Results 25 - 32 of 54 results

Shanghai: its Mixed Court and Council - A. M. Kotenev

1925 - North-China Daily News &, Shanghai - First Edition
A rare first edition of the most detailed work on Shanghai’s Municipal Council and Mixed Court from 1842 to 1924, the year before its demise.

Contents: Rules for the Mixed court, 1869. Rules of procedure of the International mixed court, 1914 and 1919, supplemented with provisions on general principles of the modern procedural laws of China, 1921. The provisional Criminal code of the republic of China. The provisional Criminal code amendment act.--The revised draft of the law on offences relating to morphine. The Chinese Supreme court decisions (1923). Rules for application of foreign laws (1921). Regulations relating to commerce. Copyright, 1916. The Law of publication, 1914. Rules of the Court of consuls. Land regulations and bye-laws for the Foreign settlement of Shanghai.
 
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Price HK$ 5,000



Voyage dans les Mers de l'Inde - Guillaume Joseph Le Gentil de la Galaisiere

1779 - Imprimerie Royale, Paris - First Editions
‘Two monumental volumes... crammed with details on astronomy, navigation, and natural history... His descriptions of life in Manila, Pondicherry, and Madagascar are invaluable’ (Dunmore).

A stunning set In contemporary bindings and illustrated with twenty seven folding copper engravings showing two world maps, maps charts and plans of Eastern and Western Philippines, Bay of Manila, Philippine Harbours, Manilla, Madagascar and it’s coastline, Isle de France (Mauritius), Isle de Bourbon (Réunion), Quartier S. Denis on Réunion, Eastern and Western Straits of Malacca, and Pondicherry. Together with engraved plates of animals and plant life, the ruins of Pondicherry, pagodas, Indian deities, and charts of comets and constellations.

‘In addition to the scientific details for which the voyage was undertaken, the first volume treats of the manners, customs, and religion or the people of the Malabar Coast and of the astronomy of the Brahmins. The second volume contains elaborate accounts of the Philippine Islands, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Bourbon and their inhabitants, including views and charts of the Philippines. Le Gentil gives details of the Islands, their climate, volcanoes, fertility, fruits, birds, animals, peoples, language, history, and description of Manila, the government, ecclesiastical and civil, commerce, &c.’ (Edwards).
 
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Price HK$ 51,000



Seaports of the Far East. Historical and Descriptive, Commercial and Industrial, Facts, Figures, & Resources. - Allister Macmillan (compiled and Edited by)

1925 - W. H. &, London - Second Edition
A far expanded second edition prolifically illustrated throughout from photographs, and a colour map of the ‘Seaports of the Far East’.

First published in 1907, this edition was expanded from 300 to 530 pages, with large numbers of additional photographs, and new chapters on Indonesia and Thailand.
 
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Price HK$ 7,000



Celebrities of the Shanghai Turf - Juel Madsen, Edmund

1923 - Juel Madsen, Shanghai - First and only edition
A rare piece of Shanghai horse racing history, in remarkably clean condition.

Containing 54 full page captioned illustrations of prominent members of the Shanghai community, by Danish artists Juel Madsen, and Edmund Toeg, with an introduction by A. W. "Bertie" Burkill, Steward of the Shanghai Race Club.

The illustrations consist of 33 individual portraits of members of the Shanghai Race Club, Shanghai Paper Hunt Club, and International Recreation Club, beginning with G. H. Stitt, then Chairman of the Shanghai Racing Club (and Shanghai manager of the Hong Kong bank, interesting trivia – the right hand lion below the HSBC building in Hong Kong is nicknamed Stitt); 5 group sketches of Shanghai Race Club and Paper Hunt Club; 2 group sketches of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps (those featured are named below each sketch); 2 horses; all by Juel Madsen and 12 caricature sketches by Edmund Toeg.

Possibly the last publication and showing some of the last sketches by the Danish artist and war correspondent Juel Madsen who was killed in September 1923 in the Great Kantō Japanese earthquake.
 
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Price HK$ 15,000



Borneo and the Indian Archipelago. With Drawings of Costume and Scenery - Frank S. Marryat

1848 - Longman, London - First Edition
A superbly illustrated work on Indonesia, and Rajah Brooke, with additional detail on Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.

Illustrations include the marvellous illustrated title page, chromolithographed colour frontispiece, twenty tinted lithographic plates, and thirty-seven woodcuts. Many of Marryat’s expertly lithographed drawings represent the earliest ethnographical records of life in Borneo and the Indian Archipelago.

Frank Marryat served as a Midshipman on board the H.M.S. Samarang on a surveying expedition to the Indian Archipelago, 1843-1846, cut short in consequence, as Mr. Marryat infers, of the ill-conditioned behaviour and unpopularity of her captain, Sir Edward Belcher.

Interestingly, Frank Marryat (1826-55) was the son of Naval Officer and novelist Captain Frederick Marryat (1792-1848), a pioneer of nautical fiction, in particular ‘
Mr. Midshipman Easy’, the blueprint for works such as C. S. Forrester’s ‘Hornblpower’ and Patrick O'Brian's ‘Master and Commander’. 
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Price HK$ 15,000



The Costume of China - with - The Punishments of China - Major George Henry Mason

1800 - Printed for William Miller by S. Gosnell, London - Early issues -title page dated 1800, text watermarked 1811, plates 1817
Large folio pair of these two highlights of early western sinology, in magnificent contemporary bindings. Containing eighty-two exquisitely hand-coloured stipple-engraved plates engraved by J. Dadley. Each plate is accompanied by a descriptive text leaf in English and French.

The sixty hand-coloured plates in ‘
Costume of China’ depict individual Chinese in dress appropriate to their occupation or rank and are based on originals by the Cantonese export artist Pu-Qua.

The twenty-two hand-coloured plates in ‘
Punishments of China’ are based on paintings attributed to the artist George Henry Mason who, with William Alexander, travelled to China at the end of the eighteenth century.

Punishments of China’ is the ‘best western record of these peculiar and often gruesome practices, describing in graphic detail the forms of punishment from less severe penalties like Torturing the Fingers and Twisting a Man’s Ears, to the most serious The Manner of Beheading. The accompanying text, in both French and English, explains the method by which the punishment is delivered and examples of the crimes that would merit such a punishment. For example the fitting punishment for merchants that had committed frauds, impositions, or any other unwarrantable tricks of the trade was the Punishment of the Swing, in which a man is suspended by his shoulders and ankles, in a very painful situation.’ [Wittockiana 49]

While the methods are clearly barbaric by today's standards, Mason's book, along with the translation of the Qing penal code in 1810, created growing concern in Britain and other Western countries over the perceived severity and unnecessary cruelty of the sentences described. [Abbey]
 
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Price HK$ 50,000



Introductory Mandarin Lessons - or - Hua Yu Hsin Chieh Ching - J. M. McHugh - First Lieutenant U. S. Marines. Attach

1931 - Kelly &, Shanghai - First Edition
Rare first edition In fine condition and with the dust jacket.

Written by OSS officer James McHugh, who was assigned as a Marine to the U.S Language Officer program in Peking. He went on to become Naval Attaché and after twenty years in China, retired to Washington to work for Jardine, Matheson & Co.

A practical course aimed at beginner’s, with 50 lessons including
Money; Drinking Tea; Tobacco; Clocks; The Family; Buying Silk; and Buying Hats and Shoes. 
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Price HK$ 6,000



Shanghai Paper Hunt Club - A Short Resume of the Season 1929-1930. - Major E. H. McMichael

1930 - North-China Daily News &, Shanghai - First and Only Edition
An extremely rare and fine little one-off production, only printed for this particular season. As explained in the foreword ‘For certain reasons it was deemed undesirable to publish the accounts of the past Season’s Hunts in the daily press, but in order that a complete record of the sport during 1929-30 might be preserved for future reference, the Stewards considered that it would be much appreciated, both by members and friends, if some account of the Hunts held could be published in pamphlet form.’ Why it was ‘deemed undesirable’ they do not explain.

A fine copy illustrated with 20 photographs and two sketches. The resume covers nine Paper Hunts and three Handicap races from November 24th, 1929 to February 23rd, 1930. With a list of events for the Shanghai Hounds’ Drag Hunts Season of 1929-30 to the rear.
 
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Price HK$ 9,000



 
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