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The Three Voyages of Captain James Cook, with "The Death of Captain Cook" Plate -
James Cook, John Hawkesworth, James King
1773 - Strahan, London - Second Edition, First Edition, Second Edition
A complete set of the best possible editions, superbly bound in full tree calf and with the additional ‘Death of Captain Cook’ drawn by the John Weber who witnessed the dispute and ensuing fight. Eight quarto volumes and the elephant folio volume of plates. Magnificently illustrated with two hundred and five engraved charts and plates, many of which are double page or larger.
There is no greater set of travel works, Cook was the first scientific navigator, these three voyages made great contributions to numerous fields of knowledge,, and did more to clarify the geographical knowledge of the southern hemisphere than his predecessors had done together [Hill].
The first voyage is in its second and best edition, complete with the ‘Directions for placing the cuts’ and the ‘Chart of the Straights of Magellan’, and with the new Preface containing Hawkesworth's virulent eight-page reply to Dalrymple's whining reviews of the first edition, and the whole volume revised by the voyage's astronomer William Wales.
The third voyage is in its second and best edition, with the printing by Hughs (rather than Strahan who printed the first edition) with the text itself entirely re-set. Isaac Smith presenting a set on behalf of Cook's widow in 1821 noted that 'I am desired by Mrs Cook to request your acceptance of the 4 books sent herewith being her Husbands last Voyage round the World, as a mark of her respect the letter press of the second edition being much superior to the first both in paper & letter press' (quoted by Forbes, Hawaiian National Bibliography, 85). King George III's copy of the official account, preserved in the British Library, is also an example of this second edition. This particular set with variant title pages, dated correctly, but without edition statement or vignette of Royal Society medal.
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Price HK$ 430,000
1773 - Strahan, London - Second Edition, First Edition, Second Edition
A complete set of the best possible editions, superbly bound in full tree calf and with the additional ‘Death of Captain Cook’ drawn by the John Weber who witnessed the dispute and ensuing fight. Eight quarto volumes and the elephant folio volume of plates. Magnificently illustrated with two hundred and five engraved charts and plates, many of which are double page or larger.There is no greater set of travel works, Cook was the first scientific navigator, these three voyages made great contributions to numerous fields of knowledge,, and did more to clarify the geographical knowledge of the southern hemisphere than his predecessors had done together [Hill].
The first voyage is in its second and best edition, complete with the ‘Directions for placing the cuts’ and the ‘Chart of the Straights of Magellan’, and with the new Preface containing Hawkesworth's virulent eight-page reply to Dalrymple's whining reviews of the first edition, and the whole volume revised by the voyage's astronomer William Wales.
The third voyage is in its second and best edition, with the printing by Hughs (rather than Strahan who printed the first edition) with the text itself entirely re-set. Isaac Smith presenting a set on behalf of Cook's widow in 1821 noted that 'I am desired by Mrs Cook to request your acceptance of the 4 books sent herewith being her Husbands last Voyage round the World, as a mark of her respect the letter press of the second edition being much superior to the first both in paper & letter press' (quoted by Forbes, Hawaiian National Bibliography, 85). King George III's copy of the official account, preserved in the British Library, is also an example of this second edition. This particular set with variant title pages, dated correctly, but without edition statement or vignette of Royal Society medal.
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Price HK$ 430,000
China - Pictorial, Descriptive, and Historical. With some account of Ava and the Burmese, Siam, and Anam -
Julia Corner
1853 - Henry G. Bohn, London - First Edition
A compilation of various writings on China, with steel engraved map, and 85 black and white woodcut illustrations. Beautifully bound in modern pictorial cloth.
A large portion of the writing is from Julia Corner’s History of China, other authors include John Davis and Wells Williams.
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Price HK$ 3,000
1853 - Henry G. Bohn, London - First Edition
A compilation of various writings on China, with steel engraved map, and 85 black and white woodcut illustrations. Beautifully bound in modern pictorial cloth.A large portion of the writing is from Julia Corner’s History of China, other authors include John Davis and Wells Williams.
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Price HK$ 3,000
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
The first edition, in the scarce pictorial dust jacket, of this remarkable insight into one of the important social events in Shanghai, from the late 1800s through to the 1930s. 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.
With a loosely laid in note on the paper of Shanghai based architects Spence, Robinson & Partners, to the recipient ‘With love & Best wishes. This may help you to understand the mysteries & entertainments of our winter sport in which we find so much pleasure’ unfortunately it is hard to make out the signature of the sender.
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.
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Price HK$ 18,000
1930 - Kelly and Walsh Limited, Shanghai - First Edition
The first edition, in the scarce pictorial dust jacket, of this remarkable insight into one of the important social events in Shanghai, from the late 1800s through to the 1930s. 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.With a loosely laid in note on the paper of Shanghai based architects Spence, Robinson & Partners, to the recipient ‘With love & Best wishes. This may help you to understand the mysteries & entertainments of our winter sport in which we find so much pleasure’ unfortunately it is hard to make out the signature of the sender.
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.
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Price HK$ 18,000
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
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
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 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 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