Results 25 - 32 of 33 results

Maskee - A Shanghai Sketchbook by Schiff - Signed - Friedrich Schiff

Circa 1938Shanghai - First Edition. Number A407 of an unspecified Limited Edition
A fine thus scarce example together with the rare matching silk slipcase.

Fabulously Shanghai Art-Deco 15 foot long accordion folio in original silk covers, folding out to show 21 illustrated panels each hand-coloured by Schiff. Each panel depicting a view of 1930’s expatriate life in Shanghai through the unique eyes of Schiff. More a folio of art-deco artwork than a book, although many of the panels include amusing comments and rhymes for example:

Miss Shanghai
Me No Worry– Me No Care!
Me Go Marry Millionaire!
If He Die – Me No Cry!
Me Go Marry Other Guy!!

Signed to the first panel by Friedrich Schiff (1908-68), an Austrian Jewish artist who moved to Shanghai in 1930 after an invite to visit from a cousin and lived there for 17 years. He had worked as a newspaper cartoonist in Vienna and continued this line of work in Shanghai, soon becoming famous for his amusing caricatures of the city's inhabitants. Prolific, Schiff’s cartoons appeared in books, newspapers, magazines and advertisements throughout China and the Far East, and collaborations with Ellen Thorbecke (
Peking Studies; People in China; Hong Kong; and Shanghai). 
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Price HK$ 30,000



Maus. A Survivor's Tale in RAW Magazine - Signed - Art Spiegelman

1980-86 - Raw Magazine, New York - First Editions
The true first appearance in print in RAW magazine of Art Spiegelman’s groundbreaking and Pulitzer winning ‘Maus. A Survivor's Tale’, the first chapter inserted into issue two is signed and dated by Spiegelman. Housed in two bespoke black cloth clamshell cases with red morocco labels lettered and ruled in gilt.

American cartoonist Art Spiegelman’s graphic retelling of his parents’ experience as Jews in Hitler’s Europe as well as an exploration of his own relationship with his father and his experience as the son of a survivor.

Maus won the cartoonist a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 – the first time the award had been given to a graphic novel, which was initially serialised as a little insert in RAW Magazine as presented here. Spiegelman depicted the Nazis as cats and the Jews as mice and was considered “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust” by the Wall Street Journal.

Consisting of seven large folio issues of
RAW Magazine, 1980-1986, containing the first edition, first appearance of the first seven chapters, in seven issues (volume 1, nos. 2-8) of RAW magazine (Maus is produced as a separate small publication tipped into RAW, as issued (volume 1, no. 1 of RAW is not present as it did not contain Maus).

Together with: Three thick quarto issues of
RAW Magazine, 1989-1991, containing chapters eight, nine, and ten of Maus, in three issues (volume 2, nos. 1-3), volume 2 issue 4, which presumably would have the last chapter of Maus, was never published. 
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Price HK$ 20,000



An Authentic Account of an embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China - Sir George Staunton, Earl of Macartney, Sir Erasmus Gower

1797 - Printed by W. Bulmer and Co. for G, London - First Edition - Large Paper Edition
A superb untrimmed and scarce large paper edition of this cornerstone of China related travel literature in the original boards, (sheet size 33.3x26.5cm) together with the matching magnificent Elephant Folio Atlas showing forty-four engraved maps and plates (mainly after Alexander), of which seven are folding. The atlas folio with publisher’s original paper label stating ‘Maps and Plates to Illustrate the Fine Large Paper Edition of Lord Macartney’s Embassy to China’.

‘An account of the first British embassy to China, under Lord Macartney. Great Britain was anxious to establish formal diplomatic relations with China and thus open the way for unimpeded trade relations, but centuries of Chinese reserve and self-sufficiency presented a formidable obstacle to the embassy, and the Chinese emperor effectually resisted Lord Macartney’s arguments and gifts. The visit of the British embassy nonetheless resulted in this remarkable account of Chinese manners and customs at the close of the eighteenth century’ -
The Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages. 
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Price HK$ 140,000



Dee Goong An - Robert H. Van Gulik

1949 - Toppan Printing Company, Tokyo - Number 567 of the First Edition, limited to 1, 200 copies
A superior first edition of Van Gulik’s translation of the eighteenth century Chinese detective story Dee Goong An, and the inspiration for his own Judge Dee detective novels. Privately printed, signed and sealed by Van Gulik, issued in a limited edition of 1200 and bound in an original woodblock print. Illustrated with three reproductions of original Chinese pictures (one tinted), and six plates from woodblocks by Van Gulik.

‘Nobody knows who wrote the
Dee Goong An. The book appeared in the eighteenth century, and was a true whodunit, preceding the genre in the West. Van Gulik found his first copy in Chungking, in a library that was being saved from Japanese bombing. Enthused by its fascinating plots Van Gulik made enquiries and found that the book had been in print for hundreds of years. It would be the foundation for his own lengthy series, but he didn’t know that as he ran about, gathering information on the historical judge [630-700) Ti Jen-chieh, who started his career as magistrate and finished as a minister of state. As a novel the book was great but it had also considerable value as a historical source, supplying more information about the (in)famous Dynasty of T’ang.

Van Gulik immediately took care of doing an English translation and passed the manuscript (1949) to his acquaintances in Japan. Everyone showed enthusiasm so he risked a private printing of 1200 copies.’ - from Janwillem Van De Wetering’s
Robert Van Gulik, His Life, His Work. 
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Price HK$ 19,000



Facts About Champagne collected during numerous visits to the Champagne District - Inscribed - Henry Vizetelly

1890 - Vizetelly &, London - Second and Revised Edition
Scarce edition of this wonderful work on Champagne inscribed by the great Henry Vizetelly to George Augustus Sala, a celebrated Victorian author, gastronome and a colleague at the Illustrated London News, dated ‘Covent Garden, 14 Augt. 1901’, two years after Vizetelly was released from prison for translating and publishing the works of Émile Zola in unexpurgated form.

Profusely illustrated with 32 full page engraved plates and 68 in text engravings drawn by Jules Pelcoq, W. Prater, Bertali, etc. from original sketches, as well as 38 small engravings of the Champagne brand marks to the rear.

Chapters cover:-
The Origin of Champagne; The Vintage in the Champagne; The Vineyards of the River; The Vineyards of the Mountain; The Vines of the Champagne and the System of Cultivation; Preparation of Champagne; Champagne Establishments of Reims, Epernay, Ay, Mareuil, and Avize; and Concluding Facts and Hints. 
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Price HK$ 9,000



The Theory of Games and Economic Behavior - John Von Neumann, Oscar Morgenstern

1944 - Princeton University Press, Princeton - First Edition
A fine first edition of Von Neumann and Morgenstern’s monumental presentation of Game Theory, in the rare dust jacket and complete with ‘Corrigenda’ slip. Together with Nobel prize winning economist Richard Stone’s rare and detailed 1948 review of ‘Theory of Games’, finely bound. Each housed in bespoke cloth cases.

‘Game theory, it may reasonably be claimed, has proved to be one of the more significant scientific contributions of the twentieth century. Albeit haltingly and unevenly, and in a manner quite unforeseeable in 1944 when the
Theory of Games and Economic Behavior was published, it has affected not only economics and political science but also evolutionary biology, ethics, and philosophy proper. Within economics, particular areas such as microeconomic theory, industrial organization, international trade, and experimental economics have all been reshaped under the theory’s influence.’ (Leonard)

‘The classic work in both game theory and its application to decision-making in economics and business’. (Bernstein).

‘Had it merely called our attention to the existence and exact nature of certain fundamental gaps in economic theory,
Theory of Games would have been a book of outstanding importance. But it does more than that. It is essentially constructive: where existing theory is considered to be inadequate, the authors put in its place a highly novel analytical apparatus designed to cope with the problem’. (Hurwicz) 
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Price HK$ 120,000



Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children s Crusade - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

1969 - Seymour Lawrence / Delacorte Press, New York - First Edition, First Issue
First edition of Vonnegut’s quintessential anti-war novel, the core of which was formed by his own experience as German prisoner during the two day fire bombing of Dresden in 1945.

‘Utter destruction’
, Vonnegut recalls, 'Carnage unfathomable.'

But this is Vonnegut, and as Salman Rushdie says in his brilliant
New Yorker article, ‘There is much comedy in it, as there was in everything Kurt Vonnegut wrote, but it does not see war as farcical. It sees war as a tragedy so great that perhaps only the mask of comedy allows one to look it in the eye.’ 
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Price HK$ 16,000



1952 - Harper &, New York - First Edition
A superb first edition of E.B. White’s classic children’s tale, the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte A. Cavatica. Illustrated throughout with Garth Williams’ delightful drawings.

Housed in a bespoke felt-lined green and red clamshell case, with the image of Fern, Wilbur, and Charlotte raised on the upper cover, and red spine label lettered in gilt.
 
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Price HK$ 30,000



 
Results 25 - 32 of 33 results