Pictures of the Chinese, Drawn By Themselves -
Rev. R. H. Cobbold
1860 - John Murray, London - First Edition
A lovely little work, rather scarce in this condition and original cloth, giving wonderful descriptions of thirty different Chinese figures, mostly tradesmen, profusely illustrated throughout with 36 lithograph plates (including two title pages), 18 black and white full page illustrations and numerous in-text sketches and engravings.
The author, Robert Henry Cobbold (1816-93), was a Cambridge educated priest (and President of the Cambridge University Boat Club), he sailed for Shanghai in 1847 and then on to Ningpo where he became Archdeacon, returning to England in 1857.
Most likely the author’s copy which was inscribed in 1864 to his son Robert Russell who was born in Ningpo.
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Price HK$ 5,500
1860 - John Murray, London - First Edition
A lovely little work, rather scarce in this condition and original cloth, giving wonderful descriptions of thirty different Chinese figures, mostly tradesmen, profusely illustrated throughout with 36 lithograph plates (including two title pages), 18 black and white full page illustrations and numerous in-text sketches and engravings.The author, Robert Henry Cobbold (1816-93), was a Cambridge educated priest (and President of the Cambridge University Boat Club), he sailed for Shanghai in 1847 and then on to Ningpo where he became Archdeacon, returning to England in 1857.
Most likely the author’s copy which was inscribed in 1864 to his son Robert Russell who was born in Ningpo.
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Price HK$ 5,500
Bordeaux and its Wines -
Charles Cocks,
1899 - Fé, Bordeaux - Third English Edition Improved
‘The classic reference work on Bordeaux wines’ - Jancis Robinson, The Oxford Companion to Wine.
A comprehensive and thoroughly illustrated third English edition of ‘The Bordeaux Bible’. This edition was greatly expanded from the second edition, with 215 more pages, 11 colour maps (up from 8) and 374 in-text engravings of the Châteaux (up from 193). Also included are numerous tables, lists, and comprehensive indices of principal proprietors, villages and communes, and principal growths.
A presentation copy from the great Bordeaux wine merchants Nath. Johnston & Fils.
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Price HK$ 5,000
1899 - Fé, Bordeaux - Third English Edition Improved
‘The classic reference work on Bordeaux wines’ - Jancis Robinson, The Oxford Companion to Wine.A comprehensive and thoroughly illustrated third English edition of ‘The Bordeaux Bible’. This edition was greatly expanded from the second edition, with 215 more pages, 11 colour maps (up from 8) and 374 in-text engravings of the Châteaux (up from 193). Also included are numerous tables, lists, and comprehensive indices of principal proprietors, villages and communes, and principal growths.
A presentation copy from the great Bordeaux wine merchants Nath. Johnston & Fils.
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Price HK$ 5,000
Journal of an Embassy from the Governor General of India to the Court of Ava -
John Crawfurd
1829 - Henry Colburn, London - First Edition
A rare first edition of Crawfurd’s observant and detailed account of his mission to Burma, the distinguished orientalist’s final colonial mission after nearly 30 years in Southeast Asia.
With the large engraved folding ‘Map of the Burman Dominions and Adjacent Countries’ (60x76cm), by John Walker (1787-1873).
Crawfurd was appointed British Resident at Ava in the wake of the First Anglo-Burmese War, and resided at the Burmese Capital from 1826 to 1827. Here he gives a fascinating narrative of his 400 mile journey up the Irrawaddy by paddle-steamer, of his reception at the capital, the weeks of negotiations over a commercial treaty and the terms of the Yandabo Treaty, and various excursions made. He then goes on to describe their departure and adds general chapters on Burmese society, religion, trade and history. The expedition fortuitously was delayed on the return journey for repairs giving time for Crawfurd to collect significant fossils and 18,000 botanical specimens.
Illustrated with five aquatint plates (three of which are hand-coloured), an engraved ‘Plan of the Fortress and City of Ava’, six in-text woodblock illustrations and five lithographed plates of fossils to the rear.
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Price HK$ 42,000
1829 - Henry Colburn, London - First Edition
A rare first edition of Crawfurd’s observant and detailed account of his mission to Burma, the distinguished orientalist’s final colonial mission after nearly 30 years in Southeast Asia.With the large engraved folding ‘Map of the Burman Dominions and Adjacent Countries’ (60x76cm), by John Walker (1787-1873).
Crawfurd was appointed British Resident at Ava in the wake of the First Anglo-Burmese War, and resided at the Burmese Capital from 1826 to 1827. Here he gives a fascinating narrative of his 400 mile journey up the Irrawaddy by paddle-steamer, of his reception at the capital, the weeks of negotiations over a commercial treaty and the terms of the Yandabo Treaty, and various excursions made. He then goes on to describe their departure and adds general chapters on Burmese society, religion, trade and history. The expedition fortuitously was delayed on the return journey for repairs giving time for Crawfurd to collect significant fossils and 18,000 botanical specimens.
Illustrated with five aquatint plates (three of which are hand-coloured), an engraved ‘Plan of the Fortress and City of Ava’, six in-text woodblock illustrations and five lithographed plates of fossils to the rear.
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Price HK$ 42,000
Run River - Signed -
Joan Didion
1963 - Ivan Obolensky, New York - First Edition
A fine first edition of Joan Didion’s debut novel, in a superior example of the dust jacket and signed by Didion to the title page.
‘Run River’ begins with a murder on the bank of the Sacramento River--a murder that is at once an act of vengeance and a blind attempt to shore up a disintegrating marriage. Out of that act, Didion constructs a tragic and beautifully nuanced work of fiction.
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Price HK$ 21,000
1963 - Ivan Obolensky, New York - First Edition
A fine first edition of Joan Didion’s debut novel, in a superior example of the dust jacket and signed by Didion to the title page.‘Run River’ begins with a murder on the bank of the Sacramento River--a murder that is at once an act of vengeance and a blind attempt to shore up a disintegrating marriage. Out of that act, Didion constructs a tragic and beautifully nuanced work of fiction.
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Price HK$ 21,000
Slouching Towards Bethlehem - Signed -
Joan Didion
1968 - Farrar, New York - First Edition
First edition of Joan Didion’s groundbreaking and classic non-fiction collection of essays, in a superior dust jacket, and signed by Didion to the title page.
‘More than perhaps any other book, this collection by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era captures the unique time and place of Joan Didion’s focus, exploring subjects such as John Wayne and Howard Hughes, growing up in California and the nature of good and evil in a Death Valley motel room, and, especially, the essence of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury, the heart of the counterculture. As Joyce Carol Oates remarked: “[Didion] has been an articulate witness to the most stubborn and intractable truths of our time, a memorable voice, partly eulogistic, partly despairing; always in control.”’
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Price HK$ 48,000
1968 - Farrar, New York - First Edition
First edition of Joan Didion’s groundbreaking and classic non-fiction collection of essays, in a superior dust jacket, and signed by Didion to the title page.‘More than perhaps any other book, this collection by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era captures the unique time and place of Joan Didion’s focus, exploring subjects such as John Wayne and Howard Hughes, growing up in California and the nature of good and evil in a Death Valley motel room, and, especially, the essence of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury, the heart of the counterculture. As Joyce Carol Oates remarked: “[Didion] has been an articulate witness to the most stubborn and intractable truths of our time, a memorable voice, partly eulogistic, partly despairing; always in control.”’
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Price HK$ 48,000
The Sleeping Beauty - together with - Cinderella. -
C. S. Evans, Arthur Rackham (illustrator)
1919 - William Heinemann, London - First Rackham Illustrated Editions
Once upon a time...
A large brace of Arthur Rackham’s only magical silhouette illustrated titles. Two large volumes in their original covers, the decorations and silhouette illustrations are in both black and white and in colour, adding a simple yet mystical air to these two classical fairy tales.
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Price HK$ 6,000
1919 - William Heinemann, London - First Rackham Illustrated Editions
Once upon a time... A large brace of Arthur Rackham’s only magical silhouette illustrated titles. Two large volumes in their original covers, the decorations and silhouette illustrations are in both black and white and in colour, adding a simple yet mystical air to these two classical fairy tales.
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Price HK$ 6,000
A History of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club St. Andrews from 1754-1900 -
Harry Sterling Crawfod Everard
1907 - William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London - First Edition with gilt lettering to front board.
The first written history of St. Andrews Golf Club and, as Murdoch states, ‘a monumental effort of original research and one that is most readable, even today.’ The illustrations include some of the first in colour of golf.
A near fine and partially unopened, thus rare copy of what is regarded as the cornerstone of any serious collection of golf books, illustrated with 32 plates from photographs and paintings, together with 9 colour plates. In the finest binding variant showing gilt lettering on the front (not the cheaper black lettering).
This copy with the armourial bookplate of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Gilmour, 2nd Baronet DSO PC, whose father opened Lundin Golf Club’s new clubhouse in 1896.
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Price HK$ 19,000
1907 - William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London - First Edition with gilt lettering to front board.
The first written history of St. Andrews Golf Club and, as Murdoch states, ‘a monumental effort of original research and one that is most readable, even today.’ The illustrations include some of the first in colour of golf. A near fine and partially unopened, thus rare copy of what is regarded as the cornerstone of any serious collection of golf books, illustrated with 32 plates from photographs and paintings, together with 9 colour plates. In the finest binding variant showing gilt lettering on the front (not the cheaper black lettering).
This copy with the armourial bookplate of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Gilmour, 2nd Baronet DSO PC, whose father opened Lundin Golf Club’s new clubhouse in 1896.
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Price HK$ 19,000
You Only Live Twice -
Ian Lancaster Fleming
1964 - Jonathan Cape, London - First Edition, First Impression, First State
A wasted Bond is given a ‘mission impossible’ to the exotic orient, which in turn leads him to the maniacal westerner Dr. Shatterhand; a ‘collector of death’. ‘Shatterhand’ is the working title for the 25th James Bond film, currently in production.
Fabulously Fleming characters include Bond's nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Tiger Tanaka the head of the Japanese Secret Service, Kissy Suzuki, pearl diver and ex-movie star, and not to forget Irma Bunt, Stavro's henchwoman responsible for the death of Bond's wife Tracy Di Vicenzo.
First edition of the last title in what has become known as the ‘Blofeld’ trilogy and Fleming's last published novel before his death.
Appropriately housed in a bespoke black morocco leather, felt lined clamshell case, with gilt lettering to the spine.
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Price HK$ 10,000
1964 - Jonathan Cape, London - First Edition, First Impression, First State
A wasted Bond is given a ‘mission impossible’ to the exotic orient, which in turn leads him to the maniacal westerner Dr. Shatterhand; a ‘collector of death’. ‘Shatterhand’ is the working title for the 25th James Bond film, currently in production.Fabulously Fleming characters include Bond's nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Tiger Tanaka the head of the Japanese Secret Service, Kissy Suzuki, pearl diver and ex-movie star, and not to forget Irma Bunt, Stavro's henchwoman responsible for the death of Bond's wife Tracy Di Vicenzo.
First edition of the last title in what has become known as the ‘Blofeld’ trilogy and Fleming's last published novel before his death.
Appropriately housed in a bespoke black morocco leather, felt lined clamshell case, with gilt lettering to the spine.
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Price HK$ 10,000