Results 25 - 32 of 72 results

The War Speeches of Winston Churchill - Sir Winston Spencer Churchill, Charles Eade (editor)

1951 - Cassell and Company Ltd, London - First Collected Editions
A fine three volume set of the definitive edition of the War Speeches, compiled by Churchill's literary assistant Charles Eade, (1903-1964), editor of the Daily Sketch and the Sunday Dispatch, and editor of Churchill's wartime speeches, speaking notes and the collected volume 'Churchill by His Contemporaries'.

Includes occasional facsimile manuscripts, typescripts and documents. Eade's Papers, diaries and biographical material on Sir Winston were gifted to the Churchill Archives Centre in 1998, and are owned by Churchill College, Cambridge.
 
More details

Price HK$ 12,500



The London Cyclist Battalion - A. S. Clark (editor)

1932 - Published for The 25th London (Cyclist) Old Comrades' Association by Forster Groom &, London - First Edition
The thirty-three years from 1887 to 1920 witnessed the conception, birth, growth, adolescence, and premature death of military cycling (as distinct from mere despatch riding) in the British Army.

This scarce work provides a history of military bicycling in the British Army, chronicling the events of the 26th corp., and it’s successor the 25th battalion, including their campaigns in Waziristan, India in 1917, the third Afghan War of 1919, the Amiritsar uprising in 1919, and in Mesopotamia.

Illustrated throughout with photographic plates.
 
More details

Price HK$ 2,500



Heth and Moab Explorations in Syria in 1881 and 1882 - Claude Reignier Conder

1883 - Richard Bentley &, London - First Edition
A bright copy in original cloth of Captain Conder’s substantial record of his explorations in Syria between 1881 and 1882, published for the Palestine Exploration Fund.

Conder began his expedition in North Syria, before travelling to Kadesh and Jordan, and his work includes chapters on Mount Gilead, Ammon, and the Belka Arabs, as well as Syrian superstitions and Arab folk lore, together with a detailed appendix. Illustrated with four full page engraved plates, and a sketch map of Syria.
 
More details

Price HK$ 1,800



The Three Voyages of Captain James Cook Round the World. - Captain James Cook

1821 - Longman, London
A handsomely bound seven volume set of all of Cook’s three voyages. Illustrated with twenty five striking aquatint plates, including frontispieces in each volume, large folding map, and a table.

‘The famous accounts of Captain Cook’s three voyages form the basis for any collection of Pacific books. In three great voyages Cook did more to clarify the geographical knowledge of the southern hemisphere than all his predecessors had done together. He was really the first scientific navigator and his voyages made great contributions to many fields of knowledge’. [Hill]

On his first voyage, 25 August 1768 to 12 July 1771, Cook circumnavigated New Zealand and for the first time explored the east coast of Australia, of which he took possession for Great Britain; he also sailed through the straits separating New Guinea and Australia. On the second, and historically most important, voyage (13 July 1772 to 30 July 1775) he began by cruising as far south as possible around the edge of the antarctic ice. He again visited New Zealand and, cruising through the Pacific, discovered, or explored again, many of the islands, in particular New Caledonia, Palmerston and Norfolk Islands, Easter Island, the Marquesas, New Hebrides, Tonga, the South Sandwich Islands and South Georgia. The third voyage (11 July 1776 to 4 October 1780) was undertaken to find the North-West Passage from Europe to the East. After again visiting Tasmania, New Zealand and many Pacific Islands, Cook sailed on to North America, discovering on the way the Cook Islands and the Hawaiian group. He charted the North American coast from Oregon as far north as the Bering Strait, where ice turned him back. On the way back the great explorer was killed [in 1779] in a fight with natives in Hawaii.
 
More details

Price HK$ 52,000



The Three Voyages of Captain James Cook, with "The Death of Captain Cook" Plate - James Cook, John Hawkesworth, James King

1773 - Strahan, London - Second Edition, First Edition, Second Edition
A complete set of the best possible editions, superbly bound in full tree calf and with the additional ‘Death of Captain Cook’ drawn by the John Weber who witnessed the dispute and ensuing fight. Eight quarto volumes and the elephant folio volume of plates. Magnificently illustrated with two hundred and five engraved charts and plates, many of which are double page or larger.

There is no greater set of travel works, Cook was the first scientific navigator, these three voyages made great contributions to numerous fields of knowledge,, and did more to clarify the geographical knowledge of the southern hemisphere than his predecessors had done together [Hill].

The first voyage is in its second and best edition, complete with the ‘
Directions for placing the cuts’ and the ‘Chart of the Straights of Magellan’, and with the new Preface containing Hawkesworth's virulent eight-page reply to Dalrymple's whining reviews of the first edition, and the whole volume revised by the voyage's astronomer William Wales.

The third voyage is in its second and best edition, with the printing by Hughs (rather than Strahan who printed the first edition) with the text itself entirely re-set. Isaac Smith presenting a set on behalf of Cook's widow in 1821 noted that '
I am desired by Mrs Cook to request your acceptance of the 4 books sent herewith being her Husbands last Voyage round the World, as a mark of her respect the letter press of the second edition being much superior to the first both in paper & letter press' (quoted by Forbes, Hawaiian National Bibliography, 85). King George III's copy of the official account, preserved in the British Library, is also an example of this second edition. This particular set with variant title pages, dated correctly, but without edition statement or vignette of Royal Society medal. 
More details

Price HK$ 430,000



Natural History of the Strait of Magellan and West Coast of Patagonia - Robert O. Cunningham

1871 - Edmonston and Douglas, Edinburgh - First Edition
A superior example of the first edition, illustrated with folding colour map and 21 lithograph plates, some in colour.

‘The Scottish naturalist Robert O. Cunningham (1841-1918) began his 1866 voyage to South America in inclement weather, and, by the eleventh day of travel, noted a 'pond' forming in his tiny cabin aboard HMS Nassau. With never-failing humour, Cunningham presents here a record of the zoological, botanical and geological observations made across the three years he spent at sea.

As the ship's naturalist (recommended for the post by Joseph D. Hooker), his time was given wholly to research and exploration, and his findings are both fascinating and thorough. Included are his anecdotal records of seamen's slang, research into the history of the changing landscapes he visited, which had been previously documented by travellers as diverse as Drake and Darwin, statistical data on various species of animals and plants, and numerous original images. An absorbing testament of the breadth of the explorer-naturalist's interests. [C.U.P.]
 
More details

Price HK$ 7,800



Our American Adventure [&] Our Second American Adventure - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

1923 - Doran / Little, New York / Boston - First American Edition
Two volumes. The accounts of Doyle's two American tours investigating and speaking on matters of Spiritualism. Illustrated with black and white photographs.

We live in the time of dawn, and year by year the overwhelming importance of this psychic question is forcing itself upon the public attention 
More details

Price HK$ 2,600



A Complete and Universal Dictionary of Signals for the boats of Her Majesty's Fleet - Arthur Parry Eardley-Wilmot, Commander Royal Navy

1850 - W. J. Cleaver, London - First Edition
A rare first edition of Vice-Admiral A.P. Eardley-Wilmot’s compendious Dictionary of Signals.

Inscribed by Eardley-Wilmot to Sir John Cam Hobhouse, who was a close of friend of Lord Byron and the ‘best man’ at Byron’s wedding.

In contemporary binding and illustrated with twenty two plates of which eight are hand-coloured. Housed in later bespoke slipcase of card and carbon fibre sail material.

Besides an ordinary flag-signalling plan, it contains the following systems: Homograph to be made with a sword -Tiller-StickStretcher, and a Handkerchief or Flag; with Hats, Caps, Balls or Flags rolled up; with Oars, Boathooks, Stretchers or Thwarts; numbered Balls; Flags and Yards for Calms; Distant Signals; Signal Box for Day and Night; Semaphoric Signs (Pasley’s); Telegraph with Four Balls, Boat Hook Staff and Mast; and Semaphore with Boats’ Thwarts.
 
More details

Price HK$ 12,000



 
Results 25 - 32 of 72 results