The Lady's Assistant for Regulating and Supplying her Table, Being a Complete System of Cookery -
Charlotte Mason
1777 - J. Walter, London - Third Edition
A particularly clean copy of this important but much neglected eighteenth century cookery book. Unusually, the table settings show layouts for more ordinary households as well as affluent ones, and the recipes follow this pattern. Scarce in any early editions.
‘Mrs Mason's lucidly composed English makes her delightful recipes as easy to follow today as they were in the eighteenth century, enabling the adventurous modern cook to re-create the extraordinary food of the Age of George III without a great deal of difficulty. Her fascinating bills of fare are invaluable to historians of food and dining for the insight they afford into the mores of Georgian table service.'
More details
Price HK$ 8,000
1777 - J. Walter, London - Third Edition
A particularly clean copy of this important but much neglected eighteenth century cookery book. Unusually, the table settings show layouts for more ordinary households as well as affluent ones, and the recipes follow this pattern. Scarce in any early editions.‘Mrs Mason's lucidly composed English makes her delightful recipes as easy to follow today as they were in the eighteenth century, enabling the adventurous modern cook to re-create the extraordinary food of the Age of George III without a great deal of difficulty. Her fascinating bills of fare are invaluable to historians of food and dining for the insight they afford into the mores of Georgian table service.'
More details
Price HK$ 8,000
Tales of Mystery & Imagination -
Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Rackham (illustrator)
1935 - George G. Harrap &, London - First Rackham Edition
‘As for the murders, let us enter into some examinations for ourselves, before we make up an opinion respecting them. An inquiry will afford us amusement’ - Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin.
A fine copy in exceptional dust jacket, powerfully illustrated by Arthur Rackham with twelve colour plates tipped-in with captioned tissue guards, seventeen black and white plates, and in-text vignettes.
Presenting Poe’s three pioneering detective stories - ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, ‘The Mystery of Marie Rogêt’, and ‘The Purloined Letter’. In addition to Poe’s three detective stories, a further twenty six tales are contained within including ‘The Cask of Amontillado‘, ‘The Fall of The House of Usher‘, and ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’.
But for many minutes the heart beat on with a muffled sound...
More details
Price HK$ 8,000
1935 - George G. Harrap &, London - First Rackham Edition
‘As for the murders, let us enter into some examinations for ourselves, before we make up an opinion respecting them. An inquiry will afford us amusement’ - Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin.A fine copy in exceptional dust jacket, powerfully illustrated by Arthur Rackham with twelve colour plates tipped-in with captioned tissue guards, seventeen black and white plates, and in-text vignettes.
Presenting Poe’s three pioneering detective stories - ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, ‘The Mystery of Marie Rogêt’, and ‘The Purloined Letter’. In addition to Poe’s three detective stories, a further twenty six tales are contained within including ‘The Cask of Amontillado‘, ‘The Fall of The House of Usher‘, and ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’.
But for many minutes the heart beat on with a muffled sound...
More details
Price HK$ 8,000
History of the Royal Residences -
William Henry Pyne
1819 - Printed for A. Dry, London - First Edition
A beautiful and luxurious first edition of one of the most ambitious aquatint books to be published on English interiors. Three finely bound volumes containing one hundred exquisite hand-coloured plates with accompanying text.
This celebrated work was the first to illustrate royal palaces and houses in any detail: volume I is a valuable record of the state rooms of Windsor Castle formed for Charles II, and concludes with the more domestic scenes of Frogmore, purchased by Queen Charlotte as a country retreat in 1793; volume II is devoted to Hampton Court, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace; volume III's subjects are St James's Palace and Carlton House; the twenty plates devoted to the Prince Regent's residence depict what were regarded as the most spectacular interiors in Regency London.
More details
Price HK$ 80,000
1819 - Printed for A. Dry, London - First Edition
A beautiful and luxurious first edition of one of the most ambitious aquatint books to be published on English interiors. Three finely bound volumes containing one hundred exquisite hand-coloured plates with accompanying text.This celebrated work was the first to illustrate royal palaces and houses in any detail: volume I is a valuable record of the state rooms of Windsor Castle formed for Charles II, and concludes with the more domestic scenes of Frogmore, purchased by Queen Charlotte as a country retreat in 1793; volume II is devoted to Hampton Court, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace; volume III's subjects are St James's Palace and Carlton House; the twenty plates devoted to the Prince Regent's residence depict what were regarded as the most spectacular interiors in Regency London.
More details
Price HK$ 80,000
Vanity Dies Hard - Signed -
Ruth Rendell
1966 - John Long, London - First Edition
A fine copy in bright dust jacket, signed by the author to title page.
Wealthy Alice Whittaker – now Alice Fielding – is known for her generosity, and when her friend Nesta vanishes Alice is determined to find her and help her. If that means money, well, Alice has plenty of it.
Then Alice starts to feel sick – a virus perhaps, something she just can't shake. Her handsome husband, who is ten years younger than she is, seems determined to keep her at home. Does he just want her to feel better? Or is he trying to keep her from finding Nesta?
Ill though she is, Alice can't help asking questions. And the more she learns about Nesta's disappearance, the more certain she becomes that her own life is in peril....
More details
Price HK$ 9,000
1966 - John Long, London - First Edition
A fine copy in bright dust jacket, signed by the author to title page. Wealthy Alice Whittaker – now Alice Fielding – is known for her generosity, and when her friend Nesta vanishes Alice is determined to find her and help her. If that means money, well, Alice has plenty of it.
Then Alice starts to feel sick – a virus perhaps, something she just can't shake. Her handsome husband, who is ten years younger than she is, seems determined to keep her at home. Does he just want her to feel better? Or is he trying to keep her from finding Nesta?
Ill though she is, Alice can't help asking questions. And the more she learns about Nesta's disappearance, the more certain she becomes that her own life is in peril....
More details
Price HK$ 9,000
The Comedies; Tragedies; Histories and Poems -
William Shakespeare, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Edward Dowden, W. J. Craig
1967 - Oxford University Press, London
A fine three volume set of Shakespeare in elegant bindings by Bayntun of Bath, housed together in a matching felt-lined slipcase.
The text prepared by W. J. Craig; with a General Introduction by Algernon Charles Swinburne; Introductory Studies of the several Plays and Poems by Edward Dowden, and full Glossaries.
More details
Price HK$ 10,000
1967 - Oxford University Press, London
A fine three volume set of Shakespeare in elegant bindings by Bayntun of Bath, housed together in a matching felt-lined slipcase.The text prepared by W. J. Craig; with a General Introduction by Algernon Charles Swinburne; Introductory Studies of the several Plays and Poems by Edward Dowden, and full Glossaries.
More details
Price HK$ 10,000
The Sensitive Plant -
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Charles Robinson (illustrator)
1911 - William Heinemann, London - First American Edition to be illustrated by Charles Robinson
The perfect marriage of Shelley’s exquisite masterpiece with Charles Robinson’s delicate illustrations. With an introduction by Edmond Gosse. A fine example in the original dust jacket.
‘For the Sensitive Plant has no bright flower;
Radiance and odour are not its dower;
It loves, even like Love, its deep heart is full,
It desires what it has not, the Beautiful!
‘When Shelley wrote ‘The Sensitive Plant’ he was drawing very near the end of his poetry. It was one of the poems belonging to the days at Pisa, whither the Shelleys had gone late in the January of 1820. In the next winter — a winter of many painful associations for him, and many discouragements and reminders of evil fortune — he wrote this mysterious song of beauty and death. The idea of it appears to have come to him from the flowers which Mrs. Shelley had collected round her in her own room at the house they occupied on the south side of the Arno.‘ (from the 1899 edition).
More details
Price HK$ 7,000
1911 - William Heinemann, London - First American Edition to be illustrated by Charles Robinson
The perfect marriage of Shelley’s exquisite masterpiece with Charles Robinson’s delicate illustrations. With an introduction by Edmond Gosse. A fine example in the original dust jacket.‘For the Sensitive Plant has no bright flower;
Radiance and odour are not its dower;
It loves, even like Love, its deep heart is full,
It desires what it has not, the Beautiful!
‘When Shelley wrote ‘The Sensitive Plant’ he was drawing very near the end of his poetry. It was one of the poems belonging to the days at Pisa, whither the Shelleys had gone late in the January of 1820. In the next winter — a winter of many painful associations for him, and many discouragements and reminders of evil fortune — he wrote this mysterious song of beauty and death. The idea of it appears to have come to him from the flowers which Mrs. Shelley had collected round her in her own room at the house they occupied on the south side of the Arno.‘ (from the 1899 edition).
More details
Price HK$ 7,000
My Friend Maigret -
Georges Simenon, Translated from the French by Nigel Ryan
1956 - Hamish Hamilton, London - First Edition in English
A classic Maigret murder mystery set on a small Mediterranean island off the Côte d'Azure, amongst it’s isolated eccentric community, which Maigret solves with the help of his irritating Scotland Yard colleague, Inspector Pyke.
More details
Price HK$ 3,000
1956 - Hamish Hamilton, London - First Edition in English
A classic Maigret murder mystery set on a small Mediterranean island off the Côte d'Azure, amongst it’s isolated eccentric community, which Maigret solves with the help of his irritating Scotland Yard colleague, Inspector Pyke.
More details
Price HK$ 3,000
The Compleat Housewife: or, Accomplish d Gentlewoman s Companion -
E. Smith
1753 - Printed for R. Ware, London - Fifteenth Edition, with Additions
A wonderful early edition of Eliza Smith’s best-selling compendium of recipes, home remedies, and medicinal guidance, and complete with six engraved folding plates showing table settings. A great success in London, where it is was originally published in 1727, it later had the distinction of being the first cookery book printed in America, when it was printed and published in Williamsburg, Virginia, by William Parks in 1742.
Created as a household guide for the 18th century urban housewife, Smith’s extensive experience as a cook in various aristocratic houses, in addition to her chiding of the male culinary writers of the period, whom she claimed concealed their best recipes from the public, made her a popular figure amongst her contemporary female audience.
More details
Price HK$ 7,000
1753 - Printed for R. Ware, London - Fifteenth Edition, with Additions
A wonderful early edition of Eliza Smith’s best-selling compendium of recipes, home remedies, and medicinal guidance, and complete with six engraved folding plates showing table settings. A great success in London, where it is was originally published in 1727, it later had the distinction of being the first cookery book printed in America, when it was printed and published in Williamsburg, Virginia, by William Parks in 1742.Created as a household guide for the 18th century urban housewife, Smith’s extensive experience as a cook in various aristocratic houses, in addition to her chiding of the male culinary writers of the period, whom she claimed concealed their best recipes from the public, made her a popular figure amongst her contemporary female audience.
More details
Price HK$ 7,000