The Mid-Ocean Tragedy -
John Hawk (pseud. Helen Cournos)
1927 - George H. Doran Company, New York - First Edition
A fine example in fine bright dust jacket.
Mortimer Sark, detective, penetrates the mystery of a daring murder committed on a huge liner in the grip of a mid-ocean storm. Donald Godfrey has been mysteriously shot and the priceless blue diamond intended for his reluctant fiancée is missing...
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Price HK$ 2,700
1927 - George H. Doran Company, New York - First Edition
A fine example in fine bright dust jacket.Mortimer Sark, detective, penetrates the mystery of a daring murder committed on a huge liner in the grip of a mid-ocean storm. Donald Godfrey has been mysteriously shot and the priceless blue diamond intended for his reluctant fiancée is missing...
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Price HK$ 2,700
The Scarlet Letter -
Nathaniel Hawthorne, George H. Boughton (illustrator)
1908 - The Grolier Club, New York - Limited Efition
One of three hundred copies of this beautifully illustrated edition of Hawthorne's seminal work of American literature, set in 17th century Boston and written in Salem in 1849-50
A fine large copy printed on French handmade paper and illustrated with thirteen different scenes by George Broughton, each presented here in two states, colour and tinted, for a total of twenty-six full page plates.
‘The finest piece of imaginative writing yet put forth in this country. There was a consciousness of this in the welcome that was given it - a satisfaction in the idea of America having produced a novel that belonged to literature and to the forefront of it.’ - Henry James (1879).
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Price HK$ 2,100
1908 - The Grolier Club, New York - Limited Efition
One of three hundred copies of this beautifully illustrated edition of Hawthorne's seminal work of American literature, set in 17th century Boston and written in Salem in 1849-50A fine large copy printed on French handmade paper and illustrated with thirteen different scenes by George Broughton, each presented here in two states, colour and tinted, for a total of twenty-six full page plates.
‘The finest piece of imaginative writing yet put forth in this country. There was a consciousness of this in the welcome that was given it - a satisfaction in the idea of America having produced a novel that belonged to literature and to the forefront of it.’ - Henry James (1879).
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Price HK$ 2,100
The Jonah -
James Herbert
1981 - New English Library, London - First Edition
First edition of this rather scarce title.
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Price HK$ 2,000
1981 - New English Library, London - First Edition
First edition of this rather scarce title.
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Price HK$ 2,000
The Vultures Gather -
Anne Hocking
1945 - Geoffrey Bles, London - First Edition
A fine first edition in the rare dust jacket. Featuring Chief Inspector William Austen
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Price HK$ 3,000
1945 - Geoffrey Bles, London - First Edition
A fine first edition in the rare dust jacket. Featuring Chief Inspector William Austen
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Price HK$ 3,000
The Anatomy of Bibliomania -
Holbrook Jackson
1930-1931 - The Soncino Press, London - Limited edition, numbered 740 of 1, 000 copies
Two finely bound volumes of Holbrook Jackson’s cornerstone work on Bibliomania and "the usefulness, purpose, and pleasures that proceed from books."
“’The Anatomy of Bibliomania’ begins at the beginning, when books first started to appear, and gives book lovers the solace and company of book lovers from ancient Rome, the Renaissance, and the Romantics. Jackson inspects the allure of books, their curative and restorative properties, and the passion for them that leads to bibliomania ("a genial mania, less harmful than the sanity of the sane"). With deliciously understated wit, he comments on why we read, where we read - on journeys, at mealtimes, on the toilet (this has "a long but mostly unrecorded history"), in bed, and in prison - and what happens to us when we read. He touches on bindings, bookworms, libraries, and the sport of book hunting, as well as the behavior of borrowers, embezzlers, thieves, and collectors. Francis Bacon, Anatole France, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Leigh Hunt, Marcel Proust, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Shakespeare, and scores of other luminaries chime in on books and their love for them.
Unlike most manias, bibliomania is an ennobling affliction, worth cultivating, improving, and enjoying to its heights and depths. Entertaining as well as instructive, The Anatomy of Bibliomania is a book no book lover - and certainly no bibliomaniac - can afford to be without.” [University of Illinois Press]
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Price HK$ 8,000
1930-1931 - The Soncino Press, London - Limited edition, numbered 740 of 1, 000 copies
Two finely bound volumes of Holbrook Jackson’s cornerstone work on Bibliomania and "the usefulness, purpose, and pleasures that proceed from books."“’The Anatomy of Bibliomania’ begins at the beginning, when books first started to appear, and gives book lovers the solace and company of book lovers from ancient Rome, the Renaissance, and the Romantics. Jackson inspects the allure of books, their curative and restorative properties, and the passion for them that leads to bibliomania ("a genial mania, less harmful than the sanity of the sane"). With deliciously understated wit, he comments on why we read, where we read - on journeys, at mealtimes, on the toilet (this has "a long but mostly unrecorded history"), in bed, and in prison - and what happens to us when we read. He touches on bindings, bookworms, libraries, and the sport of book hunting, as well as the behavior of borrowers, embezzlers, thieves, and collectors. Francis Bacon, Anatole France, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Leigh Hunt, Marcel Proust, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Shakespeare, and scores of other luminaries chime in on books and their love for them.
Unlike most manias, bibliomania is an ennobling affliction, worth cultivating, improving, and enjoying to its heights and depths. Entertaining as well as instructive, The Anatomy of Bibliomania is a book no book lover - and certainly no bibliomaniac - can afford to be without.” [University of Illinois Press]
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Price HK$ 8,000
Travels in the Philippines -
F. Jagor
1875 - Chapman and Hall, London - First Edition in English
First published in German two years earlier, an outstanding and rare example of Dr. Fedor Jagor’s highliy influential and insightful work on the Philippines, one that is still regarded today as a a landmark in Western works on the Philippines. The first edition in English, translated from the original German edition of 1873.
The national hero of the Philippines, José Rizal, admired Jagor’s book and Jagor later introduced Rizal to his German scientific colleagues.
Illustrated throughout and with a folding map.
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Price HK$ 25,000
1875 - Chapman and Hall, London - First Edition in English
First published in German two years earlier, an outstanding and rare example of Dr. Fedor Jagor’s highliy influential and insightful work on the Philippines, one that is still regarded today as a a landmark in Western works on the Philippines. The first edition in English, translated from the original German edition of 1873.The national hero of the Philippines, José Rizal, admired Jagor’s book and Jagor later introduced Rizal to his German scientific colleagues.
Illustrated throughout and with a folding map.
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Price HK$ 25,000
Shooting in China -
Thomas R. Jernigan
1908 - Methodist Publishing House, Shanghai - First and Only Edition
The rare first edition of this work on wildfowl shooting in China, and one of only a small number of eighteenth and early nineteenth century books written on the subject by expatriates based in China. Illustrated with 23 full page plates of 26 images, mostly from photographs (including the Snipe plate opposite page 77 which is not listed).
‘I remember my first shooting trip in China as clearly and distinctly as if it were but an event of yesterday, It was in December 1866, a few days after my arrival in Shanghai...’ - thus begins ‘Notes by an Old Sportsman’, a chapter of reminisces contributed by Jernigan’s friend H. T. Wade.
Jernigan (1847-1920) was US consul general in Shanghai, attorney in China for Standard Oil Company, chairman of the Shanghai International Settlement, and on publication of this work he was in private practice. In this work Jernigan provides long chapters on houseboating for waterfowl and small game shooting, there are also separate sections on shooting along the ‘Yang-tze River’, the ‘Ch’ien-Tang River’ and the ‘Lakes near Ningpo’. Other chapters cover ‘Customs’, ‘Government’, and to the rear is a short ‘Vocabulary’ of Chinese hunting terms. While Jernigan does not hunt big game himself, he does include a chapter describing big game that he has been informed of, including lion, tiger, leopard, bear and wild boar.
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Price HK$ 6,000
1908 - Methodist Publishing House, Shanghai - First and Only Edition
The rare first edition of this work on wildfowl shooting in China, and one of only a small number of eighteenth and early nineteenth century books written on the subject by expatriates based in China. Illustrated with 23 full page plates of 26 images, mostly from photographs (including the Snipe plate opposite page 77 which is not listed).‘I remember my first shooting trip in China as clearly and distinctly as if it were but an event of yesterday, It was in December 1866, a few days after my arrival in Shanghai...’ - thus begins ‘Notes by an Old Sportsman’, a chapter of reminisces contributed by Jernigan’s friend H. T. Wade.
Jernigan (1847-1920) was US consul general in Shanghai, attorney in China for Standard Oil Company, chairman of the Shanghai International Settlement, and on publication of this work he was in private practice. In this work Jernigan provides long chapters on houseboating for waterfowl and small game shooting, there are also separate sections on shooting along the ‘Yang-tze River’, the ‘Ch’ien-Tang River’ and the ‘Lakes near Ningpo’. Other chapters cover ‘Customs’, ‘Government’, and to the rear is a short ‘Vocabulary’ of Chinese hunting terms. While Jernigan does not hunt big game himself, he does include a chapter describing big game that he has been informed of, including lion, tiger, leopard, bear and wild boar.
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Price HK$ 6,000
It will be Warmer When it Snows -
Arthur La Bern
1966 - W. H. Allen, London - First Edition
A rare first edition of this ‘absorbing and brutally penetrating novel about a bankrupt and his crumbling world’, set in London.
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Price HK$ 1,800
1966 - W. H. Allen, London - First Edition
A rare first edition of this ‘absorbing and brutally penetrating novel about a bankrupt and his crumbling world’, set in London.
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Price HK$ 1,800