How to Mix Drinks -
Bill Edwards
1936 - David McKay Company, Philadelphia - First Edition
A fine copy of this charmingly illustrated work from the great cocktail era, with original and classic recipes, including Pineapple Bronx, Dorothy Gish, East India, Havana, Gloom Chaser, Bunny's Hug, etc.
With the original red string looped through for conveniently hanging above your cocktail shaker at the bar...
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Price HK$ 2,300
1936 - David McKay Company, Philadelphia - First Edition
A fine copy of this charmingly illustrated work from the great cocktail era, with original and classic recipes, including Pineapple Bronx, Dorothy Gish, East India, Havana, Gloom Chaser, Bunny's Hug, etc.With the original red string looped through for conveniently hanging above your cocktail shaker at the bar...
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Price HK$ 2,300
Grape Culture, Wines, and Wine-Making -
Agoston Haraszthy
1862 - Harper & Brothers, New York - First Edition
The rare first edition of this essential work by the ‘father’ of California viticulture, a Hungarian nobleman who pioneered the finer vintages of California and was described as ‘a vade-mecum for success: brilliant, energetic, imaginative, personable and with a nose for money’. Clean and bright copy in the original cloth binding, with woodcut frontispiece of the author's home (Buena Vista Ranche, Sonoma County, California), and numerous woodcut illustrations throughout.
The object of Haraszthy’s trip through ‘parts of France, the Netherlands, Holland, Rhenish, Prussia, Bavaria, Nassau, Baden, Switzerland, Spain, Italy and England’, was to examine the different varieties of grapes and the methods of making wine in the wine growing countries of Europe. It was sanctioned by Californian Governor J.G. Downey.
‘Aside from its historical value as a reference on 19th century European methods of viticulture and wine making, Haraszthy’s descriptions of the wines he drank, the towns he visited, the countryside through which he travelled and anecdotes of the people he met make for entertaining reading.’ - Gabler, Wine into Words.
Putting all this in perspective, the California Gold Rush had just taken place, and as Haraszthy points out whilst traveling through Europe – ‘The Emperor Napoleon is at this moment in the bathing-place of Biarritz, about twenty minutes drive from here’.
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Price HK$ 20,000
1862 - Harper & Brothers, New York - First Edition
The rare first edition of this essential work by the ‘father’ of California viticulture, a Hungarian nobleman who pioneered the finer vintages of California and was described as ‘a vade-mecum for success: brilliant, energetic, imaginative, personable and with a nose for money’. Clean and bright copy in the original cloth binding, with woodcut frontispiece of the author's home (Buena Vista Ranche, Sonoma County, California), and numerous woodcut illustrations throughout.The object of Haraszthy’s trip through ‘parts of France, the Netherlands, Holland, Rhenish, Prussia, Bavaria, Nassau, Baden, Switzerland, Spain, Italy and England’, was to examine the different varieties of grapes and the methods of making wine in the wine growing countries of Europe. It was sanctioned by Californian Governor J.G. Downey.
‘Aside from its historical value as a reference on 19th century European methods of viticulture and wine making, Haraszthy’s descriptions of the wines he drank, the towns he visited, the countryside through which he travelled and anecdotes of the people he met make for entertaining reading.’ - Gabler, Wine into Words.
Putting all this in perspective, the California Gold Rush had just taken place, and as Haraszthy points out whilst traveling through Europe – ‘The Emperor Napoleon is at this moment in the bathing-place of Biarritz, about twenty minutes drive from here’.
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Price HK$ 20,000
Ten Years of Motors and Motor Racing -
Charles Jarrott
1906 - E. Grant Richards, London - First Edition
A scarce first edition of this autobiography of one of the great pioneers of motor racing, illustrated throughout with a magnificent colour frontispiece by “Spy” (Leslie Ward), forty black and white photographs (lacking plate 144), and maps and charts, including a folding colour ‘Chart Shewing Growth in Racing Speeds’ (15mph in 1897, over 70mph by 1905!).
‘I confess that motor racing appeals to me as the greatest sport evolved by man’ - Charles Jarrott.
All the details, including the tragic Paris-Madrid ‘Race to the Death’ of 1903, the international Gordon-Bennett race of 1903 representing Great Britain in a Napier, the first British team to ever paint their cars green, where his car overturned and he lifted up the wrecked chassis so the crowd could pull his mechanic out before passing out himself, the following years race in Homburg, the first motor tricycle race in the USA.
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Price HK$ 2,500
1906 - E. Grant Richards, London - First Edition
A scarce first edition of this autobiography of one of the great pioneers of motor racing, illustrated throughout with a magnificent colour frontispiece by “Spy” (Leslie Ward), forty black and white photographs (lacking plate 144), and maps and charts, including a folding colour ‘Chart Shewing Growth in Racing Speeds’ (15mph in 1897, over 70mph by 1905!).‘I confess that motor racing appeals to me as the greatest sport evolved by man’ - Charles Jarrott.
All the details, including the tragic Paris-Madrid ‘Race to the Death’ of 1903, the international Gordon-Bennett race of 1903 representing Great Britain in a Napier, the first British team to ever paint their cars green, where his car overturned and he lifted up the wrecked chassis so the crowd could pull his mechanic out before passing out himself, the following years race in Homburg, the first motor tricycle race in the USA.
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Price HK$ 2,500
Captains Courageous -
Rudyard Kipling
1897 - Macmillan & Co. Limited, London - First English Edition
A finely bound copy of the only Kipling novel to be cast in an American setting, Captains Courageous endures as one of literature's most cherished and memorable sea adventures. Harvey Cheyne, spoiled millionaire's son, tumbles overboard from a luxury liner only to be rescued by the crew of a Gloucester fishing schooner. Thus begins the boy's second voyage into the rugged rites and ways of sailors.
Bound by Bayntun Riviére, a sharp copy, with 22 full page illustrations including frontispiece by I. W. Taber.
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Price HK$ 6,000
1897 - Macmillan & Co. Limited, London - First English Edition
A finely bound copy of the only Kipling novel to be cast in an American setting, Captains Courageous endures as one of literature's most cherished and memorable sea adventures. Harvey Cheyne, spoiled millionaire's son, tumbles overboard from a luxury liner only to be rescued by the crew of a Gloucester fishing schooner. Thus begins the boy's second voyage into the rugged rites and ways of sailors.Bound by Bayntun Riviére, a sharp copy, with 22 full page illustrations including frontispiece by I. W. Taber.
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Price HK$ 6,000
Suttree -
Cormac McCarthy
1979 - Random House, New York - First Edition
Fine, thus scarce first edition of what many feel to be McCarthy’s finest work.
‘But there are no absolutes in human misery and things can always get worse’
‘The book comes at us like a horrifying flood. The language licks, batters, wounds—a poetic, troubled rush of debris. It is personal and tough, without that boring neatness and desire for resolution that you can get in any well-made novel. Cormac McCarthy has little mercy to spare, for his characters or himself. His text is broken, beautiful and ugly in spots. Mr. McCarthy won’t soothe us with a quiet song. Suttree is like a good, long scream in the ear.’ – Jerome Charyn, The New York Times, February 18,1979.
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Price HK$ 28,000
1979 - Random House, New York - First Edition
Fine, thus scarce first edition of what many feel to be McCarthy’s finest work.‘But there are no absolutes in human misery and things can always get worse’
‘The book comes at us like a horrifying flood. The language licks, batters, wounds—a poetic, troubled rush of debris. It is personal and tough, without that boring neatness and desire for resolution that you can get in any well-made novel. Cormac McCarthy has little mercy to spare, for his characters or himself. His text is broken, beautiful and ugly in spots. Mr. McCarthy won’t soothe us with a quiet song. Suttree is like a good, long scream in the ear.’ – Jerome Charyn, The New York Times, February 18,1979.
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Price HK$ 28,000
So Red the Nose, or Breath in the Afternoon -
Sterling North, Carl Koch, Roy C. Nelson (illustrator)
1935 - Farrar & Rinehart, New York - First Edition
‘The first shaker of literary cocktails ever poured from (or into) a book’
First edition of this wonderful literary cocktail compendium, beginning with the story and recipe for Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Death in the Afternoon’ cocktail about which the editor notes ‘After six of these cocktails The Sun Also Rises‘, followed by 29 more from famous authors including Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan cocktail; S.S. Van Dine’s Canary Murder Case Cocktail; Christopher Morley’s Swiss Family Manhattan; Rockwell Kent’s Salamina Cocktail. With notes several pages of ‘Drinking Notes’ to the rear.
Illustrated throughout by Roy C. Nelson.
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Price HK$ 1,500
1935 - Farrar & Rinehart, New York - First Edition
‘The first shaker of literary cocktails ever poured from (or into) a book’First edition of this wonderful literary cocktail compendium, beginning with the story and recipe for Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Death in the Afternoon’ cocktail about which the editor notes ‘After six of these cocktails The Sun Also Rises‘, followed by 29 more from famous authors including Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan cocktail; S.S. Van Dine’s Canary Murder Case Cocktail; Christopher Morley’s Swiss Family Manhattan; Rockwell Kent’s Salamina Cocktail. With notes several pages of ‘Drinking Notes’ to the rear.
Illustrated throughout by Roy C. Nelson.
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Price HK$ 1,500
The Borrowers Omnibus - Inscribed -
Mary Norton
1966 - J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd, London - First Omnibus Edition
A finely bound and inscribed Omnibus edition of the Borrowers quartet, containing The Borrowers; The Borrowers Afield; The Borrowers Afloat; and The Borrowers Aloft. With colour frontispiece and black and white illustrations throughout by Diana Stanley.
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Price HK$ 9,000
1966 - J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd, London - First Omnibus Edition
A finely bound and inscribed Omnibus edition of the Borrowers quartet, containing The Borrowers; The Borrowers Afield; The Borrowers Afloat; and The Borrowers Aloft. With colour frontispiece and black and white illustrations throughout by Diana Stanley.
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Price HK$ 9,000
Diary and Correspondence -
Samuel Pepys
1848 - Henry Colburn, London - Third Edition, Considerably Enlarged
A finely bound five volumes edition of probably the most famous diary in the English language, illustrated throughout with full page plates and a folding historical map of London.
‘The 1660s represent a turning point in English history, and for the main events - the Restoration, the Dutch War, the Great Plague, the Fire of London - Pepys provides a definitive eyewitness account. As well as recording public and historical events, Pepys paints a vivid picture of his personal life, from his socialising and amorous entanglements, to his theatre-going and his work at the Navy Board. Unequalled for its frankness, high spirits and sharp observations, the diary is both a literary masterpiece and a marvellous portrait of seventeenth-century life’.
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Price HK$ 7,500
1848 - Henry Colburn, London - Third Edition, Considerably Enlarged
A finely bound five volumes edition of probably the most famous diary in the English language, illustrated throughout with full page plates and a folding historical map of London.‘The 1660s represent a turning point in English history, and for the main events - the Restoration, the Dutch War, the Great Plague, the Fire of London - Pepys provides a definitive eyewitness account. As well as recording public and historical events, Pepys paints a vivid picture of his personal life, from his socialising and amorous entanglements, to his theatre-going and his work at the Navy Board. Unequalled for its frankness, high spirits and sharp observations, the diary is both a literary masterpiece and a marvellous portrait of seventeenth-century life’.
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Price HK$ 7,500