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Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea, and the Great Loo-Choo Island -
Captain Basil Hall, H. J. Clifford
1818 - John Murray, London - First Edition
A fine full margined copy, with nine aquatint plates by William Havell, all but one hand-coloured, five engraved maps, including two folding, and an engraved plate of ‘Wollaston’s Dip Sector’ instrument.
‘This expedition took Lord Amherst's embassy to China and explored the relatively little-known East China Sea and the Yellow Sea. Visits were made to Korea and the Ryukyu Archipelago. Korea had been sketchily explored by Europeans, but it was not until this 1816-7 expedition of the Alceste and Lyra, under Captains Murray Maxwell and Basil Hall, that detailed information was obtained about the Ryukus. On the homeward passage, the Alceste was wrecked in Gaspar Strait off Sumatra. Captain Hall served in the Royal Navy from 1802-23 and achieved the rank of post-captain. He saw extensive duty on the Pacific coast of America, and continued his travels as a private citizen. He wrote many other books about his travels and experiences.’ - Hill.
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Price HK$ 30,000
1818 - John Murray, London - First Edition
A fine full margined copy, with nine aquatint plates by William Havell, all but one hand-coloured, five engraved maps, including two folding, and an engraved plate of ‘Wollaston’s Dip Sector’ instrument.‘This expedition took Lord Amherst's embassy to China and explored the relatively little-known East China Sea and the Yellow Sea. Visits were made to Korea and the Ryukyu Archipelago. Korea had been sketchily explored by Europeans, but it was not until this 1816-7 expedition of the Alceste and Lyra, under Captains Murray Maxwell and Basil Hall, that detailed information was obtained about the Ryukus. On the homeward passage, the Alceste was wrecked in Gaspar Strait off Sumatra. Captain Hall served in the Royal Navy from 1802-23 and achieved the rank of post-captain. He saw extensive duty on the Pacific coast of America, and continued his travels as a private citizen. He wrote many other books about his travels and experiences.’ - Hill.
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Price HK$ 30,000
The Lady and the Panda: An Adventure -
Ruth Harkness
1938 - Carrick & Evans, New York - First Edition
A bright copy – in the rare original dust jacket – of this uncommon book, American socialite Ruth Harkness’ account of her panda-hunting expedition to China in 1936. Successfully – and unexpectedly – capturing an infant panda, which she named Su-Lin,
Harkness brazenly side-stepped Chinese bureaucracy, and garbed in fur with a cigarette dangling from her lipsticked mouth and a baby bottle propped in hand, she waged a savvy public battle to extricate Su-Lin from his native land, eventually finding a home for him at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, where he attracted record crowds: 53,000 visitors the first day, a number yet to be matched.
Wonderfully illustrated throughout with 16 pages of black and white photographs taken during Harkness’ journey and of panda, Su-Lin.
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Price HK$ 9,000
1938 - Carrick & Evans, New York - First Edition
A bright copy – in the rare original dust jacket – of this uncommon book, American socialite Ruth Harkness’ account of her panda-hunting expedition to China in 1936. Successfully – and unexpectedly – capturing an infant panda, which she named Su-Lin, Harkness brazenly side-stepped Chinese bureaucracy, and garbed in fur with a cigarette dangling from her lipsticked mouth and a baby bottle propped in hand, she waged a savvy public battle to extricate Su-Lin from his native land, eventually finding a home for him at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, where he attracted record crowds: 53,000 visitors the first day, a number yet to be matched.
Wonderfully illustrated throughout with 16 pages of black and white photographs taken during Harkness’ journey and of panda, Su-Lin.
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Price HK$ 9,000
Trans-Himalaya. Discoveries and Adventures in Tibet -
Sven Hedin
1909 - Macmillan and Co., London - First English Editions
Sven Hedin’s popular three volume account of his three year campaign in Tibet between 1906 and 1908, the second part of which he carried out ‘aware that there still remained vast blanks on the map, and plagued by an old illness which had left him all but blind in one eye, he was determined to make the best use of what he considered was the little time left to him.’ (Howgego).
In original gilt cloth, with 4 folding colour maps, 10 monochrome maps, and over 540 illustrations
In 1906 Hedin arrived in Lahore,’ having travelled overland through Persia and the Indus valley. Lord Curzon, viceroy of India, had arranged for three Indian surveyors to be specially trained at the headquarters of the Survey of India, to accompany Hedin, but at the moment of his departure Curzon was withdrawn from India and the new Liberal government in Britain gave orders that under no circumstances was Hedin to be allowed to enter Tibet (he was seen as pro-German and thus a threat to British interests). Furious that the British had broken their promise of support, Hedin headed rapidly for Kashmir, assembled a caravan in Srinagar and made his way to Leh in Ladkah. By the time word had got through to the British representative in Leh, ordering him to restrain Hedin by force if necessary, the Swede was already on his way to Tibet.’ (Howgego)
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Price HK$ 8,000
1909 - Macmillan and Co., London - First English Editions
Sven Hedin’s popular three volume account of his three year campaign in Tibet between 1906 and 1908, the second part of which he carried out ‘aware that there still remained vast blanks on the map, and plagued by an old illness which had left him all but blind in one eye, he was determined to make the best use of what he considered was the little time left to him.’ (Howgego).In original gilt cloth, with 4 folding colour maps, 10 monochrome maps, and over 540 illustrations
In 1906 Hedin arrived in Lahore,’ having travelled overland through Persia and the Indus valley. Lord Curzon, viceroy of India, had arranged for three Indian surveyors to be specially trained at the headquarters of the Survey of India, to accompany Hedin, but at the moment of his departure Curzon was withdrawn from India and the new Liberal government in Britain gave orders that under no circumstances was Hedin to be allowed to enter Tibet (he was seen as pro-German and thus a threat to British interests). Furious that the British had broken their promise of support, Hedin headed rapidly for Kashmir, assembled a caravan in Srinagar and made his way to Leh in Ladkah. By the time word had got through to the British representative in Leh, ordering him to restrain Hedin by force if necessary, the Swede was already on his way to Tibet.’ (Howgego)
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Price HK$ 8,000
Abrégé Historique des Principaux Traits de la Vie de Confucius, Célèbre Philosophe Chinois. Gravées par Helman, d'apres des dessins originaux de la Chine envoyés à Paris par M. Amiot missionaire a Pekin -
Isidore Stanislas Henri Helman (engraver), Pierre-Charles Levesque (translator), Jean-Denis Attiret (illustrator)
1786 - chez l'Auteur and M. Ponce, Paris - First Edition
A clean example of this quarto (page size 24.5x17.5cm), containing twenty four engraved illustrated plates, an engraved title page and twenty eight engraved plates of descriptive text in French taken from a larger work on Confucius (Pensées morales de Confucius 1782) by Pierre-Charles Levesque (who is referred to by Helman as Mr.l’Eveque).
‘Engraved by Helman [1743-1806] and drawn by Jean-Denis Attiret [1702-68], official painter to the workshop at Peking, copied from a set of Chinese miniatures which were sent by the Jesuit missionary Jean-Joseph-Pierre Amiot [1718-93] in Peking to Berlin, who was Louis XIV’s Minister of Art and the one in charge of France’s relations with China. The engravings illustrate the life and deeds of Confucius.’
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Price HK$ 12,000
1786 - chez l'Auteur and M. Ponce, Paris - First Edition
A clean example of this quarto (page size 24.5x17.5cm), containing twenty four engraved illustrated plates, an engraved title page and twenty eight engraved plates of descriptive text in French taken from a larger work on Confucius (Pensées morales de Confucius 1782) by Pierre-Charles Levesque (who is referred to by Helman as Mr.l’Eveque).‘Engraved by Helman [1743-1806] and drawn by Jean-Denis Attiret [1702-68], official painter to the workshop at Peking, copied from a set of Chinese miniatures which were sent by the Jesuit missionary Jean-Joseph-Pierre Amiot [1718-93] in Peking to Berlin, who was Louis XIV’s Minister of Art and the one in charge of France’s relations with China. The engravings illustrate the life and deeds of Confucius.’
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Price HK$ 12,000
Ling-Nam or Interior Views of Southern China -
B. C. Henry
1886 - S. W. Partridge and Co., London - First Edition
Illustrated throughout including two double-page maps of Canton and one of Hainan, twenty full page illustrations and numerous in-text sketches.
Reverend Benjamin Couch Henry (1850-1901), one of the founders of Lingnan University, was an American, Princeton educated, Presbyterian missionary who spent 20 years in Southern China. In addition to his missionary work he collected plants including many new species.
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Price HK$ 3,500
1886 - S. W. Partridge and Co., London - First Edition
Illustrated throughout including two double-page maps of Canton and one of Hainan, twenty full page illustrations and numerous in-text sketches.Reverend Benjamin Couch Henry (1850-1901), one of the founders of Lingnan University, was an American, Princeton educated, Presbyterian missionary who spent 20 years in Southern China. In addition to his missionary work he collected plants including many new species.
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Price HK$ 3,500
Catalogue of the Leonard Gow Collection of Chinese Porcelain -
Robert Lockhart Hobson
1931 - Privately Printed by George W. Jones at The Sign of The Dolphin in Gough Square, London - First Edition, Number 192 of 300 copies.
First and only edition of this lavish work, signed by Leonard Gow, ‘with one hundred and fifty pages of descriptive letterpress, printed on English hand-made paper.’ and ‘with one hundred and forty-four illustrations in colour, and eighty-nine illustrations in monochrome. The whole have been reproduced direct from the Porcelain.’
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Price HK$ 19,000
1931 - Privately Printed by George W. Jones at The Sign of The Dolphin in Gough Square, London - First Edition, Number 192 of 300 copies.
First and only edition of this lavish work, signed by Leonard Gow, ‘with one hundred and fifty pages of descriptive letterpress, printed on English hand-made paper.’ and ‘with one hundred and forty-four illustrations in colour, and eighty-nine illustrations in monochrome. The whole have been reproduced direct from the Porcelain.’
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Price HK$ 19,000
Illustrations of the Literature and Religion of the Buddhists -
Brian Houghton Hodgson
1841 - Self-published – Bound at the Baptist Mission Press, Serampore - First Edition in Book Form
Hodgson’s rare and important work – the first collected edition of papers on the literature and religion of Buddhism – fifteen in total, originally published in Transactions and Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and London, and which for the first time revealed to the West the Sanskrit literature of northern, or Mahayana, Buddhism, which had been preserved in Nepal. For the collection Hodgson adds a preface and many footnotes.
Features two folding lithographed alphabet tables. Interestingly, Hodgson published this book in Serampore, at the time a Danish colony, it would have been printed at the former Serampore Mission Press, set up by the Baptist missionary William Carey, which closed in 1837 merging with the Baptist Mission Press, where this copy was also bound (see small bookplate to front pastedown).
Hodgson later reprinted 12 of the 15 papers as part one of Essays on the Languages, Literature and Religion of Nepal and Tibet (1874), the second part being on the tribes and geography of Nepal and Tibet, and in 1880 he published Miscellaneous Essays Relating to Indian Subjects (2 volumes, 1880), containing his papers on Indian languages and ethnology.
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Price HK$ 16,500
1841 - Self-published – Bound at the Baptist Mission Press, Serampore - First Edition in Book Form
Hodgson’s rare and important work – the first collected edition of papers on the literature and religion of Buddhism – fifteen in total, originally published in Transactions and Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and London, and which for the first time revealed to the West the Sanskrit literature of northern, or Mahayana, Buddhism, which had been preserved in Nepal. For the collection Hodgson adds a preface and many footnotes.Features two folding lithographed alphabet tables. Interestingly, Hodgson published this book in Serampore, at the time a Danish colony, it would have been printed at the former Serampore Mission Press, set up by the Baptist missionary William Carey, which closed in 1837 merging with the Baptist Mission Press, where this copy was also bound (see small bookplate to front pastedown).
Hodgson later reprinted 12 of the 15 papers as part one of Essays on the Languages, Literature and Religion of Nepal and Tibet (1874), the second part being on the tribes and geography of Nepal and Tibet, and in 1880 he published Miscellaneous Essays Relating to Indian Subjects (2 volumes, 1880), containing his papers on Indian languages and ethnology.
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Price HK$ 16,500
Grandeur et Suprematie de Peking -
Alphonse Hubrecht
1928 - Imprimerie des Lazaristes du Pé-t'ang, Peking - First and Limited Edition number XXIII of 50 ‘Exemplaires de Grand Luxe’ printed on ‘Papier de Grand Luxe’
A stunningly silk bound copy of this wonderful work, text in French, illustrated with seventy full page halftone photographic plates [with 140 photographs], 560 woodblock in-text engravings, ten full page woodblock plates, a full page plan comparing Peking through the ages, woodblock initials incorporating monuments of Peking, and 220 zincographic engravings of Chinese art [Zincography was a planographic printing process that used zinc plates].
This copy, in a variant binding of orange pictorial silk, is also one of a hundred copies that contained an additional eight full page hand water-coloured woodblock prints of nine porcelain works from the Louvre Museum [Opposite pages 460, 452, 412 [2], 404, 188, 180, 124, 116], water-coloured illustrated limitation page and extra illustrated title page, thirty water-coloured large initials with floral decoration.
This comprehensive work is divided in two parts, one historical, one descriptive. The historical part begins with the Mongol Empire [13th to 14th Century] and ends at the first decades of the Republic of China [1912]. The descriptive part describes the palaces, temples, Imperial Tombs, and also family life in China, social life, beliefs, etc.’ [Bibliotheca Wittockiana 123]
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Price HK$ 38,000
1928 - Imprimerie des Lazaristes du Pé-t'ang, Peking - First and Limited Edition number XXIII of 50 ‘Exemplaires de Grand Luxe’ printed on ‘Papier de Grand Luxe’
A stunningly silk bound copy of this wonderful work, text in French, illustrated with seventy full page halftone photographic plates [with 140 photographs], 560 woodblock in-text engravings, ten full page woodblock plates, a full page plan comparing Peking through the ages, woodblock initials incorporating monuments of Peking, and 220 zincographic engravings of Chinese art [Zincography was a planographic printing process that used zinc plates].This copy, in a variant binding of orange pictorial silk, is also one of a hundred copies that contained an additional eight full page hand water-coloured woodblock prints of nine porcelain works from the Louvre Museum [Opposite pages 460, 452, 412 [2], 404, 188, 180, 124, 116], water-coloured illustrated limitation page and extra illustrated title page, thirty water-coloured large initials with floral decoration.
This comprehensive work is divided in two parts, one historical, one descriptive. The historical part begins with the Mongol Empire [13th to 14th Century] and ends at the first decades of the Republic of China [1912]. The descriptive part describes the palaces, temples, Imperial Tombs, and also family life in China, social life, beliefs, etc.’ [Bibliotheca Wittockiana 123]
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Price HK$ 38,000