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China in Sign and Symbol - with decorations by Kent Crane -
Louise Crane
1926 - Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai - First Edition
‘All symbols are of universal use and date from earliest antiquity. Mrs. Louise Crane has taken in hand in this volume to describe some of the symbols she has observed in the social life of the Chinese... symbols are our agents.’
Gorgeously presented in a vivid art-deco dust jacket, this profusely illustrated work is a nicely put together study of the ornate shop signs and enigmatic symbols from 1926, explaining the customs and tradition they are based on. Illustrated by Kent Crane with 49 photographs and full colour plates, depicting different symbols and signs, all brightly coloured, some heightened in gold, and including two large folding coloured plates.
Organised to show how each group of symbols applies to life - The Inner Man; The Outer Man; His Occupation; His Funds; His General Needs; His Health; and His Future State.
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Price HK$ 14,000
1926 - Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai - First Edition
‘All symbols are of universal use and date from earliest antiquity. Mrs. Louise Crane has taken in hand in this volume to describe some of the symbols she has observed in the social life of the Chinese... symbols are our agents.’Gorgeously presented in a vivid art-deco dust jacket, this profusely illustrated work is a nicely put together study of the ornate shop signs and enigmatic symbols from 1926, explaining the customs and tradition they are based on. Illustrated by Kent Crane with 49 photographs and full colour plates, depicting different symbols and signs, all brightly coloured, some heightened in gold, and including two large folding coloured plates.
Organised to show how each group of symbols applies to life - The Inner Man; The Outer Man; His Occupation; His Funds; His General Needs; His Health; and His Future State.
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Price HK$ 14,000
A History of the Shanghai Paper Hunt Club 1863-1930 -
C. Noel Davis, Edmund Toeg (illustrator)
1930 - Kelly and Walsh Limited, Shanghai - First Edition
A remarkable insight into one of the important social events in Shanghai, from the late 1800s through to the 1930s. Introduced by the British, frustrated by the lack of animals for a proper hunt, the paper hunt involved one horseman who would ride ahead of the others to act as the hunted prey, marking the trail with coloured paper. One of the main rules was that only Mongolian ponies were accepted as a valid ride.
The list of participants and winners is a veritable who’s-who of influential traders, bankers and diplomats. Founded in the 1860s in the midst of the Taiping Rebellion (1850-64), the Club thrived through revolutions, warlord control, communist insurgency and suppression, the Japanese occupation and civil war.
Containing anecdotes, poems, songs, black and white photographs including a long fold-out panorama photograph by Ah Fong of the Meet of the Christmas hunt 1929, drawings and cartoons by Edmund Toeg (including a colour fold-out of the winners of the hunt challenge cup 1910-30).
Complete with six large-scale folding maps of the riding and hunting country.
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Price HK$ 9,000
1930 - Kelly and Walsh Limited, Shanghai - First Edition
A remarkable insight into one of the important social events in Shanghai, from the late 1800s through to the 1930s. Introduced by the British, frustrated by the lack of animals for a proper hunt, the paper hunt involved one horseman who would ride ahead of the others to act as the hunted prey, marking the trail with coloured paper. One of the main rules was that only Mongolian ponies were accepted as a valid ride.The list of participants and winners is a veritable who’s-who of influential traders, bankers and diplomats. Founded in the 1860s in the midst of the Taiping Rebellion (1850-64), the Club thrived through revolutions, warlord control, communist insurgency and suppression, the Japanese occupation and civil war.
Containing anecdotes, poems, songs, black and white photographs including a long fold-out panorama photograph by Ah Fong of the Meet of the Christmas hunt 1929, drawings and cartoons by Edmund Toeg (including a colour fold-out of the winners of the hunt challenge cup 1910-30).
Complete with six large-scale folding maps of the riding and hunting country.
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Price HK$ 9,000
Son of Heaven -
Princess Der Ling
1935 - D. Appleton-Century Company, New York - First Edition
The story of the colourful, dramatic, and tragic life of Kwang Hsu, taken from his parents at the age of four to be placed as Emperor on a puppet throne, handsome, attractive, diligent as he grew into a realisation of his potential power, loving no one save the concubine Pearl, dying at the age of 37 at the hand of his aunt, the relentless Empress Dowager Cixi, a day before her own death. Princess Der Ling herself had served as first lady-in-waiting to Empress Dowager Cixi.
‘Princess’ Der Ling - daughter of a Manchu aristocrat, granddaughter of a Boston merchant, educated like a boy in the Confucian classics, a baptised Catholic blessed by the hand of Pope Leo XIII, a woman who donned chic Western fashions in China and her ceremonial court robes in the United States, and wife of an American soldier of fortune... Der Ling was a fascinating human battleground of warring identities, a victim of the hallucinogenic effects of too much publicity, much of it prompted by Der Ling herself, and a figure whose life provides a glimpse into one woman’s experience of living not just between two cultures—that of China and the West—but among many worlds: social, religious, moral, political. - Grant Hayter-Menzies author of Imperial Masquerade, the Legend of Princess Der Ling.
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Price HK$ 2,000
1935 - D. Appleton-Century Company, New York - First Edition
The story of the colourful, dramatic, and tragic life of Kwang Hsu, taken from his parents at the age of four to be placed as Emperor on a puppet throne, handsome, attractive, diligent as he grew into a realisation of his potential power, loving no one save the concubine Pearl, dying at the age of 37 at the hand of his aunt, the relentless Empress Dowager Cixi, a day before her own death. Princess Der Ling herself had served as first lady-in-waiting to Empress Dowager Cixi.‘Princess’ Der Ling - daughter of a Manchu aristocrat, granddaughter of a Boston merchant, educated like a boy in the Confucian classics, a baptised Catholic blessed by the hand of Pope Leo XIII, a woman who donned chic Western fashions in China and her ceremonial court robes in the United States, and wife of an American soldier of fortune... Der Ling was a fascinating human battleground of warring identities, a victim of the hallucinogenic effects of too much publicity, much of it prompted by Der Ling herself, and a figure whose life provides a glimpse into one woman’s experience of living not just between two cultures—that of China and the West—but among many worlds: social, religious, moral, political. - Grant Hayter-Menzies author of Imperial Masquerade, the Legend of Princess Der Ling.
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Price HK$ 2,000
The China Coast – Signed -
Ivon A. Donnelly
1931 - Tientsin Press, Tientsin - First Edition
Boldly signed by Donnelly on the front free endpaper.
A wonderful account of voyages on China’s coast and waterways, Profusely illustrated throughout with Donnelly’s charming line sketches, six wonderful full page colour plates from water colours, and nine maps. With a poem by Joan Power at the end of each section.
Chapters on the Gulf of Pechili, Taku Bar, the Yellow Sea, the Yangtze estuary, the Chusan archipelago, and the South China Sea.
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Price HK$ 3,000
1931 - Tientsin Press, Tientsin - First Edition
Boldly signed by Donnelly on the front free endpaper.A wonderful account of voyages on China’s coast and waterways, Profusely illustrated throughout with Donnelly’s charming line sketches, six wonderful full page colour plates from water colours, and nine maps. With a poem by Joan Power at the end of each section.
Chapters on the Gulf of Pechili, Taku Bar, the Yellow Sea, the Yangtze estuary, the Chusan archipelago, and the South China Sea.
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Price HK$ 3,000
A Description of the Empire of China -
Jean-Baptiste Du Halde
1738-1741 - Printed by T. Gardner...for Edward Cave, London - First folio edition in English.
Two large folio volumes in contemporary bindings, housed in separate cloth slipcases.
One of the most celebrated of all 18th century works on China, illustrated with 64 engraved plates, including D’Anville’s exceptional maps (42 large maps most engraved by Bowen), 9 city and temple plans, and 13 full-page plates depicting dress, customs and ceremonies. With exquisitely engraved headpieces and initial letters.
The completest [sic] and most valuable history of the Chinese Empire which had appeared up to the time of its publication.’ [Cox, Literature of Travel]
The maps by Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville are based on the extensive Jesuit surveys carried out for the Emperor Kangxi between 1708 and 1718. These maps ‘remained the principal cartographical authority on China during the rest of the 18th century’. [Tooley]
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Price HK$ 245,000
1738-1741 - Printed by T. Gardner...for Edward Cave, London - First folio edition in English.
Two large folio volumes in contemporary bindings, housed in separate cloth slipcases. One of the most celebrated of all 18th century works on China, illustrated with 64 engraved plates, including D’Anville’s exceptional maps (42 large maps most engraved by Bowen), 9 city and temple plans, and 13 full-page plates depicting dress, customs and ceremonies. With exquisitely engraved headpieces and initial letters.
The completest [sic] and most valuable history of the Chinese Empire which had appeared up to the time of its publication.’ [Cox, Literature of Travel]
The maps by Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville are based on the extensive Jesuit surveys carried out for the Emperor Kangxi between 1708 and 1718. These maps ‘remained the principal cartographical authority on China during the rest of the 18th century’. [Tooley]
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Price HK$ 245,000
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
Among Primitive Peoples in Borneo -
Ivor H. N. Evans
1922 - J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia - First Edition
A scarce and considered one of the best, early works on the tribes of Northern Borneo [Sabah]
With 21 black and white photographic plates and folding map.
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Price HK$ 1,800
1922 - J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia - First Edition
A scarce and considered one of the best, early works on the tribes of Northern Borneo [Sabah]With 21 black and white photographic plates and folding map.
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Price HK$ 1,800
Personal Narrative of Three Years’ Service in China -
Lt.-Colonel Arthur A’Court Fisher – Royal Engineers
1863 - Richard Bentley, London - First Edition
Lt.-Colonel Fisher’s three years of service, are in Canton, the Pei-Ho River, and Taku Fort battles, throughout the the Second Opium War. Illustrated with three wood-engraved plates, engraved plan, six in-text engravings and three folding maps at rear.
This not one of your more dry ‘Personal Narrative’ accounts, and is very much in the ‘Personal’. Entertainingly written, one wonders if Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Agincourt Fisher was in any way related to Harry Flashman....
Lt-Colonel Fisher begins his tales with the action at the Battle of Canton in late 1857, he remains in Canton, occupying his spare time with various adventures and sport (Cricket in Hong Kong, shooting snipe and riding ponies across the Canton countryside ‘Paper-Hunt’ style), and visits to Hong Kong and islands. Fisher then moves up the Pei-Ho River and is involved with the battles around the Taku Forts, as well as surveying the ‘Great Wall’, returning once again to the skirmishes on the Pei-Ho and around Canton. After the third and final ‘Battle of Taku Forts’ at the end of August 1860, Fisher is preparing to head to Peking but is taken sick and forced to spend two months on the hospital ship ‘Mauritius’ whilst hearing news from other wounded officers of the battles around Peking and the looting of the Summer Palace. In November of 1860 Fisher’s service in China ends with his shipment back to England.
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Price HK$ 11,000
1863 - Richard Bentley, London - First Edition
Lt.-Colonel Fisher’s three years of service, are in Canton, the Pei-Ho River, and Taku Fort battles, throughout the the Second Opium War. Illustrated with three wood-engraved plates, engraved plan, six in-text engravings and three folding maps at rear.This not one of your more dry ‘Personal Narrative’ accounts, and is very much in the ‘Personal’. Entertainingly written, one wonders if Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Agincourt Fisher was in any way related to Harry Flashman....
Lt-Colonel Fisher begins his tales with the action at the Battle of Canton in late 1857, he remains in Canton, occupying his spare time with various adventures and sport (Cricket in Hong Kong, shooting snipe and riding ponies across the Canton countryside ‘Paper-Hunt’ style), and visits to Hong Kong and islands. Fisher then moves up the Pei-Ho River and is involved with the battles around the Taku Forts, as well as surveying the ‘Great Wall’, returning once again to the skirmishes on the Pei-Ho and around Canton. After the third and final ‘Battle of Taku Forts’ at the end of August 1860, Fisher is preparing to head to Peking but is taken sick and forced to spend two months on the hospital ship ‘Mauritius’ whilst hearing news from other wounded officers of the battles around Peking and the looting of the Summer Palace. In November of 1860 Fisher’s service in China ends with his shipment back to England.
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Price HK$ 11,000