Howard Pyle’s Book of The American Spirit -
Howard Pyle, Merle Johnson, Francis J.Dowd
1923 - Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York - First Edition
‘Pyle furnishes a window into our American past as given by no word historian: wholesome, homely, and full of interest.’
A large and magnificent quarto, illustrated with over two hundred sketches, many full page, and twenty two colour plates by Howard Pyle. Chronicling the main events of American history with charm and eloquence.
As Merle Johnson states in the foreword, ‘the title of this volume was not chosen idly – it was chosen because Howard Pyle pictures do breathe an American Spirit.’
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Price HK$ 1,200
1923 - Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York - First Edition
‘Pyle furnishes a window into our American past as given by no word historian: wholesome, homely, and full of interest.’A large and magnificent quarto, illustrated with over two hundred sketches, many full page, and twenty two colour plates by Howard Pyle. Chronicling the main events of American history with charm and eloquence.
As Merle Johnson states in the foreword, ‘the title of this volume was not chosen idly – it was chosen because Howard Pyle pictures do breathe an American Spirit.’
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Price HK$ 1,200
Forty-five Years in China: Reminiscences -
Timothy Richard
1916 - T. Fisher Unwin, London - First Edition
‘The problem before the missionary in China, as I found it forty-five years ago, was not only how to save the souls of a fourth of the human race, but also how to save their bodies from perishing at the rate of four million per annum, and to free their minds, more crippled than the feet of their women, from a philosophy and custom which had lasted for many centuries and eft them at the mercy of any nation which might attack their country.’
A near fine and rare first edition of this important illustrated autobiography by the man whose ‘manifold activities and vast influence defy summary. Pioneer missionary, philanthropist, missionary statesman, scholar, educationalist, author, and publicist, friend and adviser of princes and peasants, the name of ‘ Li T'i-motai ’ was a household word throughout China’ (Dictionary of Welsh Biography).
According to Wenzong Wang (Builders of the Chinese Church, 2015) the welsh Missionary Timothy ‘Li T’i-motai’ Richard (1845-1919) impacted the entire late Quing Dynasty. The Quing Empire conferred upon him the First Red Button Grade of the Mandarin in 1903, later followed by ennobling his ancestors for three generations to equal rank. In 1907, he was decorated with the Order of the Double Dragon. Richard was the only Protestant missionary who was so highly honoured.
Kenneth S. Latourette (A History of Christian Missions in China, 1929), described Richard as “one of the greatest missionaries whom any branch of the Church, whether Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox or Protestant, has sent to China”.’
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Price HK$ 10,000
1916 - T. Fisher Unwin, London - First Edition
‘The problem before the missionary in China, as I found it forty-five years ago, was not only how to save the souls of a fourth of the human race, but also how to save their bodies from perishing at the rate of four million per annum, and to free their minds, more crippled than the feet of their women, from a philosophy and custom which had lasted for many centuries and eft them at the mercy of any nation which might attack their country.’A near fine and rare first edition of this important illustrated autobiography by the man whose ‘manifold activities and vast influence defy summary. Pioneer missionary, philanthropist, missionary statesman, scholar, educationalist, author, and publicist, friend and adviser of princes and peasants, the name of ‘ Li T'i-motai ’ was a household word throughout China’ (Dictionary of Welsh Biography).
According to Wenzong Wang (Builders of the Chinese Church, 2015) the welsh Missionary Timothy ‘Li T’i-motai’ Richard (1845-1919) impacted the entire late Quing Dynasty. The Quing Empire conferred upon him the First Red Button Grade of the Mandarin in 1903, later followed by ennobling his ancestors for three generations to equal rank. In 1907, he was decorated with the Order of the Double Dragon. Richard was the only Protestant missionary who was so highly honoured.
Kenneth S. Latourette (A History of Christian Missions in China, 1929), described Richard as “one of the greatest missionaries whom any branch of the Church, whether Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox or Protestant, has sent to China”.’
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Price HK$ 10,000
A New System of Domestic Cookery -
Mrs. Maria Eliza Ketilby Rundell
1808 - John Murray, London - A New Edition, Corrected
A finely bound edition with brightly marbled boards, illustrated with engraved frontispiece and eight (of nine) carving diagrams
Mrs Rundell holds her claim to fame by becoming the most popular gastronomic writer of the nineteenth century, as the collection was reprinted over sixty times and sold more that 50’000 copies in the UK and US. Divided thirteen categories including ‘Meats’ ’Soups’ and ’Sweet Dishes’ (a format which cookbooks today still employ), Domestic Cookery was described by historian Karen Hess as '…effectively replacing all eighteenth-century cookbooks as being rather old-fashioned, almost more in language than in content'.
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Price HK$ 1,800
1808 - John Murray, London - A New Edition, Corrected
A finely bound edition with brightly marbled boards, illustrated with engraved frontispiece and eight (of nine) carving diagramsMrs Rundell holds her claim to fame by becoming the most popular gastronomic writer of the nineteenth century, as the collection was reprinted over sixty times and sold more that 50’000 copies in the UK and US. Divided thirteen categories including ‘Meats’ ’Soups’ and ’Sweet Dishes’ (a format which cookbooks today still employ), Domestic Cookery was described by historian Karen Hess as '…effectively replacing all eighteenth-century cookbooks as being rather old-fashioned, almost more in language than in content'.
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Price HK$ 1,800
The Works of Shakespeare -
William Shakespeare
1929-1933 - The Nonesuch Press for Random House, Printed at the Cambridge University Press and Bound by A. Bain of London. - Limited Edition. Number 782 of 1600 copies
One of the most beautiful private press editions in seven volumes.
T.E. Lawrence on the Nonesuch Press Shakespeare - ‘A most marvellous pleasure. I have handled it ever so many times, and read The Tempest right through. It satisfies. It is final, like the Kelmscott Chaucer or the Ashendene Virgil. And it is a book which charms one to read slowly, an art which is almost gone from us in these times. Every word which Shakespeare uses stands out glowing… The tact and grace of your editor have been surpassing. I think I like the size and shape and binding almost as much as the text. The paper, too, is just right. Altogether a triumph.’
‘The Shakespeare represents the chef-d'oeuvre of the Nonesuch Press. This is the finest edition of our greatest poet.’ - [Nonesuch Century]
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Price HK$ 16,500
1929-1933 - The Nonesuch Press for Random House, Printed at the Cambridge University Press and Bound by A. Bain of London. - Limited Edition. Number 782 of 1600 copies
One of the most beautiful private press editions in seven volumes. T.E. Lawrence on the Nonesuch Press Shakespeare - ‘A most marvellous pleasure. I have handled it ever so many times, and read The Tempest right through. It satisfies. It is final, like the Kelmscott Chaucer or the Ashendene Virgil. And it is a book which charms one to read slowly, an art which is almost gone from us in these times. Every word which Shakespeare uses stands out glowing… The tact and grace of your editor have been surpassing. I think I like the size and shape and binding almost as much as the text. The paper, too, is just right. Altogether a triumph.’
‘The Shakespeare represents the chef-d'oeuvre of the Nonesuch Press. This is the finest edition of our greatest poet.’ - [Nonesuch Century]
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Price HK$ 16,500
A Woman of Means - SIGNED -
Peter Taylor
1950 - Harcourt, New York - First Edition
‘Those who want the most fiction can give, who expect to read things they hardly knew they knew, and to experience the shock of recognition, will enjoy Peter Taylor and remember these stories.’
A lovely signed copy of Peter Taylor’s first novel, a Proustian reflection on life and family in St. Louis, Missouri during the 1920’s. In turns tragic and humorous, it is a novel that reveals its depth and craft slowly to the reader, as Quintus Dudley, our protagonist, must helplessly watch his stepmother tiptoe on the brink of insanity.
‘No description of mere mortals or events can indicate the particular kind of excitement it possesses... the excitement of being constantly on the verge of deep perceptions and deep interpretations.’ ―Robert Penn Warren, The New York Times
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Price HK$ 3,800
1950 - Harcourt, New York - First Edition
‘Those who want the most fiction can give, who expect to read things they hardly knew they knew, and to experience the shock of recognition, will enjoy Peter Taylor and remember these stories.’A lovely signed copy of Peter Taylor’s first novel, a Proustian reflection on life and family in St. Louis, Missouri during the 1920’s. In turns tragic and humorous, it is a novel that reveals its depth and craft slowly to the reader, as Quintus Dudley, our protagonist, must helplessly watch his stepmother tiptoe on the brink of insanity.
‘No description of mere mortals or events can indicate the particular kind of excitement it possesses... the excitement of being constantly on the verge of deep perceptions and deep interpretations.’ ―Robert Penn Warren, The New York Times
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Price HK$ 3,800
Arabian Sands -
Wilfred Thesiger
1959 - Longmans, London - First Edition
‘They don’t make Englishmen like Wilfred Thesiger anymore.’ – The New York Times, 2007.
Wilfred Thesiger's record of his extraordinary journeys through the parched "Empty Quarter" of Arabia, a brutally inhospitable wasteland and at a half million square miles, the largest sand desert in the world.
Educated at Eton and Oxford, a former officer of the SAS and Sudan Defence Force, Thesiger or Mubarak bin London (’blessed one from London’) was repulsed by the softness and rigidity of Western life – ‘the machines, the calling cards, the meticulously aligned streets.’ In the spirit of T. E. Lawrence, he set out to explore the deserts of Arabia, traveling among peoples who had never seen a European and considered it their duty to kill Christian infidels.
A lovely, bright copy of this rightly declared classic of Arabian travel literature, which is listed as number 5 in National Geographic's 100 Greatest Adventure books. Illustrated with numerous 68 plates from photos, eight maps, and a large coloured folding map in rear pocket.
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Price HK$ 3,000
1959 - Longmans, London - First Edition
‘They don’t make Englishmen like Wilfred Thesiger anymore.’ – The New York Times, 2007.Wilfred Thesiger's record of his extraordinary journeys through the parched "Empty Quarter" of Arabia, a brutally inhospitable wasteland and at a half million square miles, the largest sand desert in the world.
Educated at Eton and Oxford, a former officer of the SAS and Sudan Defence Force, Thesiger or Mubarak bin London (’blessed one from London’) was repulsed by the softness and rigidity of Western life – ‘the machines, the calling cards, the meticulously aligned streets.’ In the spirit of T. E. Lawrence, he set out to explore the deserts of Arabia, traveling among peoples who had never seen a European and considered it their duty to kill Christian infidels.
A lovely, bright copy of this rightly declared classic of Arabian travel literature, which is listed as number 5 in National Geographic's 100 Greatest Adventure books. Illustrated with numerous 68 plates from photos, eight maps, and a large coloured folding map in rear pocket.
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Price HK$ 3,000
Johnny Got His Gun -
Dalton Trumbo
1939 - J. B. Lippincott Company, New York Philadelphia Toronto - First Edition
A fine copy in near fine, and thus exceptionally scarce dust jacket.
‘It was the war to end all wars, the global struggle that would finally make the world safe for democracy - at any cost. But one American soldier has paid a price beyond measure. And within the disfigured flesh that was once a vision of youth lives a spirit that cannot accept what the world has become.
An immediate best-seller upon its first publication in 1939, Trumbo's stark, profoundly troubling masterpiece about the horrors of the First World War brilliantly crystallised the uncompromising brutality of war and became the most influential protest novel of the Vietnam era.’ - Penguin Classics.
‘A terrifying book, of an extraordinary emotional intensity.’ – The Washington Post.
‘A terrible story, remorseless, uncompromising... this book was a shocking and violent experience.’ – Herald Tribune.
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Price HK$ 40,000
1939 - J. B. Lippincott Company, New York Philadelphia Toronto - First Edition
A fine copy in near fine, and thus exceptionally scarce dust jacket.‘It was the war to end all wars, the global struggle that would finally make the world safe for democracy - at any cost. But one American soldier has paid a price beyond measure. And within the disfigured flesh that was once a vision of youth lives a spirit that cannot accept what the world has become.
An immediate best-seller upon its first publication in 1939, Trumbo's stark, profoundly troubling masterpiece about the horrors of the First World War brilliantly crystallised the uncompromising brutality of war and became the most influential protest novel of the Vietnam era.’ - Penguin Classics.
‘A terrifying book, of an extraordinary emotional intensity.’ – The Washington Post.
‘A terrible story, remorseless, uncompromising... this book was a shocking and violent experience.’ – Herald Tribune.
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Price HK$ 40,000
The Chinese Lake Murders -
Robert H. Van Gulik
1960 - Michael Joseph, London - First English Edition published simultaneously with the American Edition
The fifth book in the Judge Dee series, and chronologically sixth tale, being set in China 666 AD.
A courtesan performs a bewitching dance aboard a flower boat and minutes later is discovered drowned in the waters of a haunted lake... A bride dies on her wedding night and incredibly disappears from her sealed and guarded casket... And soon all the town of Han-yuan murmurs with the whisper of a dreaded, forbidden name - White Lotus. Judge Dee investigates the strange happenings at Han-yuan that begin with a guilty love and lead to a treasonous plot against the Mandate to Heaven.
With twelve illustrations and a plan of a flower boat from woodblock prints, and endpapers illustrated in orange with a View of Han-yuan to the front and a flower boat to the rear, in Chinese style by Van Gulik.
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Price HK$ 2,000
1960 - Michael Joseph, London - First English Edition published simultaneously with the American Edition
The fifth book in the Judge Dee series, and chronologically sixth tale, being set in China 666 AD.A courtesan performs a bewitching dance aboard a flower boat and minutes later is discovered drowned in the waters of a haunted lake... A bride dies on her wedding night and incredibly disappears from her sealed and guarded casket... And soon all the town of Han-yuan murmurs with the whisper of a dreaded, forbidden name - White Lotus. Judge Dee investigates the strange happenings at Han-yuan that begin with a guilty love and lead to a treasonous plot against the Mandate to Heaven.
With twelve illustrations and a plan of a flower boat from woodblock prints, and endpapers illustrated in orange with a View of Han-yuan to the front and a flower boat to the rear, in Chinese style by Van Gulik.
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Price HK$ 2,000