Marie Antoinette -
Pierre de Nolhac
1905 - Arthur L. Humphreys, London
An elegantly art-nouveau style bound, seminal biography, printed on ‘Arnold’ water marked, unbleached hand laid paper, reprinted from the first English translation of 1898.
Onetime curator of the Palace of Versailles, Pierre de Nolhac (1859-1936) is remembered for his creation of the museum there, for the restoration of the gardens, and, by way of his publications, ‘for bringing back to life the spirit of the former glories of the royal residence’ (Arthur Griggs). In this biography of Marie Antoinette, Nolhac tells the story of a Queen, but also the story of a woman. ‘She seemed born to please the national taste’, he writes, ‘brilliant, lively, witty, fond of pleasure and festivity, with all her husband's goodness and a special grace of her own’.
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Price HK$ 5,500
1905 - Arthur L. Humphreys, London
An elegantly art-nouveau style bound, seminal biography, printed on ‘Arnold’ water marked, unbleached hand laid paper, reprinted from the first English translation of 1898.Onetime curator of the Palace of Versailles, Pierre de Nolhac (1859-1936) is remembered for his creation of the museum there, for the restoration of the gardens, and, by way of his publications, ‘for bringing back to life the spirit of the former glories of the royal residence’ (Arthur Griggs). In this biography of Marie Antoinette, Nolhac tells the story of a Queen, but also the story of a woman. ‘She seemed born to please the national taste’, he writes, ‘brilliant, lively, witty, fond of pleasure and festivity, with all her husband's goodness and a special grace of her own’.
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Price HK$ 5,500
Nineteen Eighty-Four -
George Orwell
1949 - Secker & Warburg, London - First Edition
‘BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU’
A finely bound first edition of Orwell's powerful novel of a totalitarian future society, among the most famous and most cited works of dystopian fiction in literature, whose text and terminology has left a profound impression upon the English language.
‘WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.’
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Price HK$ 4,000
1949 - Secker & Warburg, London - First Edition
‘BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU’A finely bound first edition of Orwell's powerful novel of a totalitarian future society, among the most famous and most cited works of dystopian fiction in literature, whose text and terminology has left a profound impression upon the English language.
‘WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.’
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Price HK$ 4,000
Doctor Zhivago -
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak
1958 - Collins and Harvill Press, London - First Edition in English
Loosely based on Pasternak’s life after moving out of Moscow, Lara being modelled on his mistress, Olga Ivinskaya. The manuscript was being smuggled out of Russia in 1957 - ’You are hereby invited to watch me face the firing squad.’ said Pasternak on handing the manuscript over. After the publication of the English translation in 1958 Doctor Zhivago spent 26 weeks on the New York times bestseller list. This is the first edition of that translation.
The epic film adaptation by David Lean, starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, won 5 Oscars and 3 Baftas, and cemented Doctor Zhivago’s place in film folklore.
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Price HK$ 3,000
1958 - Collins and Harvill Press, London - First Edition in English
Loosely based on Pasternak’s life after moving out of Moscow, Lara being modelled on his mistress, Olga Ivinskaya. The manuscript was being smuggled out of Russia in 1957 - ’You are hereby invited to watch me face the firing squad.’ said Pasternak on handing the manuscript over. After the publication of the English translation in 1958 Doctor Zhivago spent 26 weeks on the New York times bestseller list. This is the first edition of that translation. The epic film adaptation by David Lean, starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, won 5 Oscars and 3 Baftas, and cemented Doctor Zhivago’s place in film folklore.
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Price HK$ 3,000
The Open Society and its Enemies. Volume I - The Spell of Plato; Volume II - The High Tide of Prophecy: Hegel, Marx, and the Aftermath -
Karl R. Popper
1945 - George Routledge & Sons, London - First Edition
A fine set, produced on the same poor ‘Economy Standard’ paper as used for George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ of the same year. In the bright and scarce delicate dust jackets.
‘A work of first-class importance which ought to be widely read for its masterly criticism of the enemies of democracy, ancient and modern.’ – Bertrand Russell.
‘One of the most important books of the twentieth century, Karl Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies is an uncompromising defense of liberal democracy and a powerful attack on the intellectual origins of totalitarianism. An immediate sensation when it was first published in two volumes in 1945, Popper's monumental achievement has attained legendary status on both the Left and Right and is credited with inspiring anticommunist dissidents during the Cold War. Arguing that the spirit of free, critical inquiry that governs scientific investigation should also apply to politics, Popper traces the roots of an opposite, authoritarian tendency to a tradition represented by Plato, Marx, and Hegel.’ – Princeton University Press.
Sir Karl R. Popper (1902-94) was an Austrian-British philosopher, widely regarded as one of the 20th century’s greatest philosophers of science. He taught at Canterbury University, New Zealand as a lecturer in philosophy during the war years, it was here he wrote The Open Society and its Enemies, and upon its publication he moved to the London School of Economics and later became Professor of Logic and Scientific Method at the University of London.
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Price HK$ 26,000
1945 - George Routledge & Sons, London - First Edition
A fine set, produced on the same poor ‘Economy Standard’ paper as used for George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ of the same year. In the bright and scarce delicate dust jackets.‘A work of first-class importance which ought to be widely read for its masterly criticism of the enemies of democracy, ancient and modern.’ – Bertrand Russell.
‘One of the most important books of the twentieth century, Karl Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies is an uncompromising defense of liberal democracy and a powerful attack on the intellectual origins of totalitarianism. An immediate sensation when it was first published in two volumes in 1945, Popper's monumental achievement has attained legendary status on both the Left and Right and is credited with inspiring anticommunist dissidents during the Cold War. Arguing that the spirit of free, critical inquiry that governs scientific investigation should also apply to politics, Popper traces the roots of an opposite, authoritarian tendency to a tradition represented by Plato, Marx, and Hegel.’ – Princeton University Press.
Sir Karl R. Popper (1902-94) was an Austrian-British philosopher, widely regarded as one of the 20th century’s greatest philosophers of science. He taught at Canterbury University, New Zealand as a lecturer in philosophy during the war years, it was here he wrote The Open Society and its Enemies, and upon its publication he moved to the London School of Economics and later became Professor of Logic and Scientific Method at the University of London.
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Price HK$ 26,000
All Quiet on the Western Front -
Erich Maria Remarque
1929 - Little, Boston - First American Edition
First American edition, in uncommonly bright clean jacket, which, unlike the plain green jacket of the English first edition of the same year, features the iconic artwork of Paul Wenck.
A highlight of first world war literature, and the first novel published by the pseudonymous author, whose real name was Erich Paul Remark. Based on his own experiences as a young eighteen year old German soldier in the first World War in which he was injured several times, it stands as one of the most powerful works of anti-war literature ever written.
‘This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by war’ – E.M.R.
Translated from the German by A.W. Wheen. The basis for the 1930 film directed by Lewis Milestone and the 1979 made-for-TV movie starring Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine.
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Price HK$ 12,000
1929 - Little, Boston - First American Edition
First American edition, in uncommonly bright clean jacket, which, unlike the plain green jacket of the English first edition of the same year, features the iconic artwork of Paul Wenck.A highlight of first world war literature, and the first novel published by the pseudonymous author, whose real name was Erich Paul Remark. Based on his own experiences as a young eighteen year old German soldier in the first World War in which he was injured several times, it stands as one of the most powerful works of anti-war literature ever written.
‘This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by war’ – E.M.R.
Translated from the German by A.W. Wheen. The basis for the 1930 film directed by Lewis Milestone and the 1979 made-for-TV movie starring Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine.
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Price HK$ 12,000
Maskee - A Shanghai Sketchbook by Schiff - Signed -
Friedrich Schiff
1938 CircaShanghai - Number A191 of an unspecified Limited Edition
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$ 22,000
1938 CircaShanghai - Number A191 of an unspecified Limited Edition
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$ 22,000
Scott's Last Expedition -
Robert Falcon Scott, Leonard Huxley, Sir Clements Markham
1913 - Smith, London - First Edition
‘A worthy memorial of one of the great achievements of our time.’ – Winston Churchill
Scott's final, fateful and fatal journey in quest of the South Pole. An exceptionally fine set and uncommon thus, with Volume I containing the diaries of Scott, including the letters written to Wilson's mother, Bowers' mother, a string of notables including his former commander Sir George Egerton, his own mother and his wife, together with his ‘Message to the Public’.
‘It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more – R. Scott – For God's sake look after our people’
Both volumes are illustrated with numerous plates from photographs by H. G. Ponting, plates from sketches and water colours by Edward A. Wilson, some colour; photogravure frontispiece portraits of Scott & Wilson, and two large folding maps.
Without these diaries, which were found on Scott’s body, we would never have known Oates’ immortal line ‘I am just going outside and may be some time’.
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Price HK$ 10,000
1913 - Smith, London - First Edition
‘A worthy memorial of one of the great achievements of our time.’ – Winston ChurchillScott's final, fateful and fatal journey in quest of the South Pole. An exceptionally fine set and uncommon thus, with Volume I containing the diaries of Scott, including the letters written to Wilson's mother, Bowers' mother, a string of notables including his former commander Sir George Egerton, his own mother and his wife, together with his ‘Message to the Public’.
‘It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more – R. Scott – For God's sake look after our people’
Both volumes are illustrated with numerous plates from photographs by H. G. Ponting, plates from sketches and water colours by Edward A. Wilson, some colour; photogravure frontispiece portraits of Scott & Wilson, and two large folding maps.
Without these diaries, which were found on Scott’s body, we would never have known Oates’ immortal line ‘I am just going outside and may be some time’.
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Price HK$ 10,000
Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa -
Frederick Courteney Selous
1893 - Rowland Ward and Co., London - First Edition
Illustrated with 22 full page monochrome plates, frontispiece portrait of the author, 35 in-text illustrations, and folding colour map to rear.
‘In this work recounting eleven years of exploration, work and sport in the 1880's and 1890's, Selous describes numerous adventures with lions and leopards, particularly near the Zambezi, Zweswi, and Manyami Rivers, with additional sport after rhinoceros, eland and hartebeest. After returning to the Transvaal, he linked with Montague Kerr and travelled into Matabeleland. Selous hunted more lions and rhinoceros, and vividly depicts an elephant hunt near the Zweswi River. In 1886, he hunted through Mashonaland, but was forced to escape after his camp was destroyed by hostile tribesmen. Eventually reaching the Zambezi, he hunted lion and lost a canoe to a hippopotamus. He concludes with a chapter on rifles, and another reflecting earlier sporting adventures after elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo and others’ – Czech, African Big Game Hunting.
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Price HK$ 2,000
1893 - Rowland Ward and Co., London - First Edition
Illustrated with 22 full page monochrome plates, frontispiece portrait of the author, 35 in-text illustrations, and folding colour map to rear.‘In this work recounting eleven years of exploration, work and sport in the 1880's and 1890's, Selous describes numerous adventures with lions and leopards, particularly near the Zambezi, Zweswi, and Manyami Rivers, with additional sport after rhinoceros, eland and hartebeest. After returning to the Transvaal, he linked with Montague Kerr and travelled into Matabeleland. Selous hunted more lions and rhinoceros, and vividly depicts an elephant hunt near the Zweswi River. In 1886, he hunted through Mashonaland, but was forced to escape after his camp was destroyed by hostile tribesmen. Eventually reaching the Zambezi, he hunted lion and lost a canoe to a hippopotamus. He concludes with a chapter on rifles, and another reflecting earlier sporting adventures after elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo and others’ – Czech, African Big Game Hunting.
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Price HK$ 2,000