This means more than just entering an authors name into a search engine or online listing site.  This means thinking about and understanding your motivation for collecting, researching your field of interest, and locating higher quality, interesting and special items for you.

We want you to feel like you have received full value for your money. The above  attitude and approach is summed up in our statement, "Helping Collectors Collect®".

LDRB customers tell us they greatly appreciate and benefit from this approach and attitude. And we love doing it!