The Works: Comprising Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Minor Works. The Text based on Collation of the Early Editions by R.W. Chapman. With Notes, Indexes and Illustrations from Contemporary Sources -
Jane Austen
1946 - At the Clarendon Press, Oxford - Third Edition Thus, later impressions
'I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.'
This finely bound five volume Oxford edition, illustrated throughout, contains all of Austen's famous novels, as well as extensive introductions, appendixes and addenda, including 'Miss Austen's English', 'Modes of Address', 'Carriages and Travel', 'The Topography of Bath', a biographical note on the author, and 'The Mysteries of Udolpho'.
‘Affectation of candour is common enough—one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design—to take the good of everybody's character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad—belongs to you alone.’
More details
Price HK$ 12,000
1946 - At the Clarendon Press, Oxford - Third Edition Thus, later impressions
'I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.'This finely bound five volume Oxford edition, illustrated throughout, contains all of Austen's famous novels, as well as extensive introductions, appendixes and addenda, including 'Miss Austen's English', 'Modes of Address', 'Carriages and Travel', 'The Topography of Bath', a biographical note on the author, and 'The Mysteries of Udolpho'.
‘Affectation of candour is common enough—one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design—to take the good of everybody's character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad—belongs to you alone.’
More details
Price HK$ 12,000
The Secret Garden -
Frances Hodgson Burnett, Charles Robinson (Illustrator)
1911 - William Heinemann, London - First English Edition, and First Edition illustrated by Robinson
Mistress Mary, the orphaned expatriate, without ‘Ayah’, arrives at the dark, draughty, gloomy and cold Misselthwaite Manor.
A magical portrayal of reawakened spirits, elegantly bound by Bayntun RIvière, with illustrations by Charles Robinson, including eight coloured plates with captioned tissue guards.
More details
Price HK$ 15,000
1911 - William Heinemann, London - First English Edition, and First Edition illustrated by Robinson
Mistress Mary, the orphaned expatriate, without ‘Ayah’, arrives at the dark, draughty, gloomy and cold Misselthwaite Manor.A magical portrayal of reawakened spirits, elegantly bound by Bayntun RIvière, with illustrations by Charles Robinson, including eight coloured plates with captioned tissue guards.
More details
Price HK$ 15,000
Peking Studies -
Ellen Catleen (Thorbecke), Friedrich Schiff (illustrator)
1934 - Kelly & Walsh, Shanghai - First Edition
Describing the visit of Mr.Pim to Peking, where he meets with his colleague Mr Wu, and together they tour the wonderful city that is 1930’s Peking. As a gift to someone who is moving to China or has recently visited this is hard to beat. Things may have changed slightly though.
A large format book (38 x 27cm) beautifully illustrated throughout by Friedrich Schiff with a mixture of black and white or colour sketches, photographs taken by Catleen with her Roliflex camera, with colour applied and a full page hand sketched colour map.
This copy with the front panel of the original dust jacket loosely enclosed.
More details
Price HK$ 9,500
1934 - Kelly & Walsh, Shanghai - First Edition
Describing the visit of Mr.Pim to Peking, where he meets with his colleague Mr Wu, and together they tour the wonderful city that is 1930’s Peking. As a gift to someone who is moving to China or has recently visited this is hard to beat. Things may have changed slightly though.A large format book (38 x 27cm) beautifully illustrated throughout by Friedrich Schiff with a mixture of black and white or colour sketches, photographs taken by Catleen with her Roliflex camera, with colour applied and a full page hand sketched colour map.
This copy with the front panel of the original dust jacket loosely enclosed.
More details
Price HK$ 9,500
Don Quixote de la Mancha -
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Charles Jarvis (illustrator), John Heaviside Clark (illustrator)
1819 - Printed for T. M'Lean, London
Four finely bound volumes of what many consider to be the first true novel in Western literature, illustrated with 24 hand-colored engraved plates by John Heaviside Clark.
Inspired by his ever expanding library of books on chivalry, our hero Don Quixote, with his anointed squire Sancho Panza, sets off on his adventures, and the windmill-chasing antics of Don Quixote have continued to delight for over four centuries.
More details
Price HK$ 19,000
1819 - Printed for T. M'Lean, London
Four finely bound volumes of what many consider to be the first true novel in Western literature, illustrated with 24 hand-colored engraved plates by John Heaviside Clark.Inspired by his ever expanding library of books on chivalry, our hero Don Quixote, with his anointed squire Sancho Panza, sets off on his adventures, and the windmill-chasing antics of Don Quixote have continued to delight for over four centuries.
More details
Price HK$ 19,000
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples -
Sir Winston Spencer Churchill
1956 1958 - Cassell and Company Ltd, London - First Editions
‘The flash and dash of Churchill's zest will render these four volumes readable, humane, exhilarating, memorable and exemplary, few historians, moreover, have been gifted with a style of equal subtlety and vigour, a style at once classical and romantic, precise and imaginative, tolerant yet gently ironical, deeply sensitive to the tragedy of human failure and scornful only of those who are faithless to the virtue within them. These four volumes leave us with enhanced admiration for human character, and an added compassion for human fallibility. They are the legacy of a man of superhuman energy, great intellectual powers and utmost simplicity of soul.’ - Harold Nicolson, New York Times Book Review, 1958.
A finely bound four volume set published shortly after Sir Winston Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. This is the author's last great work, only available some twenty years after he wrote the first draft, which then lay dormant whilst he attended to National and Parliamentary matters.
More details
Price HK$ 9,800
1956 1958 - Cassell and Company Ltd, London - First Editions
‘The flash and dash of Churchill's zest will render these four volumes readable, humane, exhilarating, memorable and exemplary, few historians, moreover, have been gifted with a style of equal subtlety and vigour, a style at once classical and romantic, precise and imaginative, tolerant yet gently ironical, deeply sensitive to the tragedy of human failure and scornful only of those who are faithless to the virtue within them. These four volumes leave us with enhanced admiration for human character, and an added compassion for human fallibility. They are the legacy of a man of superhuman energy, great intellectual powers and utmost simplicity of soul.’ - Harold Nicolson, New York Times Book Review, 1958.A finely bound four volume set published shortly after Sir Winston Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. This is the author's last great work, only available some twenty years after he wrote the first draft, which then lay dormant whilst he attended to National and Parliamentary matters.
More details
Price HK$ 9,800
Pinocchio -
C. Collodi, Maud and Miska Petersham (illustrators)
1932 - Garden City Publishing Co., Garden City - First Edition illustrated by the Petershams
A finely bound edition of Carlo Collodi’s tale of woodcarver Gepetto and his mischievous puppet Pinocchio who longs to become a real boy, and whose nose grows and grows every time he tells a lie.
Illustrated with four colour plates by Maud and Miska Petersham.
More details
Price HK$ 12,000
1932 - Garden City Publishing Co., Garden City - First Edition illustrated by the Petershams
A finely bound edition of Carlo Collodi’s tale of woodcarver Gepetto and his mischievous puppet Pinocchio who longs to become a real boy, and whose nose grows and grows every time he tells a lie.Illustrated with four colour plates by Maud and Miska Petersham.
More details
Price HK$ 12,000
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
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
Old Waldorf Bar Days -
Albert Stevens Crockett
1931 - Aventine Press, New York - First Edition
‘If you knew your Fifth Avenue and your caviar…
you would know that when I speak of the greatest and most famous exponent of the American School of Drinking,
I can mean no other place than, the old Waldorf Bar.’
A scarce fine first edition of Crockett’s colourful history of the Waldorf Bar and accompanying drink manual. One of the most quoted sources of cocktail recipes. Illustrated throughout by Leighton Budd.
Crockett’s lively anecdotal history, including the antics of Buffalo Bill Cody and Bat Masterson, among others who were regulars at the bar, is accompanied by his manual of cocktails, which he ‘arranged alphabetically, and in two classes. The cocktails have been set down in one list and the others, which might be classed as ‘beverages,’ have been termed ‘Fancy Potations and Otherwise’.
More details
Price HK$ 6,000
1931 - Aventine Press, New York - First Edition
‘If you knew your Fifth Avenue and your caviar… you would know that when I speak of the greatest and most famous exponent of the American School of Drinking,
I can mean no other place than, the old Waldorf Bar.’
A scarce fine first edition of Crockett’s colourful history of the Waldorf Bar and accompanying drink manual. One of the most quoted sources of cocktail recipes. Illustrated throughout by Leighton Budd.
Crockett’s lively anecdotal history, including the antics of Buffalo Bill Cody and Bat Masterson, among others who were regulars at the bar, is accompanied by his manual of cocktails, which he ‘arranged alphabetically, and in two classes. The cocktails have been set down in one list and the others, which might be classed as ‘beverages,’ have been termed ‘Fancy Potations and Otherwise’.
More details
Price HK$ 6,000