Asia
Australia
Borneo
Burma
Cambodia
China
Hong Kong
India
Indonesia
Japan
Macao
Malaysia
Nepal
New Zealand
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand
Tibet
Vietnam
Sport on the Nilgiris and in Wynaad -
F. W. F. Fletcher
1911 - Macmillan & Co., London - First Edition
‘Fletcher introduces both the terrain and the history of the Nilgiris and Wynaad regions in India, then provides big game chapters on a species-by-species basis. Each of these chapters features not only the natural history of the animals, but also the author's experiences hunting them. Included are chapters devoted to elephant, tiger, leopards, bison, beer, tahr, ibex, sambur, and other deer species.
Fletcher switched from a .450 rifle to a .600 Jeffery: “In cold blood the recoil from his rifle is somewhat severe; but in the excitement of shooting it is not noticeable.”’ - Czech.
Illustrated with 18 plates, and folding coloured map as frontispiece.
More details
Price HK$ 2,200
1911 - Macmillan & Co., London - First Edition
‘Fletcher introduces both the terrain and the history of the Nilgiris and Wynaad regions in India, then provides big game chapters on a species-by-species basis. Each of these chapters features not only the natural history of the animals, but also the author's experiences hunting them. Included are chapters devoted to elephant, tiger, leopards, bison, beer, tahr, ibex, sambur, and other deer species.Fletcher switched from a .450 rifle to a .600 Jeffery: “In cold blood the recoil from his rifle is somewhat severe; but in the excitement of shooting it is not noticeable.”’ - Czech.
Illustrated with 18 plates, and folding coloured map as frontispiece.
More details
Price HK$ 2,200
La Guerre de Chine -
G. C. de Fortavion
1862 - Pont-à-Mousson, Paris - First Edition
Oblong folio album of 16 lithographic plates, each accompanied by explanatory text leaf, on boards with hand-coloured lithographed view to upper cover, and lithographed view of Tianjin to lower cover. Housed in modern folding brown cloth case, spine lettered in gilt.
‘The attractive plates show details of fleets, battles and encampments, during General Montauban's campaign in China with the allied army in 1860. The views include Canton, the procession of the Chinese plenipotentiaries at the camp in Tien-Tsin, the Summer Palace, the taking of Pekin and the triumphant entry of the allied armies in Peking’ (Wittockiana, Western Travellers in China).
More details
Price HK$ 60,000
1862 - Pont-à-Mousson, Paris - First Edition
Oblong folio album of 16 lithographic plates, each accompanied by explanatory text leaf, on boards with hand-coloured lithographed view to upper cover, and lithographed view of Tianjin to lower cover. Housed in modern folding brown cloth case, spine lettered in gilt.‘The attractive plates show details of fleets, battles and encampments, during General Montauban's campaign in China with the allied army in 1860. The views include Canton, the procession of the Chinese plenipotentiaries at the camp in Tien-Tsin, the Summer Palace, the taking of Pekin and the triumphant entry of the allied armies in Peking’ (Wittockiana, Western Travellers in China).
More details
Price HK$ 60,000
Round Kangchenjunga -
Douglas W. Freshfield
1903 - Edward Arnold, London - First Edition
Freshfield’s incredible account of his dangerous and exhausting circuit of Kangchenjunga, considered one of the greatest early works on Himalayan exploration, and a standard reference to the Kangchenjunga massif. The party’s entire route followed previously unknown areas, much of it at a great height: they climbed the Zemu glacier reaching 5,350 metres, then crossed the Lhonak valley and proceeded west over Jongsong La into Nepal, descending along Kangchenjunga glacier, before trekking ahead to Tseram and finally crossing back to Sikkim.
Accompanying Freshfield was Italian photographer Vittorio Sella, whose remarkable photographs feature in this book.
Profusely illustrated with two large folding colour maps of Sikkim and the glaciers of Kangchenjunga, forty full page black and white plates, two in-text illustrations of the peaks of Kathmandu and a geological map of Sikkim, and one folding panoramic black and white photographic plate of Kangchenjunga Glacier, taken by Sella.
More details
Price HK$ 6,500
1903 - Edward Arnold, London - First Edition
Freshfield’s incredible account of his dangerous and exhausting circuit of Kangchenjunga, considered one of the greatest early works on Himalayan exploration, and a standard reference to the Kangchenjunga massif. The party’s entire route followed previously unknown areas, much of it at a great height: they climbed the Zemu glacier reaching 5,350 metres, then crossed the Lhonak valley and proceeded west over Jongsong La into Nepal, descending along Kangchenjunga glacier, before trekking ahead to Tseram and finally crossing back to Sikkim.Accompanying Freshfield was Italian photographer Vittorio Sella, whose remarkable photographs feature in this book.
Profusely illustrated with two large folding colour maps of Sikkim and the glaciers of Kangchenjunga, forty full page black and white plates, two in-text illustrations of the peaks of Kathmandu and a geological map of Sikkim, and one folding panoramic black and white photographic plate of Kangchenjunga Glacier, taken by Sella.
More details
Price HK$ 6,500
The Shop Signs of Peking -
H. K. Fung
1931 - Issued by the Chinese Painting Association of Peking, China - Edition Limited to 100 Copies
A beautifully hand coloured book showing the signs used by Chinese shopkeepers to advertise their trade, with 101 hand-coloured illustrations of shop signs each accompanied by the Chinese and English description, together with a forward in English by H. K. Fung.
More details
Price HK$ 41,000
1931 - Issued by the Chinese Painting Association of Peking, China - Edition Limited to 100 Copies
A beautifully hand coloured book showing the signs used by Chinese shopkeepers to advertise their trade, with 101 hand-coloured illustrations of shop signs each accompanied by the Chinese and English description, together with a forward in English by H. K. Fung.
More details
Price HK$ 41,000
Shanghai Of To-Day. A Souvenir Album of Fifty Vandyck Prints of “The Model Settlement” -
O. M. Green
1928 - Kelly & Walsh, Shanghai - Second Edition – Enlarged
A superior copy of the enlarged edition with fifty tipped-on black and white photographic plates by Vandyck, preceded by an introduction by Owen Mortimer Green, who was British editor of the North China Daily News.
‘Shanghai, being a Treaty Port, was composed of two parts : the native of Shanghai city, under the control and administration of the Chinese and the foreign governed Shanghai International Settlement. This work, fully illustrated with photographs, covers the most important places of the Shanghai International al Settlement, with it’s emphasis on the more Western-Style architecture, in particular administrative or commercial buildings and some religious buildings, combined to present Shanghai as a modern and attractive city.’
More details
Price HK$ 13,000
1928 - Kelly & Walsh, Shanghai - Second Edition – Enlarged
A superior copy of the enlarged edition with fifty tipped-on black and white photographic plates by Vandyck, preceded by an introduction by Owen Mortimer Green, who was British editor of the North China Daily News.‘Shanghai, being a Treaty Port, was composed of two parts : the native of Shanghai city, under the control and administration of the Chinese and the foreign governed Shanghai International Settlement. This work, fully illustrated with photographs, covers the most important places of the Shanghai International al Settlement, with it’s emphasis on the more Western-Style architecture, in particular administrative or commercial buildings and some religious buildings, combined to present Shanghai as a modern and attractive city.’
More details
Price HK$ 13,000
Narrative of the late Victorious Campaign in Affghanistan -
Lieutenant Greenwood
1844 - Henry Colburn, London - Second Edition
Scarce in both first and second edition, especially in the original cloth. Illustrated with large folding map to rear, and tinted lithographic frontispiece of the Battle of Mazeera and four lithographic plates showing the Fort of Jamrod in the valley of Peshawar, Fort Ali Musjid in the Khyber Pass, Bala Hissar at Cabul, City and valley of Cabul.
‘Here is a volume which must at once take its place beside those of Lady Sale and Lieut. Eyre, to which it forms a natural and necessary sequel... It narrates in the words and with the appliances of en eye-witness, the details, both personal and professional, of that glorious but terrible "measure of revenge," which it was the lot of General Pollock and his gallant band to inflict on the assassins of Cabool. The tale is infinitely better for being a "plain unvarnished" one... A considerable amount of amusement, as well as of utility, is added to this volume by the writer having made it the medium for his recollection of seven years' service in India, previously to the stirring events which give the chief attraction to the work. These recollections touch upon all the usual features of Anglo-Indian life, and are written in the same natural and easy vein which mark the more important portion of the narrative’ – Coburn’s New Monthly Magazine 1844.
More details
Price HK$ 5,000
1844 - Henry Colburn, London - Second Edition
Scarce in both first and second edition, especially in the original cloth. Illustrated with large folding map to rear, and tinted lithographic frontispiece of the Battle of Mazeera and four lithographic plates showing the Fort of Jamrod in the valley of Peshawar, Fort Ali Musjid in the Khyber Pass, Bala Hissar at Cabul, City and valley of Cabul.‘Here is a volume which must at once take its place beside those of Lady Sale and Lieut. Eyre, to which it forms a natural and necessary sequel... It narrates in the words and with the appliances of en eye-witness, the details, both personal and professional, of that glorious but terrible "measure of revenge," which it was the lot of General Pollock and his gallant band to inflict on the assassins of Cabool. The tale is infinitely better for being a "plain unvarnished" one... A considerable amount of amusement, as well as of utility, is added to this volume by the writer having made it the medium for his recollection of seven years' service in India, previously to the stirring events which give the chief attraction to the work. These recollections touch upon all the usual features of Anglo-Indian life, and are written in the same natural and easy vein which mark the more important portion of the narrative’ – Coburn’s New Monthly Magazine 1844.
More details
Price HK$ 5,000
Voyages à Peking, Manille et l'Île de France, faits dans l'intervalle des années 1784 à 1801 -
Chrétien de Guignes
1808 - l'Imprimerie Impériale (J.J. Marcel) for Treuttel and Würtz, Paris - First Editions
A finely bound set of Guines’ well respected and profusely illustrated journal, with text in French, covering his time in China and the Philippines. Three octavo volumes and small folio atlas with 92 engraved plates and 6 engraved maps.
Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes (1759-1845), renowned Sinologist, was named French representative in China in 1784 and conul in Canton. During the years 1794 and 1795 he accompanied the Dutch embassy to Peking to meet with the Emperor. Of his seventeen years in China, Guignes provides numerous observations on the manners and customs, the festivals, the costumes, etc.
He later produced his Chinese-Latin-French dictionary, still considered an important work of scholarship. Guignes’ journal also touches on the Mauritius (I’lle de France), at the time the centre of French influence in the Indian Ocean and the principle base of peaceful and military French enterprise [Ryckebusch, n° 3783]. According to Numa Broc "Guignes, who only published his report in 1808, was able to know and use the works of Staunton and Barrow": he thus completed on several points these two relations of the embassy of Lord Macartney in China (Broc, La Géographie des philosophes).
More details
Price HK$ 95,000
1808 - l'Imprimerie Impériale (J.J. Marcel) for Treuttel and Würtz, Paris - First Editions
A finely bound set of Guines’ well respected and profusely illustrated journal, with text in French, covering his time in China and the Philippines. Three octavo volumes and small folio atlas with 92 engraved plates and 6 engraved maps. Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes (1759-1845), renowned Sinologist, was named French representative in China in 1784 and conul in Canton. During the years 1794 and 1795 he accompanied the Dutch embassy to Peking to meet with the Emperor. Of his seventeen years in China, Guignes provides numerous observations on the manners and customs, the festivals, the costumes, etc.
He later produced his Chinese-Latin-French dictionary, still considered an important work of scholarship. Guignes’ journal also touches on the Mauritius (I’lle de France), at the time the centre of French influence in the Indian Ocean and the principle base of peaceful and military French enterprise [Ryckebusch, n° 3783]. According to Numa Broc "Guignes, who only published his report in 1808, was able to know and use the works of Staunton and Barrow": he thus completed on several points these two relations of the embassy of Lord Macartney in China (Broc, La Géographie des philosophes).
More details
Price HK$ 95,000
A Sketch of Chinese History, Ancient and Modern -
Rev. Charles Gutzlaff
1834 - Smith, London - First Edition
Two finely bound volumes of Gützlaff’s work, complete with one large folding map and 10 folding tables.
Charles Gützlaff (1803-51), who has a street named after him in Hong Kong, ‘was ordained in 1826 and sent to the Dutch East Indies as an agent of the Netherlands Missionary Society. After a brief spell in Batavia with William Medhurst, he set out on 8 April 1827 to convert the Chinese settlers in the Riau archipelago. A year later he embarked on independent missionary work among the Chinese of Bangkok, Siam. Gützlaff next turned up on the China coast. As a result of his trip to Tientsin (Tianjin) in a Chinese junk in 1831, British traders began to make use of his extraordinary linguistic talents in their efforts to find new markets. Although he was later criticised for having associated with opium smugglers to propagate Christianity, Gützlaff regarded these trips as unique opportunities to preach and distribute Christian literature beyond the confines of Canton. Moreover, his Journal of Three Voyages Along the Coast of China in 1831, 1832, 1833 generated considerable interest in China in Western political, commercial, and religious circles, as did his Sketch of Chinese History, Ancient and Modern and the more controversial China Opened.’ [Oxford DNB]
More details
Price HK$ 5,600
1834 - Smith, London - First Edition
Two finely bound volumes of Gützlaff’s work, complete with one large folding map and 10 folding tables.Charles Gützlaff (1803-51), who has a street named after him in Hong Kong, ‘was ordained in 1826 and sent to the Dutch East Indies as an agent of the Netherlands Missionary Society. After a brief spell in Batavia with William Medhurst, he set out on 8 April 1827 to convert the Chinese settlers in the Riau archipelago. A year later he embarked on independent missionary work among the Chinese of Bangkok, Siam. Gützlaff next turned up on the China coast. As a result of his trip to Tientsin (Tianjin) in a Chinese junk in 1831, British traders began to make use of his extraordinary linguistic talents in their efforts to find new markets. Although he was later criticised for having associated with opium smugglers to propagate Christianity, Gützlaff regarded these trips as unique opportunities to preach and distribute Christian literature beyond the confines of Canton. Moreover, his Journal of Three Voyages Along the Coast of China in 1831, 1832, 1833 generated considerable interest in China in Western political, commercial, and religious circles, as did his Sketch of Chinese History, Ancient and Modern and the more controversial China Opened.’ [Oxford DNB]
More details
Price HK$ 5,600