Results 33 - 40 of 56 results

The Chinese Government. A Manual of Chinese Titles, Categorically Arranged and Explained, with an Appendix - William Frederick Mayers, revised by G.M.H, Playfair, H.B.M. Consul, Ningpo

1897 - Kelly &, Shanghai - Third Edition
A rare example of this detailed work on the inner workings of China’s complex administrative network, by one of the foremost Chinese scholars of the period.

This work became a standard reference for consulates (this copy being formerly owned by the German Consulate in Nanking and then Shanghai), as well as merchants and those translating Chinese texts and edicts.
 
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Price HK$ 16,000



Shanghai Paper Hunt Club - A Short Resume of the Season 1929-1930. - Major E. H. McMichael

1930 - North-China Daily News &, Shanghai - First and Only Edition
An extremely rare and fine little one-off production, only printed for this particular season. As explained in the foreword ‘For certain reasons it was deemed undesirable to publish the accounts of the past Season’s Hunts in the daily press, but in order that a complete record of the sport during 1929-30 might be preserved for future reference, the Stewards considered that it would be much appreciated, both by members and friends, if some account of the Hunts held could be published in pamphlet form.’ Why it was ‘deemed undesirable’ they do not explain.

A fine copy illustrated with 20 photographs and two sketches. The resume covers nine Paper Hunts and three Handicap races from November 24th, 1929 to February 23rd, 1930. With a list of events for the Shanghai Hounds’ Drag Hunts Season of 1929-30 to the rear.
 
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Price HK$ 9,000



The Grandeur of the Gorges - Donald Mennie

1926 - A. S. Watson &, Shanghai - First Edition, number 699 of 1, 000 numbered copies.
A fine first edition of this important work containing twelve hand-tinted gelatin silver prints and thirty eight photogravures [15x21cm], each tipped-in from photographs taken by Donald Mennie. Enhanced with pen and ink sketches by Lt.Col. H. G. Gandy and descriptive notes by Lieut.-Comdr. H. Foote Carey opposite each plate. Introduction by Marc T. Greene, and preface by Mennie.

Mennie “took the pictures during two trips on the upper Yangtze River in China: the first on a steamer from Ichang to Chungking, during poor weather, and the second between Ichang and Wan Hsien. The book ends at Chungking, “the great metropolis of Western China”, 1,400 miles from the sea. His apocalyptic vision of the city is seen across the 700 yard stretch of turbulent water where the current was so strong it could take an hour to cross. Between the angry, storm filled sky, and the reflecting, threatening water, the scale of the city is compacted into a strange and ominous shape.” [National Galleries of Scotland]
 
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Price HK$ 16,000



Eighteen views taken at & near Rangoon [Views in the Birman Empire] - with - Rangoon Views and Combined Operations in the Birman Empire - Lieutenant Joseph Moore, Captain Frederick Marryat

October 1825 - January 1826 - Kingsbury &, London - First Editions
A rare set of these twenty three hand-coloured aquatint plates from the first and second series, exceptionally bright colours. Together with the engraved allegorical title-dedication leaf for the ‘Eighteen Views’ [First Series] by R. W. Smart after Thomas Stothard, the aquatint leaf listing the eight most important subscribers with large vignette by J. Bromley after Thomas Stothard, and six page lithographed list of subscribers in England and India.

These aquatint plates, published during the First Anglo-Burmese War of 1824-1826, concentrate on Rangoon, captured by the British in 1824. In the subject matter of the plates there is an interesting comparison between graphic battle scenes and picturesque views of the Burmese countryside and architecture. Although Moore wished to record the details of the battles he was involved in, he also wanted to depict the pagodas, temples and views around Rangoon.

A complete set of the first series of eighteen plates from drawings by Lieutenant Joseph Moore, together with five plates from the second series from original sketches by Captain Marryat, which were published eight months later.

With rather fabulous provenance, coming from the Honourable East India Company’s East India College Library (with their armourial bookplate), which was founded in 1806. The ‘
Eighteen Views’ are dedicated to the Court of Directors of the East India Company. The contemporary binding is by Stephen Austin of Hertford, Stephen Austin had been associated with the East India College since boyhood. When it closed in 1858 he was a leading member of the group which set up the public school in William Wilkins’s classical buildings at Hertford Heath.

Plate 16, in first state with ‘ajacent’ (corrected to adjacent in the second state), and plate 14 of the first series and plates 1, 2, & 3 of the second series marked ‘Proof’. The Abbey catalogue notes that ‘... it does not seem that the appearance or non-appearance of the word 'Proof' can be made into an issue point, and, in fact, it seems that all the plate differences must be ascribed to states, not issues’.
 
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Price HK$ 135,000



Soochow: The Garden City - F. R. Nance

1936 - Kelly &, Shanghai - First Edition
A fine and exemplary example of this beautifully illustrated guide to the ‘Garden City’.

With twenty four black and white photographic plates of photographs by H. C. Wong and four folding maps, as well as a
Map of the Waterways Around Soochow highlighted in green and used as endpapers.

Florence Rush Nance (1875-1940) was an American teacher of mathematics and chemistry at the McTyeire School for Young Ladies in Shanghai (now the Shanghai No. 3 Girls' High School). She was the first woman to receive a degree in science from Vanderbilt. Nance also taught at Soochow University where her husband was President.
 
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Price HK$ 6,000



An Embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham Emperour of China - Johan Nieuhoff, John Ogilby

1669 - Printed by John Macock for the Author, London - First Edition in English
One of the great 17th century works on China, translated and published by John Ogilby, noteworthy not only for the text, bringing notice of the mysteries of the East to English readers, but for the magnificent engraved illustrations and plates.

In contemporary full calf and profusely illustrated throughout with portrait frontispiece, added pictorial title-page (signed in the plate by Wenceslaus Hollar), double page map of China, 17 copper-engraved plates (on 16 pages); double-page plan of Canton; 120 copper-engravings in the text; and numerous decorative motifs.
 
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Price HK$ 125,000



Antiquarian, Architectural, and Landscape Illustrations of the History of Java - Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles

1844 - Henry G. Bohn, London - First Thus
Magnificent large quarto volume of illustrations with great provenance, formerly from the library of Admiral Sir James Gordon (1782-1869) who served as a Midshipman under Admiral Nelson at the Battle of the Nile, and went on to command ships during the later stages of the Napoleonic Wars. He eventually attained the rank of Admiral of the Fleet, and is considered to be one of the main inspirations for C.S. Forester's character Horatio Hornblower, alongside Thomas Cochrane, George Cockburn and others.

This separate volume of topographical, archaeological, linguistic and anthropological plates was published in 1844 to accompany the 1830 second edition of Sir Stamford Raffles’ landmark work ‘
The History of Java’, including twenty four additional plates not found in the first edition of 1817.

With 92 illustrated plates, including 10 fine hand-coloured aquatints and a very large folding map. No text. In the publisher’s original gilt and red cloth binding.
 
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Price HK$ 18,000



Remunerative Railways for New Countries; with some account of the first Railway in China - Inscribed - Richard C. Rapier

1878 - E. &, London - First Edition
Richard Christopher Rapier (1836-1897), a pioneering railway engineer and specialist in narrow gauge railways, worked to promote the use of railways in China and in 1872 together with Jardine, Matheson, & Co. had a share in the construction of the controversial first railway in China, the Shanghai and Woosung Railway, also known as the ‘Woosung Road’ which began operating in July 1876.
Alll of this is described here, together with illustrations and photographs, in this scarce first edition
inscribed by Rapier to the prominent French engineer Éloi Béral.

This work became the standard work on light gauge railways and describes in detail the first Chinese railway line, from Shanghai to Woosung, which opened in 1876.

Illustrated throughout with eight mounted Woodburytypes (high quality reproductions of original photographic negatives), nine folding letterpress tables, most estimate sheets to be completed, numerous wood-engraved illustrations and diagrams.
 
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Price HK$ 12,000



 
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