Climbing and Exploration in the Karakoram-Himalayas -
William Martin Conway, A. D. McCormick (illustrator)
1894 - T. Fisher Unwin, London - First Edition
The Karakoram is a range of mountains approximately 200 miles long, lying to the north of the western edge of the Himalayan chain, and spanning the borders of Pakistan, India, and China. It is the most heavily glaciated region in the world excepting the polar areas. South of the main crest lies a secondary line of peaks. Conway led the first mountaineering expedition to the region in 1892. They surveyed the Hispar and Baltero glaciers and climbed the 23,000 ft (6,550 metre) Pioneer Peak, achieving a height record. Conway was knighted for his efforts.
‘Mountains that have no names I have named myself, for the purposes of this book and map, applying descriptive designations to them and never the names of persons. I have not called “K.2” Mount Godwin-Austen, greatly though I appreciate that officer’s work. I wished to name the mountain Watchtower, but as any alternative designation seemed to give offence, where none was intended, I have confined myself to the letter and number of the Indian Atls’ - Conway, in his preface, explaining his reason for naming the legendary 28,251 ft (8,611 metre) peak K2.
This is a fine and thus scarce first edition of his account of the expedition, over 700 pages illustrated with a folding map and 300 black and white sketches, photographs and diagrams. A cornerstone of Himalayan mountaineering literature.
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Price HK$ 6,200
1894 - T. Fisher Unwin, London - First Edition
The Karakoram is a range of mountains approximately 200 miles long, lying to the north of the western edge of the Himalayan chain, and spanning the borders of Pakistan, India, and China. It is the most heavily glaciated region in the world excepting the polar areas. South of the main crest lies a secondary line of peaks. Conway led the first mountaineering expedition to the region in 1892. They surveyed the Hispar and Baltero glaciers and climbed the 23,000 ft (6,550 metre) Pioneer Peak, achieving a height record. Conway was knighted for his efforts.‘Mountains that have no names I have named myself, for the purposes of this book and map, applying descriptive designations to them and never the names of persons. I have not called “K.2” Mount Godwin-Austen, greatly though I appreciate that officer’s work. I wished to name the mountain Watchtower, but as any alternative designation seemed to give offence, where none was intended, I have confined myself to the letter and number of the Indian Atls’ - Conway, in his preface, explaining his reason for naming the legendary 28,251 ft (8,611 metre) peak K2.
This is a fine and thus scarce first edition of his account of the expedition, over 700 pages illustrated with a folding map and 300 black and white sketches, photographs and diagrams. A cornerstone of Himalayan mountaineering literature.
More details
Price HK$ 6,200
The Encyclopaedia Sinica -
Samuel Couling
1917 - Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai - First Edition
‘Couling’s work, published in 1917, covered so much ground with such accuracy and consistency that it has become established as an essential tool for scholars wishing to understand how new China was seen and interpreted at the time.’
A fundamentally important book regarding China at the turn of the 20th century, Couling’s volume quickly became an invaluable resource for travellers, historians, and anthropologists seeking a basic knowledge of Chinese culture and international relations. Presented in an encyclopaedic format, the book contains a multitude of informative, yet easily digestible informative entries on everything from religion, agriculture, language, and history, to local myths and legends.
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Price HK$ 1,500
1917 - Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai - First Edition
‘Couling’s work, published in 1917, covered so much ground with such accuracy and consistency that it has become established as an essential tool for scholars wishing to understand how new China was seen and interpreted at the time.’A fundamentally important book regarding China at the turn of the 20th century, Couling’s volume quickly became an invaluable resource for travellers, historians, and anthropologists seeking a basic knowledge of Chinese culture and international relations. Presented in an encyclopaedic format, the book contains a multitude of informative, yet easily digestible informative entries on everything from religion, agriculture, language, and history, to local myths and legends.
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Price HK$ 1,500
China in Sign and Symbol - with decorations by Kent Crane -
Louise Crane
1926 - Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai - First Edition
‘All symbols are of universal use and date from earliest antiquity. Mrs. Louise Crane has taken in hand in this volume to describe some of the symbols she has observed in the social life of the Chinese... symbols are our agents.’
Gorgeously presented in a vivid art-deco dust jacket, this profusely illustrated work is a nicely put together study of the ornate shop signs and enigmatic symbols from 1926, explaining the customs and tradition they are based on. Illustrated by Kent Crane with 49 photographs and full colour plates, depicting different symbols and signs, all brightly coloured, some heightened in gold, and including two large folding coloured plates.
Organised to show how each group of symbols applies to life - The Inner Man; The Outer Man; His Occupation; His Funds; His General Needs; His Health; and His Future State.
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Price HK$ 19,000
1926 - Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai - First Edition
‘All symbols are of universal use and date from earliest antiquity. Mrs. Louise Crane has taken in hand in this volume to describe some of the symbols she has observed in the social life of the Chinese... symbols are our agents.’Gorgeously presented in a vivid art-deco dust jacket, this profusely illustrated work is a nicely put together study of the ornate shop signs and enigmatic symbols from 1926, explaining the customs and tradition they are based on. Illustrated by Kent Crane with 49 photographs and full colour plates, depicting different symbols and signs, all brightly coloured, some heightened in gold, and including two large folding coloured plates.
Organised to show how each group of symbols applies to life - The Inner Man; The Outer Man; His Occupation; His Funds; His General Needs; His Health; and His Future State.
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Price HK$ 19,000
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater -
Thomas De Quincey
1826 - John Taylor, London - Fourth Edition
“Here was the secret of happiness, about which philosophers had disputed for so many ages, at once discovered; happiness might now be bought for a penny, and carried in the waistcoat-pocket; portable ecstasies might be had corked up in a pint-bottle; and peace of mind could be sent down by the mail.”
An early clean and full margined edition of one of the most controversial memoirs ever written, De Quincey illuminates the world of opioid usage in medical, recreational, and criminal capacities. Written when the author was only thirty six, he examines his own experiences of the drug alongside its wider history, from opium dens buried in the heart of London to references of ‘poppy tears’ found within Homer, Virgil, Chaucer, and Shakespeare.
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Price HK$ 2,000
1826 - John Taylor, London - Fourth Edition
“Here was the secret of happiness, about which philosophers had disputed for so many ages, at once discovered; happiness might now be bought for a penny, and carried in the waistcoat-pocket; portable ecstasies might be had corked up in a pint-bottle; and peace of mind could be sent down by the mail.” An early clean and full margined edition of one of the most controversial memoirs ever written, De Quincey illuminates the world of opioid usage in medical, recreational, and criminal capacities. Written when the author was only thirty six, he examines his own experiences of the drug alongside its wider history, from opium dens buried in the heart of London to references of ‘poppy tears’ found within Homer, Virgil, Chaucer, and Shakespeare.
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Price HK$ 2,000
China's Revolution 1911-1912 -
Edwin J. Dingle
1912 - McBride, New York - First American Edition
‘Dingle, of the China Press, a newly launched English-language newspaper in Shanghai, was one of the few foreign reporters in Hankou at the time of the revolution’. In this superb example of the first American edition, published the same year as the first English edition, Dingle not only gives a day-to-day description of what was happening, but also gives the history leading up to the 1911 revolution. This is one of the major sources of the wartime pictures, with 36 black and white photographs (on 32 full page photographic plates), accompanied by two large folding maps.
‘This volume is a popular history of the Revolution in China that broke out at Wuchang, Hankow and Hanyang in October of 1911. The narrative contains a good deal of new information touching upon revolutionism in China, and the events leading up to the present climax. The magnitude of this Revolution cannot possibly be understood yet; but this volume is written in the hope that it will enable the student otherwise untutored to understand much that one absorbs in chine life.’ [authors' note].
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Price HK$ 4,000
1912 - McBride, New York - First American Edition
‘Dingle, of the China Press, a newly launched English-language newspaper in Shanghai, was one of the few foreign reporters in Hankou at the time of the revolution’. In this superb example of the first American edition, published the same year as the first English edition, Dingle not only gives a day-to-day description of what was happening, but also gives the history leading up to the 1911 revolution. This is one of the major sources of the wartime pictures, with 36 black and white photographs (on 32 full page photographic plates), accompanied by two large folding maps.‘This volume is a popular history of the Revolution in China that broke out at Wuchang, Hankow and Hanyang in October of 1911. The narrative contains a good deal of new information touching upon revolutionism in China, and the events leading up to the present climax. The magnitude of this Revolution cannot possibly be understood yet; but this volume is written in the hope that it will enable the student otherwise untutored to understand much that one absorbs in chine life.’ [authors' note].
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Price HK$ 4,000
Across China on Foot -
Edwin J. Dingle
1911 - J. W. Arrowsmith Ltd., Bristol - First Edition
Profusely illustrated mostly with photographs by Dingle.
‘Edwin Dingle’s Across China on Foot is one of the great classics of China adventure writing. Dingle was articulate, perceptive and an eccentric in the true British tradition. He recounts his adventures as he travels up the Yangtze River from Shanghai and then by foot south west across some of China’s most wild and woolly territory to Burma’ - Earnshaw Books.
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Price HK$ 1,100
1911 - J. W. Arrowsmith Ltd., Bristol - First Edition
Profusely illustrated mostly with photographs by Dingle.‘Edwin Dingle’s Across China on Foot is one of the great classics of China adventure writing. Dingle was articulate, perceptive and an eccentric in the true British tradition. He recounts his adventures as he travels up the Yangtze River from Shanghai and then by foot south west across some of China’s most wild and woolly territory to Burma’ - Earnshaw Books.
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Price HK$ 1,100
The China Coast – Signed -
Ivon A. Donnelly
1931 - Tientsin Press, Tientsin - First Edition
Boldly signed by Donnelly on the front free endpaper.
A wonderful account of voyages on China’s coast and waterways, Profusely illustrated throughout with Donnelly’s charming line sketches, six wonderful full page colour plates from water colours, and nine maps. With a poem by Joan Power at the end of each section.
Chapters on the Gulf of Pechili, Taku Bar, the Yellow Sea, the Yangtze estuary, the Chusan archipelago, and the South China Sea.
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Price HK$ 3,000
1931 - Tientsin Press, Tientsin - First Edition
Boldly signed by Donnelly on the front free endpaper.A wonderful account of voyages on China’s coast and waterways, Profusely illustrated throughout with Donnelly’s charming line sketches, six wonderful full page colour plates from water colours, and nine maps. With a poem by Joan Power at the end of each section.
Chapters on the Gulf of Pechili, Taku Bar, the Yellow Sea, the Yangtze estuary, the Chusan archipelago, and the South China Sea.
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Price HK$ 3,000
The Fun Of It -
Amelia Earhart
1932 - Brewer, New York - First Edition
‘Flying might not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price.’
A lovely copy of Earhart’s biography, accompanied with an audio recording of highlights from her first solo Transatlantic flight in May 1932. Profusely illustrated with photographs chronicling Earhart’s childhood to her later career, the book delves into Miss Amelia’s motivations, and the challenges she faced prior to her success, as she struggled to prove herself within highly male dominated arena.
The work also delves into the fascinating and complex history of aviation, with Earhart examining the careers of titans such as the Wright Brothers, Eleanor Smith, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Harriet Quinby, and Ruth Nichols.
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Price HK$ 12,000
1932 - Brewer, New York - First Edition
‘Flying might not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price.’A lovely copy of Earhart’s biography, accompanied with an audio recording of highlights from her first solo Transatlantic flight in May 1932. Profusely illustrated with photographs chronicling Earhart’s childhood to her later career, the book delves into Miss Amelia’s motivations, and the challenges she faced prior to her success, as she struggled to prove herself within highly male dominated arena.
The work also delves into the fascinating and complex history of aviation, with Earhart examining the careers of titans such as the Wright Brothers, Eleanor Smith, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Harriet Quinby, and Ruth Nichols.
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Price HK$ 12,000