Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me -
Richard Fariña
1966 - Random House, New York - First Edition
First edition of ‘the classic novel of the 1960s an unerring, corrosively comic depiction of a campus in revolt
Fariña evokes the Sixties as precisely, wittily, and poignantly as F. Scott Fitzgerald captured the Jazz Age. The hero, Gnossus Pappadopoulis, weaves his way through the psychedelic landscape, encountering, among other things, mescaline, women, art, gluttony, falsehood, science, prayer, and, occasionally, truth. A portrait of an explosive decade, sparkling with inventive writing and conveying the essence of a generation.’
‘Coming on like the Hallelujah Chorus done by 200 kazoo players with perfect pitch... hilarious, chilling, sexy, profound, maniacal, beautiful, and outrageous all at the same time.’ – Thomas Pynchon.
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Price HK$ 4,000
1966 - Random House, New York - First Edition
First edition of ‘the classic novel of the 1960s an unerring, corrosively comic depiction of a campus in revoltFariña evokes the Sixties as precisely, wittily, and poignantly as F. Scott Fitzgerald captured the Jazz Age. The hero, Gnossus Pappadopoulis, weaves his way through the psychedelic landscape, encountering, among other things, mescaline, women, art, gluttony, falsehood, science, prayer, and, occasionally, truth. A portrait of an explosive decade, sparkling with inventive writing and conveying the essence of a generation.’
‘Coming on like the Hallelujah Chorus done by 200 kazoo players with perfect pitch... hilarious, chilling, sexy, profound, maniacal, beautiful, and outrageous all at the same time.’ – Thomas Pynchon.
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Price HK$ 4,000
Casino Royale -
Ian Lancaster Fleming
1953 - Jonathan Cape, London - First Edition, First Impression. In first issue dust jacket, without the overprinted reviews to the front flap.
‘Le Chiffre had been waiting for this and like a rattlesnake the cane instrument leapt from the floor. It struck again and again so that Bond screamed and his body jangled in the chair like a marionette.’
A fine first edition of the first James Bond novel in very good first issue dust jacket with front panel and spine bright and sharp, without restoration or colour touch-up, becoming extremely scarce thus.
Suitably housed in custom made scarlet felt-lined clamshell case, lettered and decorated with the 9 of hearts in gilt to the spine.
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Price HK$ 495,000
1953 - Jonathan Cape, London - First Edition, First Impression. In first issue dust jacket, without the overprinted reviews to the front flap.
‘Le Chiffre had been waiting for this and like a rattlesnake the cane instrument leapt from the floor. It struck again and again so that Bond screamed and his body jangled in the chair like a marionette.’A fine first edition of the first James Bond novel in very good first issue dust jacket with front panel and spine bright and sharp, without restoration or colour touch-up, becoming extremely scarce thus.
Suitably housed in custom made scarlet felt-lined clamshell case, lettered and decorated with the 9 of hearts in gilt to the spine.
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Price HK$ 495,000
Château d'Yquem - Manuscript Tasting Notes - 1878-1978 -
Dennis J. Foley, Comte Lur-Saluces
1983 - , Beverly Wiltshire Hotel -
A beautifully bound, fine and extra-ordinary original hand-written record of one of the greatest wines of the world, containing the tasting notes of the spectacular vertical tasting of sixty-five vintages of Chateau d'Yquem over two days, hosted by the Comte at the Beverly Wiltshire Hotel between April 30th and May 1st 1983.
Signed by Comte Alexandre de Lur Saluces, longtime owner of Yquem and descendant of the family owning the vineyards since the late mid-eighteenth century, who conducted the tasting, the great wine connoisseur Dennis Foley, who wrote these notes, and three other attendees.
The vintages: - 1858, 1861, 1869, 1871, 1874, 1892-3, 1899, 1900, 1904, 1908, 1913-14, 1916-21, 1923-29, 1933-40, 1943-71 (no vintage declared in 1950-51), 1972, 1975-1978. This line-up included all of the great vintages produced from 1893 to 1978; a line up all the more extraordinary given that no vintage was declared in 1910, 1915, 1930, 1951 ,1952, 1964, 1972 and 1974.
Most notes include a comment attributed to the Comte Alexandre de Lur Saluces (1934 -2023) . Signed by five attendees including the Comte, Foley, Ed Lazarus and Geoffrey Troy.
"Chateau d'Yquem, the greatest wine of Sauternes and according to the famous 1855 classification, of the entire Bordeaux region. It is sweet, golden, and apparently almost immortal." ¹
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Price HK$ 60,000
1983 - , Beverly Wiltshire Hotel -
A beautifully bound, fine and extra-ordinary original hand-written record of one of the greatest wines of the world, containing the tasting notes of the spectacular vertical tasting of sixty-five vintages of Chateau d'Yquem over two days, hosted by the Comte at the Beverly Wiltshire Hotel between April 30th and May 1st 1983.Signed by Comte Alexandre de Lur Saluces, longtime owner of Yquem and descendant of the family owning the vineyards since the late mid-eighteenth century, who conducted the tasting, the great wine connoisseur Dennis Foley, who wrote these notes, and three other attendees.
The vintages: - 1858, 1861, 1869, 1871, 1874, 1892-3, 1899, 1900, 1904, 1908, 1913-14, 1916-21, 1923-29, 1933-40, 1943-71 (no vintage declared in 1950-51), 1972, 1975-1978. This line-up included all of the great vintages produced from 1893 to 1978; a line up all the more extraordinary given that no vintage was declared in 1910, 1915, 1930, 1951 ,1952, 1964, 1972 and 1974.
Most notes include a comment attributed to the Comte Alexandre de Lur Saluces (1934 -2023) . Signed by five attendees including the Comte, Foley, Ed Lazarus and Geoffrey Troy.
"Chateau d'Yquem, the greatest wine of Sauternes and according to the famous 1855 classification, of the entire Bordeaux region. It is sweet, golden, and apparently almost immortal." ¹
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Price HK$ 60,000
The Complete Flashman Series - 12 volumes -
George MacDonald Fraser
1969-2005 - Herbert Jenkins, London - First Editions
A complete set of the magnificent Flashman series, featuring Victorian anti-hero Harry Flashman, the caddish bully of Tom Brown's School days who was expelled in drunken disgrace from Rugby school in the late 1830's, soldier, duellist, lover, impostor, coward, cad and hero?, this is the story of a blackguard who enjoyed villainy for it’s own sake.
For the sake of your enjoyment here is a summary of each book, which just touches the surface of what some, including Mr. Lok Man himself, consider to be the greatest way to learn the history of the British Empire from the 1830’s through to the 1890’s.
All first editions in superior dust jackets than usually encountered, and with the first volume signed by George MacDonald Fraser.
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Price HK$ 28,000
1969-2005 - Herbert Jenkins, London - First Editions
A complete set of the magnificent Flashman series, featuring Victorian anti-hero Harry Flashman, the caddish bully of Tom Brown's School days who was expelled in drunken disgrace from Rugby school in the late 1830's, soldier, duellist, lover, impostor, coward, cad and hero?, this is the story of a blackguard who enjoyed villainy for it’s own sake.For the sake of your enjoyment here is a summary of each book, which just touches the surface of what some, including Mr. Lok Man himself, consider to be the greatest way to learn the history of the British Empire from the 1830’s through to the 1890’s.
All first editions in superior dust jackets than usually encountered, and with the first volume signed by George MacDonald Fraser.
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Price HK$ 28,000
An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard -
Thomas Gray
1869 - Sampson Low, London
‘Full many a Gem of purest Ray serene
The dark unfathom'd Caves of Ocean Bear:
Full many a Flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its Sweetness on the desert Air.’
A finely bound and illustrated edition of Thomas Gray’s ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’, one of the most widely-quoted poems of the 18th century. It is a meditation on the inevitability of death; the vanity of ambition and the universal human desire to be loved. In particular the poem looks at death as a leveller, an indiscriminate force which makes no distinction between the famous on the one hand and, on the other, the anonymous – those who, in the words of the poem:
Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife
Their sober wishes never learn’d to stray
‘Widely considered his masterpiece, it is believed that Gray wrote the 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' in the graveyard of the church in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire in 1751. The poem was a literary sensation when published by Robert Dodsley in February 1751 and has made a lasting contribution to English literature’
With sixteen colour chromolithograph illustrations from drawings by R. Barnes, R. P. Leitch, E. M. Wimperis and others, each with descriptive tissue guards, and two leaves of the original manuscript in facsimile.
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Price HK$ 9,000
1869 - Sampson Low, London
‘Full many a Gem of purest Ray sereneThe dark unfathom'd Caves of Ocean Bear:
Full many a Flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its Sweetness on the desert Air.’
A finely bound and illustrated edition of Thomas Gray’s ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’, one of the most widely-quoted poems of the 18th century. It is a meditation on the inevitability of death; the vanity of ambition and the universal human desire to be loved. In particular the poem looks at death as a leveller, an indiscriminate force which makes no distinction between the famous on the one hand and, on the other, the anonymous – those who, in the words of the poem:
Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife
Their sober wishes never learn’d to stray
‘Widely considered his masterpiece, it is believed that Gray wrote the 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' in the graveyard of the church in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire in 1751. The poem was a literary sensation when published by Robert Dodsley in February 1751 and has made a lasting contribution to English literature’
With sixteen colour chromolithograph illustrations from drawings by R. Barnes, R. P. Leitch, E. M. Wimperis and others, each with descriptive tissue guards, and two leaves of the original manuscript in facsimile.
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Price HK$ 9,000
Holy Bible. With a Devotional and Practical Commentary -
Rev. R Jamieson, Rev. E. H. Bickersteth
Circa 1860 - James S. Virtue, London - First Edition to include Jamieson and Bickersteth’s commentaries
Two massive and powerfully illustrated folios containing the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, Translations and Paraphrases. In contemporary full calf bindings.
With two additional steel engraved illustrated title pages, family register sheets (without entry), thirty-seven steel engraved plates, and two colour maps, together with a loose engraving of Glasgow Cathedral, The Reverend Jamieson (1802–80) was minister of St John's Church in Glasgow before becoming Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland the highest position in the Scottish Church.
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Price HK$ 38,000
Circa 1860 - James S. Virtue, London - First Edition to include Jamieson and Bickersteth’s commentaries
Two massive and powerfully illustrated folios containing the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, Translations and Paraphrases. In contemporary full calf bindings.With two additional steel engraved illustrated title pages, family register sheets (without entry), thirty-seven steel engraved plates, and two colour maps, together with a loose engraving of Glasgow Cathedral, The Reverend Jamieson (1802–80) was minister of St John's Church in Glasgow before becoming Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland the highest position in the Scottish Church.
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Price HK$ 38,000
Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Rendered into English Verse by Edward Fitzgerald -
Omar Khayyám, Edmund Dulac (illustrator)
Circa 1909 - Hodder and Stoughton, London - First Dulac Illustrated Edition, trade issue.
A fine example of this large and intricately decorated edition of the Persian poem of life by the renowned 11th century philosopher, poet, mathematician, and astronomer Omar Khayyám, beautifully illustrated with twenty tipped-in colour plates by Edmund Dulac.
Come fill the cup, and in the fire of spring
Your winter garment of repentance fling:
The bird of time has but a little way
To flutter – and the bird is on the wing.
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Price HK$ 5,000
Circa 1909 - Hodder and Stoughton, London - First Dulac Illustrated Edition, trade issue.
A fine example of this large and intricately decorated edition of the Persian poem of life by the renowned 11th century philosopher, poet, mathematician, and astronomer Omar Khayyám, beautifully illustrated with twenty tipped-in colour plates by Edmund Dulac.Come fill the cup, and in the fire of spring
Your winter garment of repentance fling:
The bird of time has but a little way
To flutter – and the bird is on the wing.
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Price HK$ 5,000
A River Runs Through It and Other Stories -
Norman Maclean
1976 - The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London - First Edition
‘In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing’
A freshly landed first edition of Maclean’s beautiful first book and the first work of fiction to be published by the University of Chicago Press, where he had been a professor for many years. Maclean had told versions of these stories, over the years, to a number of people who encouraged him, finally, to write them down at the age of eighty.
‘We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ's disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen.’
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Price HK$ 19,000
1976 - The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London - First Edition
‘In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing’A freshly landed first edition of Maclean’s beautiful first book and the first work of fiction to be published by the University of Chicago Press, where he had been a professor for many years. Maclean had told versions of these stories, over the years, to a number of people who encouraged him, finally, to write them down at the age of eighty.
‘We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ's disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen.’
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Price HK$ 19,000