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Five Months on The Yang-Tsze -
Thomas W. Blakiston
1862 - John Murray, London - First Edition
First edition in scarce original publisher’s cloth. Illustrated by Alfred Barton, with sixteen full page woodcut engraved plates, eight in-text engravings, and two folding maps by John Arrowsmith of The Yang-Tze Kiang from Han-Kow to Ping-Shan [64x21cm] and China [31x22cm].
Blakiston [1832-91] was an English army officer, explorer and naturalist who served with the British forces in Ireland, Nova Scotia and the Crimea before being posted to Canton during the second Opium War in 1859.
While in Canton, Blakiston organised this expedition, navigating ‘one of the greatest rivers in the world a distance of eighteen hundred miles’. ‘Despite the region being subject to extensive insurgency, Blakiston was able to travel 900 miles further up the river than any European before him except Jesuits wearing local attire.
His narrative, divided into nineteen chapters with illustrations by Alfred Barton, contains many observations relating to the politically volatile situation in China as well as descriptions of the local landscape, flora and fauna. It remained the standard account of the region for fifty years’. [Cambridge Library Collection]
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Price HK$ 8,000
1862 - John Murray, London - First Edition
First edition in scarce original publisher’s cloth. Illustrated by Alfred Barton, with sixteen full page woodcut engraved plates, eight in-text engravings, and two folding maps by John Arrowsmith of The Yang-Tze Kiang from Han-Kow to Ping-Shan [64x21cm] and China [31x22cm].Blakiston [1832-91] was an English army officer, explorer and naturalist who served with the British forces in Ireland, Nova Scotia and the Crimea before being posted to Canton during the second Opium War in 1859.
While in Canton, Blakiston organised this expedition, navigating ‘one of the greatest rivers in the world a distance of eighteen hundred miles’. ‘Despite the region being subject to extensive insurgency, Blakiston was able to travel 900 miles further up the river than any European before him except Jesuits wearing local attire.
His narrative, divided into nineteen chapters with illustrations by Alfred Barton, contains many observations relating to the politically volatile situation in China as well as descriptions of the local landscape, flora and fauna. It remained the standard account of the region for fifty years’. [Cambridge Library Collection]
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Price HK$ 8,000
Julens Tolv Dage - Inscribed to Ronald Searle -
Doreen and Lars Bo
1953 - O.C. Olsen &, Denmark
One of 850 copies privately printed for Doreen and Lars Bo to give to friends.
A fine copy, of this personal interpretation in Danish of the traditional carol ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’, written and beautifully illustrated by renowned Danish artist and illustrator Lars Bo, with gilt illustrated blue paper wrappers, and inscribed from Doreen and Lars Bo to their friends the equally renowned illustrator Ronald Searle and his wife, the journalist and publisher Kaye Webb.
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Price HK$ 2,000
1953 - O.C. Olsen &, Denmark
One of 850 copies privately printed for Doreen and Lars Bo to give to friends.A fine copy, of this personal interpretation in Danish of the traditional carol ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’, written and beautifully illustrated by renowned Danish artist and illustrator Lars Bo, with gilt illustrated blue paper wrappers, and inscribed from Doreen and Lars Bo to their friends the equally renowned illustrator Ronald Searle and his wife, the journalist and publisher Kaye Webb.
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Price HK$ 2,000
La Chine et les Chinois -
Auguste Borget
1842 - Goupil &, Paris - First Edition
Complete set of this renowned and highly prized collection of plates on China, including views of Hong Kong, Macao, and Canton.
Tinted lithographic title page and thirty two sepia tinted lithographic plates on 25 sheets by Eugène Cicéri after Borget, letterpress text and title page, and two leaves of dedication.
‘The feeling of superiority to the Chinese, so characteristic of accounts from the 1840s, is absent here. The artist observes with a fresh eye.’ - Lust, Western Travellers in China.
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Price HK$ 210,000
1842 - Goupil &, Paris - First Edition
Complete set of this renowned and highly prized collection of plates on China, including views of Hong Kong, Macao, and Canton.Tinted lithographic title page and thirty two sepia tinted lithographic plates on 25 sheets by Eugène Cicéri after Borget, letterpress text and title page, and two leaves of dedication.
‘The feeling of superiority to the Chinese, so characteristic of accounts from the 1840s, is absent here. The artist observes with a fresh eye.’ - Lust, Western Travellers in China.
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Price HK$ 210,000
Drums -
James Boyd, N. C. Wyeth (Illustrator)
1928 - Charles Scribner's Sons, New York - First Edition, Second Issue
Finely bound copy of Boyd’s epic novel of the American Revolution, highlighted by N. C. Wyeth’s iconic illustrations, black and white pen drawings, colour title page and fourteen full-page colour plates.
One of Life magazine’s 100 most outstanding books for 1924-1944.
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Price HK$ 4,000
1928 - Charles Scribner's Sons, New York - First Edition, Second Issue
Finely bound copy of Boyd’s epic novel of the American Revolution, highlighted by N. C. Wyeth’s iconic illustrations, black and white pen drawings, colour title page and fourteen full-page colour plates.One of Life magazine’s 100 most outstanding books for 1924-1944.
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Price HK$ 4,000
Fahrenheit 451 - Signed -
Ray Bradbury
1953 - Ballantine Books, New York - First edition
One of the Most Desirable Rarities in Modern Science Fiction.
First edition, one of 200 copies, of which this is number 36, signed by Bradbury and bound in ‘an asbestos material with exceptional resistance to pyrolysis’.
An outstanding, tight and bright copy, whose magnificently named binding material ‘Johns-Manville Quinterra’, a fireproof asbestos material, is prone to crumbling, staining, and soiling.
‘Frightening in its implications.’ - New York Times.
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Price HK$ 250,000
1953 - Ballantine Books, New York - First edition
One of the Most Desirable Rarities in Modern Science Fiction.First edition, one of 200 copies, of which this is number 36, signed by Bradbury and bound in ‘an asbestos material with exceptional resistance to pyrolysis’.
An outstanding, tight and bright copy, whose magnificently named binding material ‘Johns-Manville Quinterra’, a fireproof asbestos material, is prone to crumbling, staining, and soiling.
‘Frightening in its implications.’ - New York Times.
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Price HK$ 250,000
Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat -
Ernest Bramah
1928 - The Richards Press Ltd., London - First Edition, in first issue dust jacket
‘The more you can consume, the less will be this self-conscious person’s shame at the insipidity of what he puts before you; the longer you can tolerate his worn-out roof, the greater will be the confidence with which he can henceforth continue to dwell beneath it...’
The third collection of stories in Brahmah’s ‘Kai Lung’ series: a brilliant literary fusion of myths, legends, and cosmology from the Golden age of Han, tied together with Bramah’s keen eye for combining historic fiction and comedy. Kai Lung, our hapless yet loveable protagonist, must once again defeat his enemies and win back his kidnapped wife; Hwa-Mei, by weaving together seemingly unconnected parables and tales until an overarching narrative is skilfully revealed.
A seminal influence in the genre of speculative fiction, Bramah’s works have been compared with those of Jerome K. Jerome, and PG Wodehouse. His work went on to inspire writers such as Dorothy L Sayers, Jorge Luis Borges, and George Orwell, among many others.
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Price HK$ 2,000
1928 - The Richards Press Ltd., London - First Edition, in first issue dust jacket
‘The more you can consume, the less will be this self-conscious person’s shame at the insipidity of what he puts before you; the longer you can tolerate his worn-out roof, the greater will be the confidence with which he can henceforth continue to dwell beneath it...’The third collection of stories in Brahmah’s ‘Kai Lung’ series: a brilliant literary fusion of myths, legends, and cosmology from the Golden age of Han, tied together with Bramah’s keen eye for combining historic fiction and comedy. Kai Lung, our hapless yet loveable protagonist, must once again defeat his enemies and win back his kidnapped wife; Hwa-Mei, by weaving together seemingly unconnected parables and tales until an overarching narrative is skilfully revealed.
A seminal influence in the genre of speculative fiction, Bramah’s works have been compared with those of Jerome K. Jerome, and PG Wodehouse. His work went on to inspire writers such as Dorothy L Sayers, Jorge Luis Borges, and George Orwell, among many others.
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Price HK$ 2,000
Hundred Altars -
Juliet Bredon
1936 - Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai - Special Far Eastern Edition.
Unusually for Bredon’s works this was first published in London 1934, and later presented here as the Special Far Eastern Edition, published in Shanghai, and with the scarce and delicate Kelly and Walsh dust jacket. Normally the first editions of Bredon were published by Kelly and Walsh.
‘Hundred Altars is the name of a village in Northern China, an impressive first novel by Juliet Bredon, long term expatriate and author of several detailed historical and descriptive works on China. Penetrates the soul of that vast country, revealing its people, its customs, its struggles as they have seldom if ever been revealed before. The soul of a nation lies in the hearts of its peasantry, and it is of the peasantry that this novel so unforgettably deals. We see them here in the strange humility, with those traits of character so curious in our eyes, these men and women and children of the village of Hundred Altars; they live before us so vividly that the story becomes one of intense personal importance to the reader.’ - publishers description.
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Price HK$ 4,000
1936 - Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai - Special Far Eastern Edition.
Unusually for Bredon’s works this was first published in London 1934, and later presented here as the Special Far Eastern Edition, published in Shanghai, and with the scarce and delicate Kelly and Walsh dust jacket. Normally the first editions of Bredon were published by Kelly and Walsh.‘Hundred Altars is the name of a village in Northern China, an impressive first novel by Juliet Bredon, long term expatriate and author of several detailed historical and descriptive works on China. Penetrates the soul of that vast country, revealing its people, its customs, its struggles as they have seldom if ever been revealed before. The soul of a nation lies in the hearts of its peasantry, and it is of the peasantry that this novel so unforgettably deals. We see them here in the strange humility, with those traits of character so curious in our eyes, these men and women and children of the village of Hundred Altars; they live before us so vividly that the story becomes one of intense personal importance to the reader.’ - publishers description.
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Price HK$ 4,000
Notes on Yachts (First Series) -
Edwin Brett
1869 - Sampson Low, London - First Edition
A superb example of this rare little instructional, dealing with the design of yachts, together with a short overview of yacht sailing. Illustrated with frontispiece from a drawing by John Brett, engraved by J. D. Cooper.
Despite the notification of this being the first Series in the title, there were no further series published.
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Price HK$ 2,800
1869 - Sampson Low, London - First Edition
A superb example of this rare little instructional, dealing with the design of yachts, together with a short overview of yacht sailing. Illustrated with frontispiece from a drawing by John Brett, engraved by J. D. Cooper.Despite the notification of this being the first Series in the title, there were no further series published.
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Price HK$ 2,800