Yachts and Yachting -
Fred. S. Cozzens
1888 - Cassell and Company, New York - Revised Edition with additional illustrations
A beautiful copy, strikingly illustrated throughout with over 140 mostly line drawings by Cozzens [1846-1928] who was considered to be one of the best marine illustrators of the nineteenth century. This revised edition was issued a year after the first, but added more illustrations and five further chapters.
Containing a detailed history of American yachting from the early days of the New York Yacht Club to 1885 by Captain R. F. Coffin; extensive coverage of the America’s cup races of 1886 between the Mayflower and Galatea by Charles E. Clay; American Steam Yachting, by Edward Jaffray; British Yachting, by C.J.C. McAlster; and additional chapters on American Yachting in 1886 and 1887, Ocean Racing of the same period, and the The Famous Ocean Race of 1887 between the Coronet and the Dauntless, from Sandy Hook, Connecticut, to Roche’s Point Queenstown, County Cork.
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Price HK$ 4,500
1888 - Cassell and Company, New York - Revised Edition with additional illustrations
A beautiful copy, strikingly illustrated throughout with over 140 mostly line drawings by Cozzens [1846-1928] who was considered to be one of the best marine illustrators of the nineteenth century. This revised edition was issued a year after the first, but added more illustrations and five further chapters.Containing a detailed history of American yachting from the early days of the New York Yacht Club to 1885 by Captain R. F. Coffin; extensive coverage of the America’s cup races of 1886 between the Mayflower and Galatea by Charles E. Clay; American Steam Yachting, by Edward Jaffray; British Yachting, by C.J.C. McAlster; and additional chapters on American Yachting in 1886 and 1887, Ocean Racing of the same period, and the The Famous Ocean Race of 1887 between the Coronet and the Dauntless, from Sandy Hook, Connecticut, to Roche’s Point Queenstown, County Cork.
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Price HK$ 4,500
The Wines of Gala -
Salvador Dali
1978 - Harry N. Abrams, New York - First Edition
‘Dalí's predictably eccentric follow-up to his absurdist cookbook Les Dîners de Gala... this is the modern wine bible we never knew we needed’
Profusely illustrated throughout, with many full page colour plates of Dali's signature surrealistic paintings and drawings, as well as his doctored versions of 15th century miniatures and 19th century Academic works. Max Gerard describes 10 celebrated wines and Louis Orizet groups the world's wines into 10 categories according to the sensations they evoke. All housed in the thick oversized gold metallic dust jacket designed by Dali.
‘It’s the second section, “Ten Gala Wines,” that hits the home run, blowing minds in the way Dalí masterpieces like “The Persistence of Memory” do. Writer Louis Orizet (a viticulturist and politician in Beaujolais), with help from Georges Duboeuf (a driving force behind the marketing campaign for Beaujolais Nouveau), sets out to explode wine criticism by categorizing wines by their emotional resonance, rather than prosaic features like geography or varietal. In his introduction to the section, Orizet lays bare his mission statement: to “organize wines according to the sensations they create in our very depths.”’ - Regan Hofmann, Punch Drink, 2015.
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Price HK$ 3,000
1978 - Harry N. Abrams, New York - First Edition
‘Dalí's predictably eccentric follow-up to his absurdist cookbook Les Dîners de Gala... this is the modern wine bible we never knew we needed’Profusely illustrated throughout, with many full page colour plates of Dali's signature surrealistic paintings and drawings, as well as his doctored versions of 15th century miniatures and 19th century Academic works. Max Gerard describes 10 celebrated wines and Louis Orizet groups the world's wines into 10 categories according to the sensations they evoke. All housed in the thick oversized gold metallic dust jacket designed by Dali.
‘It’s the second section, “Ten Gala Wines,” that hits the home run, blowing minds in the way Dalí masterpieces like “The Persistence of Memory” do. Writer Louis Orizet (a viticulturist and politician in Beaujolais), with help from Georges Duboeuf (a driving force behind the marketing campaign for Beaujolais Nouveau), sets out to explode wine criticism by categorizing wines by their emotional resonance, rather than prosaic features like geography or varietal. In his introduction to the section, Orizet lays bare his mission statement: to “organize wines according to the sensations they create in our very depths.”’ - Regan Hofmann, Punch Drink, 2015.
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Price HK$ 3,000
The Eastern Seas -
George Windsor Earl
1837 - Wm. H. Allen and Co., London - First Edition
A very important association copy, with the signature of Margaret, Lady Brooke. Earl was a strong admirer of Raffles, who had died in 1826’ and Earl’s book ‘greatly impressed James Brooke, who was also an admirer of Raffles and his writings’. Brooke’s prospectus for his voyage to Singapore and then Borneo (published in October 1938), reflected the influence of Earl’s book.
An entertaining and insightful work, with extensive chapters on Indonesia, Borneo, Malaysia, and Singapore, as well as a lengthy treatise in the Appendix titled ‘Observations on the Commercial Resources of the Indian Archipelago’. Illustrated with four folding maps.
Brooke encouraged the work of Wallace, whose ‘Wallace Line’, showing the boundary between Asian and Australian faunal regions, was critical to Wallace and Darwin’s evolutionary theory. But the ‘Line’ had been earlier presented to the Royal Geographical Society by Earl in 1845, and Wallace acknowledged that ‘Earl believed that there had been a former connection between Asia and Australia’. Darwin also wrote to Wallace, after reading a draft of his paper on Malay zoogeography, to ask: ‘Are you aware that Mr. W. Earl published several years ago the view of distribution of animals in Malay Archipelago in relation to the depth of the sea between the islands?’.
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Price HK$ 9,000
1837 - Wm. H. Allen and Co., London - First Edition
A very important association copy, with the signature of Margaret, Lady Brooke. Earl was a strong admirer of Raffles, who had died in 1826’ and Earl’s book ‘greatly impressed James Brooke, who was also an admirer of Raffles and his writings’. Brooke’s prospectus for his voyage to Singapore and then Borneo (published in October 1938), reflected the influence of Earl’s book.An entertaining and insightful work, with extensive chapters on Indonesia, Borneo, Malaysia, and Singapore, as well as a lengthy treatise in the Appendix titled ‘Observations on the Commercial Resources of the Indian Archipelago’. Illustrated with four folding maps.
Brooke encouraged the work of Wallace, whose ‘Wallace Line’, showing the boundary between Asian and Australian faunal regions, was critical to Wallace and Darwin’s evolutionary theory. But the ‘Line’ had been earlier presented to the Royal Geographical Society by Earl in 1845, and Wallace acknowledged that ‘Earl believed that there had been a former connection between Asia and Australia’. Darwin also wrote to Wallace, after reading a draft of his paper on Malay zoogeography, to ask: ‘Are you aware that Mr. W. Earl published several years ago the view of distribution of animals in Malay Archipelago in relation to the depth of the sea between the islands?’.
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Price HK$ 9,000
The Town -
William Faulkner
1957 - Random House, New York - First Edition, First State
The second novel in Faulkner’s ‘Snopes Trilogy’. The other two being ‘The Hamlet’ and ‘The Mansion’.
First printing with ‘First Printing’ stated on the copyright page, first state, with line 10 repeating line 8 on page 327, in first printing dust jacket with 5/57 to lower corner of the front flap, and not price clipped.
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Price HK$ 2,500
1957 - Random House, New York - First Edition, First State
The second novel in Faulkner’s ‘Snopes Trilogy’. The other two being ‘The Hamlet’ and ‘The Mansion’.First printing with ‘First Printing’ stated on the copyright page, first state, with line 10 repeating line 8 on page 327, in first printing dust jacket with 5/57 to lower corner of the front flap, and not price clipped.
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Price HK$ 2,500
The Collector - Inscribed -
John Fowles
1963 - Jonathan Cape, London - First Edition
Inscribed by John Fowles to the title-page – 'Mr Mann, Go well- or better than he did! John Fowles, Lyme Regis, 1996'
The 1965 film based on ‘The Collector’ was adapted by Stanley Mann and John Kohn, for which Mann was nominated for an Oscar, and although not verifiable, perhaps this copy was a gift to Stanley Mann from John Fowles? The ‘Mr’ sounding more like a personal dig, as Fowles uses the recipient’s first name in other inscriptions that we have seen. Caveat - there are quite a few Mann families in Lyme Regis... and why would he inscribe a copy to Stanley Mann thirty years after the film was made...
A rather light-hearted introduction to a book which is decidedly not so.
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Price HK$ 9,000
1963 - Jonathan Cape, London - First Edition
Inscribed by John Fowles to the title-page – 'Mr Mann, Go well- or better than he did! John Fowles, Lyme Regis, 1996'The 1965 film based on ‘The Collector’ was adapted by Stanley Mann and John Kohn, for which Mann was nominated for an Oscar, and although not verifiable, perhaps this copy was a gift to Stanley Mann from John Fowles? The ‘Mr’ sounding more like a personal dig, as Fowles uses the recipient’s first name in other inscriptions that we have seen. Caveat - there are quite a few Mann families in Lyme Regis... and why would he inscribe a copy to Stanley Mann thirty years after the film was made...
A rather light-hearted introduction to a book which is decidedly not so.
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Price HK$ 9,000
Burma Past and Present -
Lieut.-Gen. Albert Fytche, late Chief Commissioner of British Burma
1878 - C. Kegan Paul and Co., London - First Edition
Written in the form of an autobiography, the work gives much information of early British-Burmese relations. The author served as Chief Commissioner of British Burma from 1867 to 1871.
Two volumes, beautifully illustrated with ten colour chromolithographic plates, two engraved portraits, five engraved plates, one plate of Burmese Writing, two in-text engravings, and a large colour engraved folding ‘Map of Burma and Adjacent Countries with Routes of Various Explorers by Lieut. General Albert Fytche’ [68.5 x 42 cm], and additional contemporary colour map of ‘Farther India’ tipped in at rear of volume II.
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Price HK$ 15,000
1878 - C. Kegan Paul and Co., London - First Edition
Written in the form of an autobiography, the work gives much information of early British-Burmese relations. The author served as Chief Commissioner of British Burma from 1867 to 1871.Two volumes, beautifully illustrated with ten colour chromolithographic plates, two engraved portraits, five engraved plates, one plate of Burmese Writing, two in-text engravings, and a large colour engraved folding ‘Map of Burma and Adjacent Countries with Routes of Various Explorers by Lieut. General Albert Fytche’ [68.5 x 42 cm], and additional contemporary colour map of ‘Farther India’ tipped in at rear of volume II.
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Price HK$ 15,000
The Kingdom of Swing - Signed -
Benny Goodman, Irving Kolodin
1939 - Stackpole Sons, New York - First Edition
Signed by Goodman on the frontispiece portrait, a nice example in the scarce and rather delicate dust jacket.
‘”The Kingdom of Swing," written in collaboration with Irving Kolodin, might be called "From Rags to Riches." It's the narrative of a boy who learned to play clarinet in a synagogue music class for "maybe a quarter a lesson," and who has risen, by way of jazz, to an eminence where he earns maybe a quarter a note for playing the instrument as leader of one of the most famous of all dance bands. "The Kingdom of Swing" is a success story, but it's more than a chronicle of afflatus and affluence. It "sets" swing music in a clear perspective, explains it, gives out, as swingumbobs have it, with solid stuff about an important musical influence.’ – taken from a 1939 review by Robert A. Simon, music critic for The New Yorker.
With five full page black and white photographic illustrations.
‘My memory of those early days is hazier than that of most kids, because we moved around a lot. But I can remember a time when we lived in a basement without heat during the winter, and a couple of times when there wasn't anything to eat. I don't mean much to eat. I mean anything. That isn't an experience you forget in a hurry. I haven't ever forgotten it.’
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Price HK$ 18,000
1939 - Stackpole Sons, New York - First Edition
Signed by Goodman on the frontispiece portrait, a nice example in the scarce and rather delicate dust jacket.‘”The Kingdom of Swing," written in collaboration with Irving Kolodin, might be called "From Rags to Riches." It's the narrative of a boy who learned to play clarinet in a synagogue music class for "maybe a quarter a lesson," and who has risen, by way of jazz, to an eminence where he earns maybe a quarter a note for playing the instrument as leader of one of the most famous of all dance bands. "The Kingdom of Swing" is a success story, but it's more than a chronicle of afflatus and affluence. It "sets" swing music in a clear perspective, explains it, gives out, as swingumbobs have it, with solid stuff about an important musical influence.’ – taken from a 1939 review by Robert A. Simon, music critic for The New Yorker.
With five full page black and white photographic illustrations.
‘My memory of those early days is hazier than that of most kids, because we moved around a lot. But I can remember a time when we lived in a basement without heat during the winter, and a couple of times when there wasn't anything to eat. I don't mean much to eat. I mean anything. That isn't an experience you forget in a hurry. I haven't ever forgotten it.’
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Price HK$ 18,000
Shanghai Of To-Day. A Souvenir Album of Fifty Vandyck Prints of “The Model Settlement” -
O. M. Green
1928 - Kelly & Walsh, Shanghai - Second Edition – Enlarged
A superior copy. The fifty tipped-on black and white photographic plates by Vandyck are preceded by an introduction by Owen Mortimer Green, who was British editor of the North China Daily News.
‘Shanghai, being a Treaty Port, was composed of two parts : the native of Shanghai city, under the control and administration of the Chinese and the foreign governed Shanghai International Settlement. This work, fully illustrated with photographs, covers the most important places of the Shanghai International al Settlement, with it’s emphasis on the more Western-Style architecture, in particular administrative or commercial buildings and some religious buildings, combined to present Shanghai as a modern and attractive city.’
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Price HK$ 18,000
1928 - Kelly & Walsh, Shanghai - Second Edition – Enlarged
A superior copy. The fifty tipped-on black and white photographic plates by Vandyck are preceded by an introduction by Owen Mortimer Green, who was British editor of the North China Daily News.‘Shanghai, being a Treaty Port, was composed of two parts : the native of Shanghai city, under the control and administration of the Chinese and the foreign governed Shanghai International Settlement. This work, fully illustrated with photographs, covers the most important places of the Shanghai International al Settlement, with it’s emphasis on the more Western-Style architecture, in particular administrative or commercial buildings and some religious buildings, combined to present Shanghai as a modern and attractive city.’
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Price HK$ 18,000