Wandering in Northern China - with - Roving Through Southern China -
Harry A. Franck
1923 - The Century Co., New York & London - First Editions
Together, these two volumes, profusely illustrated with 100’s of Franck’s photographs, provide the most comprehensive reference to what China was really like in the mid-1920's, as well as the adjacent territories.
Wandering in Northern China documents Franck’s personal vagabond adventures - Korea, Manchuria, Gobi, Mongolia, Urga, Peking, Jehol, Shansi, Shantung, Tsingtao, the bandits in Honan, Sian Fu, Shensi, Mohammedan China, Yangtze and other places along the way. A journey mostly conducted on foot through Korea & the whole of Northern China & Mongolia down to Peking, ending at Shantung.
The companion volume Roving Through Southern China which covered Franck’s journey through Shanghai, his travel up the Yangtze, Kingtehchen, Fukien, Foo- chow, Canton under Sun Yat-Sen, Hainan, Kwangsi, Yunnan, Szechuan, Chengtu and beyond. Much on China's unabsorbed tribes [ethnic minorities]: the Miao, Nosu, Lolo, and other ethnic groups.
More details
Price HK$ 2,600
1923 - The Century Co., New York & London - First Editions
Together, these two volumes, profusely illustrated with 100’s of Franck’s photographs, provide the most comprehensive reference to what China was really like in the mid-1920's, as well as the adjacent territories.Wandering in Northern China documents Franck’s personal vagabond adventures - Korea, Manchuria, Gobi, Mongolia, Urga, Peking, Jehol, Shansi, Shantung, Tsingtao, the bandits in Honan, Sian Fu, Shensi, Mohammedan China, Yangtze and other places along the way. A journey mostly conducted on foot through Korea & the whole of Northern China & Mongolia down to Peking, ending at Shantung.
The companion volume Roving Through Southern China which covered Franck’s journey through Shanghai, his travel up the Yangtze, Kingtehchen, Fukien, Foo- chow, Canton under Sun Yat-Sen, Hainan, Kwangsi, Yunnan, Szechuan, Chengtu and beyond. Much on China's unabsorbed tribes [ethnic minorities]: the Miao, Nosu, Lolo, and other ethnic groups.
More details
Price HK$ 2,600
The Trouble I’ve Seen -
Martha Gellhorn, H. G. Wells (preface)
1936 - Putnam, London - First Edition
‘The only way I can pay back for what fate and society have handed me is to try, in minor totally useless ways, to make an angry sound against injustice.’
An attractive copy of Martha Gellhorn’s first work of fiction, with a preface by H. G. Wells. This brilliant collection reveals four tender, yet unflinching, portraits of men and women whose lives are devastated through poverty, forced migration, and war. Enraged by the inequality and ruin she witnessed throughout her career as a foreign correspondent, Gellhorn fought to bring these issues into the spotlight, and her work in both fiction and journalism was met with critical acclaim. Although it has been over eighty years since ‘The Trouble I’ve Seen’ was first published, the messages and themes within it remain as prevalent today as they were in the 1930’s.
More details
Price HK$ 3,500
1936 - Putnam, London - First Edition
‘The only way I can pay back for what fate and society have handed me is to try, in minor totally useless ways, to make an angry sound against injustice.’An attractive copy of Martha Gellhorn’s first work of fiction, with a preface by H. G. Wells. This brilliant collection reveals four tender, yet unflinching, portraits of men and women whose lives are devastated through poverty, forced migration, and war. Enraged by the inequality and ruin she witnessed throughout her career as a foreign correspondent, Gellhorn fought to bring these issues into the spotlight, and her work in both fiction and journalism was met with critical acclaim. Although it has been over eighty years since ‘The Trouble I’ve Seen’ was first published, the messages and themes within it remain as prevalent today as they were in the 1930’s.
More details
Price HK$ 3,500
The River of Golden Sand, the narrative of a journey through China and eastern Tibet to Burmah -
Captain William Gill, Edward Colborne Baber, Colonel Henry Yule
1883 - John Murray, London - First Edition Thus
‘Altogether his journey is one of the most successful and useful which has been performed ion Western China’ - Baron Von Richthofen.
The abridged edition of Captain William Gill’s remarkable account of his expedition from Chengdu, China through Sichuan, along the eastern edge of Tibet via Litang, and finally to Bhamo in Burma, a region little explored by westerners before him. Travelling by train through Europe, and then by sea to Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tianjin, he reached the British legation at Peking in September 1876, before setting out on his five week journey. In 1879 Gill was awarded the Royal Geographical Society gold medal for his scientific work and maps made during this expedition. Gill describes in vivid detail the landscapes, cultures, societies, and settlements of the region, along with their political and economic systems
This edition was published after Gill’s death in 1882, and to it is added a memoir of Gill written by Henry Yule, in addition to his original Introductory essay detailing the exploratory history of the region and briefly outlining those of his friend Captain Gill. Certain portions were adjusted to bring the whole up to date, and a number of additional illustrations added, whilst the number of maps were reduced to two, including a large folding colour map of China showing Gill’s routes.
More details
Price HK$ 2,500
1883 - John Murray, London - First Edition Thus
‘Altogether his journey is one of the most successful and useful which has been performed ion Western China’ - Baron Von Richthofen.The abridged edition of Captain William Gill’s remarkable account of his expedition from Chengdu, China through Sichuan, along the eastern edge of Tibet via Litang, and finally to Bhamo in Burma, a region little explored by westerners before him. Travelling by train through Europe, and then by sea to Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tianjin, he reached the British legation at Peking in September 1876, before setting out on his five week journey. In 1879 Gill was awarded the Royal Geographical Society gold medal for his scientific work and maps made during this expedition. Gill describes in vivid detail the landscapes, cultures, societies, and settlements of the region, along with their political and economic systems
This edition was published after Gill’s death in 1882, and to it is added a memoir of Gill written by Henry Yule, in addition to his original Introductory essay detailing the exploratory history of the region and briefly outlining those of his friend Captain Gill. Certain portions were adjusted to bring the whole up to date, and a number of additional illustrations added, whilst the number of maps were reduced to two, including a large folding colour map of China showing Gill’s routes.
More details
Price HK$ 2,500
The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy -
Mrs. Hannah Glasse
1796 - Printed for T. Longman, London - A New Edition, with all the Modern Improvements. In which are included One Hundred and Fifty new and useful Receipts, not inserted in any former Edition
A finely bound early edition of this classic 18th century cookbook, which ‘revolutionised the way the British cook’.
‘She's the first domestic goddess, the queen of the dinner party and the most important cookery writer to know about. No, not Isabella Beeton; not Delia Smith nor Nigella Lawson, but an earlier incarnation of a kitchen trouble-shooter, Hannah Glasse’ - Rose Prince, The Independent (2006).
‘The Art of Cookery has a River Cafe Cookbook quality - in fact her excessive use of butter, which can have a lovely clear flavour, can be likened to the liberal dribbling of olive oil in Rogers' and Gray's recipes. The power of the book, though, is the clarity of the writing. She's authoritative but she is also intimate, treating you as an equal’ – Bee Wilson (food journalist and author).
More details
Price HK$ 4,500
1796 - Printed for T. Longman, London - A New Edition, with all the Modern Improvements. In which are included One Hundred and Fifty new and useful Receipts, not inserted in any former Edition
A finely bound early edition of this classic 18th century cookbook, which ‘revolutionised the way the British cook’.‘She's the first domestic goddess, the queen of the dinner party and the most important cookery writer to know about. No, not Isabella Beeton; not Delia Smith nor Nigella Lawson, but an earlier incarnation of a kitchen trouble-shooter, Hannah Glasse’ - Rose Prince, The Independent (2006).
‘The Art of Cookery has a River Cafe Cookbook quality - in fact her excessive use of butter, which can have a lovely clear flavour, can be likened to the liberal dribbling of olive oil in Rogers' and Gray's recipes. The power of the book, though, is the clarity of the writing. She's authoritative but she is also intimate, treating you as an equal’ – Bee Wilson (food journalist and author).
More details
Price HK$ 4,500
I Leap Before I Look -
David Haig-Thomas
1936 - Putnam, London - First Edition
Haig-Thomas (1908-44), Cambridge blue (1930, 1931,1932), Olympic rower, traced the route of the Awash River with Wilfred Thesiger, arctic explorer, ornithologist, member of Special Commando Boating Group in WWII specialising in using canoes and kayaks for limpet attacks in arctic waters, and he could write.
A fine copy in the scarce dust jacket of what the Spectator magazine in 1937 perfectly describes as an ‘account of the more exciting moments of [Haig-Thomas’] youth, mostly passed in the pursuit of thrills. He found them in raiding the printers at Eton for examination papers, tying umbrellas to the spires of King's College chapel, rowing in the University boat-race, poaching ibex in the Pyrenees and photographing wild geese on the Fens - his favourite occupation. Being in America for the Olympic games, he decided to visit friends in Canada, and having no money made the journey by "jumping" a freight train, and then kept himself by odd jobs on farms. All this is amusingly described. But it is his passion for the solitude of the marshes and the call of fighting geese that leavens the toughness of his outlook and distinguishes his book from the usual records of thrill-hunters’.
More details
Price HK$ 5,800
1936 - Putnam, London - First Edition
Haig-Thomas (1908-44), Cambridge blue (1930, 1931,1932), Olympic rower, traced the route of the Awash River with Wilfred Thesiger, arctic explorer, ornithologist, member of Special Commando Boating Group in WWII specialising in using canoes and kayaks for limpet attacks in arctic waters, and he could write.A fine copy in the scarce dust jacket of what the Spectator magazine in 1937 perfectly describes as an ‘account of the more exciting moments of [Haig-Thomas’] youth, mostly passed in the pursuit of thrills. He found them in raiding the printers at Eton for examination papers, tying umbrellas to the spires of King's College chapel, rowing in the University boat-race, poaching ibex in the Pyrenees and photographing wild geese on the Fens - his favourite occupation. Being in America for the Olympic games, he decided to visit friends in Canada, and having no money made the journey by "jumping" a freight train, and then kept himself by odd jobs on farms. All this is amusingly described. But it is his passion for the solitude of the marshes and the call of fighting geese that leavens the toughness of his outlook and distinguishes his book from the usual records of thrill-hunters’.
More details
Price HK$ 5,800
A Burma Miscellany -
G. E. Harvey, Maung Maung Pye, R. H. Gribble
1947 - Longmans, London - Third Edition
‘The standard history of Burma, based on Burmese chronicles and on Western archival sources, focusing on everything from politics to dynastic events.’
Three works on Burmese History bound into a charmingly petite volume for Charles Booth, British diplomat who served in Burma three times between 1950 and 1978.
Harvey’s ‘Outline of Burmese History’ contained in the compilation was once considered the definitive work on the subject. The educational tone set by the first work is carefully balanced with the wonderful and exhilarating account of Gribble’s near death trek across the country during the Japanese invasion in 1942, based primarily on the author’s diaries and letters that he was able to retain during his travels.
More details
Price HK$ 1,800
1947 - Longmans, London - Third Edition
‘The standard history of Burma, based on Burmese chronicles and on Western archival sources, focusing on everything from politics to dynastic events.’ Three works on Burmese History bound into a charmingly petite volume for Charles Booth, British diplomat who served in Burma three times between 1950 and 1978.
Harvey’s ‘Outline of Burmese History’ contained in the compilation was once considered the definitive work on the subject. The educational tone set by the first work is carefully balanced with the wonderful and exhilarating account of Gribble’s near death trek across the country during the Japanese invasion in 1942, based primarily on the author’s diaries and letters that he was able to retain during his travels.
More details
Price HK$ 1,800
Three years travels from Moscow over-land to China -
E. Y. Ides
1706 - W. Freeman, London - First edition in English
Superb copy of this profusely illustrated and important work in contemporary full calf binding.
Ides headed an embassy to Peking, which set out from Moscow in 1692 and returned in 1695. ‘He composed his journal for the information and satisfaction of Czar Peter the Great who was well pleased with the results and rewarded the author with the post of Privy Councillor. The Russian embassy had less trouble with the enormous self esteem of the Chinese than many earlier and later embassies. Under the emperor then ruling, Kang hsi, ministers were courteously received and enabled to transact their business as at any other court. The expedition added considerable geographical knowledge to the little that was known about Manchuria and China’ [Cox].
First published in Dutch in 1704, to which Nicolas Witsen, the translator, added 30 newly engraved plates (seven of which are double page folding plates, and one larger folding plate ‘The Ambassador’s entry thro’ the famous wall’), in addition to the engraved title page, and the large and important map ‘Russorum Imperatori’ by Petro Alexewitz, considered ‘the best of all foreign maps which were based on the Russian original sources and which have exercised a great influence on the development of Russian cartography’ (Imago Mundi III 87).
More details
Price HK$ 42,000
1706 - W. Freeman, London - First edition in English
Superb copy of this profusely illustrated and important work in contemporary full calf binding.Ides headed an embassy to Peking, which set out from Moscow in 1692 and returned in 1695. ‘He composed his journal for the information and satisfaction of Czar Peter the Great who was well pleased with the results and rewarded the author with the post of Privy Councillor. The Russian embassy had less trouble with the enormous self esteem of the Chinese than many earlier and later embassies. Under the emperor then ruling, Kang hsi, ministers were courteously received and enabled to transact their business as at any other court. The expedition added considerable geographical knowledge to the little that was known about Manchuria and China’ [Cox].
First published in Dutch in 1704, to which Nicolas Witsen, the translator, added 30 newly engraved plates (seven of which are double page folding plates, and one larger folding plate ‘The Ambassador’s entry thro’ the famous wall’), in addition to the engraved title page, and the large and important map ‘Russorum Imperatori’ by Petro Alexewitz, considered ‘the best of all foreign maps which were based on the Russian original sources and which have exercised a great influence on the development of Russian cartography’ (Imago Mundi III 87).
More details
Price HK$ 42,000
The Currencies of China -
Eduard Kann
1927 - Kelly & Walsh, Shanghai - Second Edition. Revised.
A very good copy in the rare dust jacket of this exhaustive work on China’s monetary system after the establishment of the Republic, and still the major reference on the subject. There is also one chapter devoted to ‘Hong Kong’s Currency’.
As described in the author’s preface, the second edition enlarged the sections ‘that deal with the practical side of China’s currency system. Numerous additions have been made in this direction, as for instance, with regard to outturns of bullion shipments, parity tables, etc.’.
Illustrated with a Silver tael to title page, a coloured plate of two gold bars, one map and nine black and white full page photographic plates, eight of which are of coins and one is of the Shanghai Gold Exchange, there is also a fold-out table showing the comparative rates for gold silver etc. across a number of exchanges including New York, London and Shanghai.
More details
Price HK$ 4,500
1927 - Kelly & Walsh, Shanghai - Second Edition. Revised.
A very good copy in the rare dust jacket of this exhaustive work on China’s monetary system after the establishment of the Republic, and still the major reference on the subject. There is also one chapter devoted to ‘Hong Kong’s Currency’.As described in the author’s preface, the second edition enlarged the sections ‘that deal with the practical side of China’s currency system. Numerous additions have been made in this direction, as for instance, with regard to outturns of bullion shipments, parity tables, etc.’.
Illustrated with a Silver tael to title page, a coloured plate of two gold bars, one map and nine black and white full page photographic plates, eight of which are of coins and one is of the Shanghai Gold Exchange, there is also a fold-out table showing the comparative rates for gold silver etc. across a number of exchanges including New York, London and Shanghai.
More details
Price HK$ 4,500