Escape with Gun Cotton -
Rupert Grayson
1934 - Grayson & Grayson, London - First Edition
Inscribed to the title page ‘With best wishes to Francis from Rupert’.
First edition of the scarce fifth book in the ‘Gun Cotton’ series, in which Gun Cotton, working for the Secret Service, assists smuggling people out of Russia and then Finland, he soon has to show his mettle as he gets into one tighter corner after another, angry Russian government heavies breathing down his neck...
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Price HK$ 4,000
1934 - Grayson & Grayson, London - First Edition
Inscribed to the title page ‘With best wishes to Francis from Rupert’.First edition of the scarce fifth book in the ‘Gun Cotton’ series, in which Gun Cotton, working for the Secret Service, assists smuggling people out of Russia and then Finland, he soon has to show his mettle as he gets into one tighter corner after another, angry Russian government heavies breathing down his neck...
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Price HK$ 4,000
Gun Cotton - Ace High -
Rupert Grayson
1937 - Grayson & Grayson, London - First Edition
Inscribed to the title page ‘Gwen and Francis with love from Rupert’ author’s printed name crossed through and replaced with hand written initials ‘R G’.
First edition of the tenth book in the ‘Gun Cotton’ series. This time Gun encounters a ring of espionage and deceit whose aims are to smuggle top secret plans for the latest naval technology...
‘Gun’s nerves were taut as fiddle-strings. Every ounce of his mentality was in play, and strained to its highest effort.’
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Price HK$ 4,000
1937 - Grayson & Grayson, London - First Edition
Inscribed to the title page ‘Gwen and Francis with love from Rupert’ author’s printed name crossed through and replaced with hand written initials ‘R G’.First edition of the tenth book in the ‘Gun Cotton’ series. This time Gun encounters a ring of espionage and deceit whose aims are to smuggle top secret plans for the latest naval technology...
‘Gun’s nerves were taut as fiddle-strings. Every ounce of his mentality was in play, and strained to its highest effort.’
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Price HK$ 4,000
The Iron Man. A Story In Five Nights -
Ted Hughes, George Adamson (illustrator)
1968 - Faber and Faber, London - First Edition First Impression
A fine copy of this wonderful book in the scarce dust jacket with only a hint of the fading usually encountered to the spine.
With five full page black and white illustrations of the giant metal man of unknown origin, by George Adamson, who also provided the dust jacket and matching book cover illustration.
‘The Iron Man came to the top of the cliff.
How far had he walked? Nobody knows. Where had he come from? Nobody knows. How was he made? Nobody knows.
Taller than a house, the Iron Man stood at the top of the cliff, on the very brink, in the darkness.’
The basis for the 1999 animated film ‘The Iron Giant’, so named to avoid the obvious clash with Marvel’s rather more violent creation. Brad Bird’s first film as a director, see any resemblance here to ‘The Incredibles’?
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Price HK$ 12,000
1968 - Faber and Faber, London - First Edition First Impression
A fine copy of this wonderful book in the scarce dust jacket with only a hint of the fading usually encountered to the spine.With five full page black and white illustrations of the giant metal man of unknown origin, by George Adamson, who also provided the dust jacket and matching book cover illustration.
‘The Iron Man came to the top of the cliff.
How far had he walked? Nobody knows. Where had he come from? Nobody knows. How was he made? Nobody knows.
Taller than a house, the Iron Man stood at the top of the cliff, on the very brink, in the darkness.’
The basis for the 1999 animated film ‘The Iron Giant’, so named to avoid the obvious clash with Marvel’s rather more violent creation. Brad Bird’s first film as a director, see any resemblance here to ‘The Incredibles’?
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Price HK$ 12,000
The Game Birds of India, Burmah, and Ceylon -
Allan Octavian Hume, Charles H. T. Marshall
1878 - Hume and Marshall, Calcutta
A superb and thus rare example of this three volume work, without restoration or loss, in the original gilt decorated bindings, and containing the complete set of 144 fine chromolithographic plates (no plate for the pea fowl was issued in volume I, which is explained in a note on page 92). All three illustrated title pages are also present.
Hume, ‘the Father of Indian Ornithology’, put together this work using contributions and notes from a network of 200 or more correspondents. Hume delegated the task of getting the plates made to Marshall. The chromolithographs of the birds were drawn by W. Foster, E. Neale, (Miss) M. Herbert, Stanley Wilson and others and the plates were produced by F. Waller in London. Hume had sent specific notes on colours of soft parts and instructions to the artists. He was unsatisfied with many of the plates and included additional notes on the plates in the book. This book was started at the point when the government demoted Hume and only the need to finance the publication of this book prevented him from retiring from service. He had estimated that it would cost ₤ 4000 to publish it and he retired from service on 1 January 1882 after the publication.
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Price HK$ 22,000
1878 - Hume and Marshall, Calcutta
A superb and thus rare example of this three volume work, without restoration or loss, in the original gilt decorated bindings, and containing the complete set of 144 fine chromolithographic plates (no plate for the pea fowl was issued in volume I, which is explained in a note on page 92). All three illustrated title pages are also present.Hume, ‘the Father of Indian Ornithology’, put together this work using contributions and notes from a network of 200 or more correspondents. Hume delegated the task of getting the plates made to Marshall. The chromolithographs of the birds were drawn by W. Foster, E. Neale, (Miss) M. Herbert, Stanley Wilson and others and the plates were produced by F. Waller in London. Hume had sent specific notes on colours of soft parts and instructions to the artists. He was unsatisfied with many of the plates and included additional notes on the plates in the book. This book was started at the point when the government demoted Hume and only the need to finance the publication of this book prevented him from retiring from service. He had estimated that it would cost ₤ 4000 to publish it and he retired from service on 1 January 1882 after the publication.
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Price HK$ 22,000
Corpse Guards Parade -
Milward Kennedy (Pseud. Milward Burge)
1929 - Victor Gollancz Ltd, London - First Edition
A fine first edition of Milward Kennedy’s second solo novel after ‘The Corpse on the Mat’, and featuring John Meriman and Inspector Cornford.
‘Mr. Kennedy has one characteristic which distinguishes him from his rivals in bloodshed. He is acquainted with the English language and has apparently met (and can remember) actual living men and women. The result is that his murders have almost the thrill of local news. They happen, if not to somebody you know, at any rate in company which you might have frequented. Nor does this odd distinction rob Mr. Kennedy of an ability to invent a mystery so tortuous as to be soluble only by a woman, and yet intelligible when solved. Mr. Kennedy indeed runs a risk of burgeoning into a detective best-seller.’ – Contemporary review from the Observer newspaper.
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Price HK$ 2,600
1929 - Victor Gollancz Ltd, London - First Edition
A fine first edition of Milward Kennedy’s second solo novel after ‘The Corpse on the Mat’, and featuring John Meriman and Inspector Cornford.‘Mr. Kennedy has one characteristic which distinguishes him from his rivals in bloodshed. He is acquainted with the English language and has apparently met (and can remember) actual living men and women. The result is that his murders have almost the thrill of local news. They happen, if not to somebody you know, at any rate in company which you might have frequented. Nor does this odd distinction rob Mr. Kennedy of an ability to invent a mystery so tortuous as to be soluble only by a woman, and yet intelligible when solved. Mr. Kennedy indeed runs a risk of burgeoning into a detective best-seller.’ – Contemporary review from the Observer newspaper.
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Price HK$ 2,600
Specimens of Hindoo Literature - Inscribed -
N. E. Kindersley
1794 - Printed by W. Bulmer and Co., London - First Edition
A scarce and important work, inscribed ‘From The Author’ – one of the earliest translations of Hindu literature and mythology. Kindersley’s composition features the first English rendering of extracts from the Holy Kural, or ‘Ocean of Wisdom’, and the Hindu romance, ‘A History of the Nella-Rajah’, together with his explanatory notes and comments on the Tamil (Tamoul) language.
Described by Kindersley as a ‘moral poem... understood to have been written fourteen hundred years since’, The Holy Kural, ‘Tirukkural’ or ‘Teroo-Vaulaver Kuddal’, is considered one of the most universal expositions on honourable thought and compassion ever composed. It elucidates on the natural wisdom of man, and includes sections on worship, charity, domestic life, hospitality, gratitude, and justice.
With examples of the Tamil alphabet on page 46, and five plates including engravings of the Hindu cupid ‘Munmoden’, the ‘Treemoortee’ and ‘Shivven’.
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Price HK$ 4,500
1794 - Printed by W. Bulmer and Co., London - First Edition
A scarce and important work, inscribed ‘From The Author’ – one of the earliest translations of Hindu literature and mythology. Kindersley’s composition features the first English rendering of extracts from the Holy Kural, or ‘Ocean of Wisdom’, and the Hindu romance, ‘A History of the Nella-Rajah’, together with his explanatory notes and comments on the Tamil (Tamoul) language. Described by Kindersley as a ‘moral poem... understood to have been written fourteen hundred years since’, The Holy Kural, ‘Tirukkural’ or ‘Teroo-Vaulaver Kuddal’, is considered one of the most universal expositions on honourable thought and compassion ever composed. It elucidates on the natural wisdom of man, and includes sections on worship, charity, domestic life, hospitality, gratitude, and justice.
With examples of the Tamil alphabet on page 46, and five plates including engravings of the Hindu cupid ‘Munmoden’, the ‘Treemoortee’ and ‘Shivven’.
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Price HK$ 4,500
The City Of Dreadful Night -
Rudyard Kipling
1899 - Alex. Grosset, New York - The First American Edition
The text’s initial appearance in the United States was through its inclusion in ‘Out of India’ , published in 1895, but this unauthorised printing constitutes the first separate American edition. all eight sketches from the authorised 1891 London edition ‘The City of Dreadful Night and Other Places’.
All that aside, this is a superb example of the most magnificently presented edition, including a full page frontispiece of the author from Strang, and two full page black and white illustrations by Charles Farrand.
In 1898 Kipling first travelled to Calcutta and this is the account of the visit, and if you have travelled to what is now ‘Kolkata’ over the past 30 or so years and been taken aback but its sheer personality, then I believe the Calcutta of the late 1800’s was an even more powerful visual and tactile experience, as Kipling here wonderfully describes.
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Price HK$ 1,400
1899 - Alex. Grosset, New York - The First American Edition
The text’s initial appearance in the United States was through its inclusion in ‘Out of India’ , published in 1895, but this unauthorised printing constitutes the first separate American edition. all eight sketches from the authorised 1891 London edition ‘The City of Dreadful Night and Other Places’. All that aside, this is a superb example of the most magnificently presented edition, including a full page frontispiece of the author from Strang, and two full page black and white illustrations by Charles Farrand.
In 1898 Kipling first travelled to Calcutta and this is the account of the visit, and if you have travelled to what is now ‘Kolkata’ over the past 30 or so years and been taken aback but its sheer personality, then I believe the Calcutta of the late 1800’s was an even more powerful visual and tactile experience, as Kipling here wonderfully describes.
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Price HK$ 1,400
Puck of Pook’s Hill -
Rudyard Kipling
1906 - Macmillan and Co., London - First Edition [Ads dated N.15.8.06 to rear]
A fine first edition, in bespoke leather and sheepskin slipcase. With twenty full page illustrations by H. R. Miller.
Kipling's popular series of tales and poems set in different historical eras, including Roman Britain, Anglo-Saxon England, The Norman Conquest, The Middle Ages and the Tudor Period.
The stories are all told to two children living near Pevensey, East Sussex, by characters magically plucked out of history by 'Puck'. Long thought to be a key inspiration behind C S Lewis’ beloved ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ series.
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Price HK$ 1,800
1906 - Macmillan and Co., London - First Edition [Ads dated N.15.8.06 to rear]
A fine first edition, in bespoke leather and sheepskin slipcase. With twenty full page illustrations by H. R. Miller.Kipling's popular series of tales and poems set in different historical eras, including Roman Britain, Anglo-Saxon England, The Norman Conquest, The Middle Ages and the Tudor Period.
The stories are all told to two children living near Pevensey, East Sussex, by characters magically plucked out of history by 'Puck'. Long thought to be a key inspiration behind C S Lewis’ beloved ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ series.
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Price HK$ 1,800