An antiquarian bookshop sells old books — often rare ones, sometimes falling apart, sometimes worth a lot. The word points to old printed things and the people who love them, not to old chairs in a general junk shop. As a noun, an antiquarian is a person who studies or collects old books and old objects. The adjective is the one you will meet on shop signs: antiquarian books, antiquarian maps. It is a learned, slightly dusty word. Though actually, antique shop is the everyday cousin: that one sells old furniture and pretty objects. If you want old novels with brown, spotted pages, you want antiquarian. The feeling is specialist, not “granny’s cupboard.”