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Memoirs of a Malayan Family. Written by Themselves. Translated from the Original. - Inscribed -
N. Muda, W. Marsden (translator)
1830 - Printed for the Oriental Translation Fund, London - First Edition
A very scarce copy of this little work, which was originally written 1756-66 concerning a Dutch East India Company settlement in Sumatra.
With wonderful provenance, as it is inscribed by Marsden ‘For Charles Wilkins Esq. with the Translator’s love.’ In addition, tipped in is a hand-written note explaining that this book was gifted to Wilkins by Marsden, and then passed from Miss Lucy Wilkins to Felix Seddon, the writer of this note, and finally to his sister Harriet.
Not only was Marsden Wilkins’ solicitor as noted in the letter, but they were close friends. Sir Charles Wilkins was also an orientalist and founding member of the Asiatic Society, both men spoke numerous Asian languages fluently, and had spent many years in the orient. In 1807 Marsden married Wilkins’ daughter Elizabeth. As the letter indicates, the book was then passed on by Lucy Wilkins to Felix Seddon, Professor of Oriental Languages at King's college, London, another multilingual polyglot orientalist, who along with Wilkins had spent 15 years in India.
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Price HK$ 7,000
1830 - Printed for the Oriental Translation Fund, London - First Edition
A very scarce copy of this little work, which was originally written 1756-66 concerning a Dutch East India Company settlement in Sumatra. With wonderful provenance, as it is inscribed by Marsden ‘For Charles Wilkins Esq. with the Translator’s love.’ In addition, tipped in is a hand-written note explaining that this book was gifted to Wilkins by Marsden, and then passed from Miss Lucy Wilkins to Felix Seddon, the writer of this note, and finally to his sister Harriet.
Not only was Marsden Wilkins’ solicitor as noted in the letter, but they were close friends. Sir Charles Wilkins was also an orientalist and founding member of the Asiatic Society, both men spoke numerous Asian languages fluently, and had spent many years in the orient. In 1807 Marsden married Wilkins’ daughter Elizabeth. As the letter indicates, the book was then passed on by Lucy Wilkins to Felix Seddon, Professor of Oriental Languages at King's college, London, another multilingual polyglot orientalist, who along with Wilkins had spent 15 years in India.
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Price HK$ 7,000
Five Months in the Himalaya -
A. L. Mumm
1909 - Edward Arnold, London - First Edition
British explorer Mumm’s account of his 1907 expedition to the Himalayas with T.G. Longstaff. Considered a chief contribution to mountaineering literature, this book records the first ascent of the 23,400 ft. Trisul, as well as their journey through the Bagini Pass, Rishi Valley, Dhauli Valley, Garhwal, Kashmir, Haramukh, Khagan, and Shikara.
Profusely illustrated with 28 full page plates, 4 of which are folding, together with numerous photographs in-text and 2 folding maps at rear, of Garhwal and Kashmir.
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Price HK$ 6,000
1909 - Edward Arnold, London - First Edition
British explorer Mumm’s account of his 1907 expedition to the Himalayas with T.G. Longstaff. Considered a chief contribution to mountaineering literature, this book records the first ascent of the 23,400 ft. Trisul, as well as their journey through the Bagini Pass, Rishi Valley, Dhauli Valley, Garhwal, Kashmir, Haramukh, Khagan, and Shikara.Profusely illustrated with 28 full page plates, 4 of which are folding, together with numerous photographs in-text and 2 folding maps at rear, of Garhwal and Kashmir.
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Price HK$ 6,000
The Square Egg -
H. H. Munro (pseudonym ‘Saki’)
1924 - John Lane The Bodley Head Limited, London - First Edition, Second Printing
‘Saki's own light-hearted contes cruels elegantly depict practical jokes gone wrong, childhood savagery, the inanities of country-house life or kindly, beneficent nature unexpectedly turning deadly, and yet they remain as fizzily delicious as a Pimm's cup on a summer's day’ - Janet Mullaney, Saki: A peerless writer mown down by the scythe of War.
A bright copy,in the rare dust jacket, of ‘Saki’s’ posthumously published collection, featuring 8 short stories and 3 plays, a biography penned by his sister which includes Munro’s time in Burma (there is also a short story based in Burma), and numerous whimsical illustrative drawings by the author throughout.
Perhaps the most graceful spokesman for England’s ‘Golden Afternoon’ – the slow and peaceful years before the First World War – ’Saki’s’ macabre, satirical, and occasionally supernatural tales skewered the banality and hypocrisy of polite Edwardian society, and established him as an undisputed master of the short story and one of the great writers of a bygone era.
The world ‘Saki’ populates is a world full of sunny humour and zephyrs of merriment, where wit and wisdom are one and the same thing. Let us live there and laugh unrestrainedly’ – Morning Post
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Price HK$ 1,200
1924 - John Lane The Bodley Head Limited, London - First Edition, Second Printing
‘Saki's own light-hearted contes cruels elegantly depict practical jokes gone wrong, childhood savagery, the inanities of country-house life or kindly, beneficent nature unexpectedly turning deadly, and yet they remain as fizzily delicious as a Pimm's cup on a summer's day’ - Janet Mullaney, Saki: A peerless writer mown down by the scythe of War.A bright copy,in the rare dust jacket, of ‘Saki’s’ posthumously published collection, featuring 8 short stories and 3 plays, a biography penned by his sister which includes Munro’s time in Burma (there is also a short story based in Burma), and numerous whimsical illustrative drawings by the author throughout.
Perhaps the most graceful spokesman for England’s ‘Golden Afternoon’ – the slow and peaceful years before the First World War – ’Saki’s’ macabre, satirical, and occasionally supernatural tales skewered the banality and hypocrisy of polite Edwardian society, and established him as an undisputed master of the short story and one of the great writers of a bygone era.
The world ‘Saki’ populates is a world full of sunny humour and zephyrs of merriment, where wit and wisdom are one and the same thing. Let us live there and laugh unrestrainedly’ – Morning Post
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Price HK$ 1,200
Voyage of His Majesty’s Ship Alceste along the Coast of Corea to The Island of Lew Chew (Okinawa) with an account of her subsequent shipwreck. -
John M’Leod (McLeod)
1818 - John Murray, London - Second Edition (First published in 1817)
The voyage was undertaken while Lord Amherst’s embassy, which the naval expedition had brought out, was in China on its abortive mission to the imperial court at Beijing. Includes descriptions of the Ryukus (then a Chinese protectorate) and Canton (Guangzhou). McLeod, the ship’s surgeon, wrote his Narrative during his return voyage in 1817 aboard the hired ship Caesar [Lowendahl], after the Alceste struck a submerged reef off the coast of Sumatra.
The second edition, with five hand-coloured aquatint plates (as opposed to the four aquatint plates of the first edition). The illustrations include an engraved portrait of Capt. Murray Maxwell by T. Wageman and five hand-coloured aquatint plates by J. Clarke after Lieut. Dwarris and McLeod depicting Islanders of Sir James Hall's Group, a Corean Chief and Attendants, a Lewchewan Chief and Attendants, the Garden of the Temple at Lewchew and Fort Maxwell (not in the first edition).
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Price HK$ 5,500
1818 - John Murray, London - Second Edition (First published in 1817)
The voyage was undertaken while Lord Amherst’s embassy, which the naval expedition had brought out, was in China on its abortive mission to the imperial court at Beijing. Includes descriptions of the Ryukus (then a Chinese protectorate) and Canton (Guangzhou). McLeod, the ship’s surgeon, wrote his Narrative during his return voyage in 1817 aboard the hired ship Caesar [Lowendahl], after the Alceste struck a submerged reef off the coast of Sumatra.The second edition, with five hand-coloured aquatint plates (as opposed to the four aquatint plates of the first edition). The illustrations include an engraved portrait of Capt. Murray Maxwell by T. Wageman and five hand-coloured aquatint plates by J. Clarke after Lieut. Dwarris and McLeod depicting Islanders of Sir James Hall's Group, a Corean Chief and Attendants, a Lewchewan Chief and Attendants, the Garden of the Temple at Lewchew and Fort Maxwell (not in the first edition).
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Price HK$ 5,500
Moved On! From Kashgar to Kashmir -
P. S. Nazaroff, Malcolm Burr (translator),
1935 - George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London - First Edition
A fine copy, of this fabulous work by the man who continued the post war Great Game, a book described by Peter Hopkirk as ‘a brilliant mixture of adventure and observation’. From the library of James Hurley, member of the first team to attempt K12 in the Karkoram, after training with Eric Shipton.
In the scarce dust jacket, and illustrated with 33 black and white photographs, mostly by his friend Clarmont Skrine, the British consul-general in Kashgar, and a folding route map.
Paul (Pavel) Stepanovich Nazaroff (1890-1942), a Russian geologist and writer, was caught up in the Russian Revolution, and became the leader of a plot to overthrow Bolshevik rule in Central Asia. The first half of this book describe’s Nazaroff’s four years in Kashgar amongst the Sarts and Chinese and the second part is the story of his harrowing escapes and journey through the Karakorams.
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Price HK$ 4,500
1935 - George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London - First Edition
A fine copy, of this fabulous work by the man who continued the post war Great Game, a book described by Peter Hopkirk as ‘a brilliant mixture of adventure and observation’. From the library of James Hurley, member of the first team to attempt K12 in the Karkoram, after training with Eric Shipton.In the scarce dust jacket, and illustrated with 33 black and white photographs, mostly by his friend Clarmont Skrine, the British consul-general in Kashgar, and a folding route map.
Paul (Pavel) Stepanovich Nazaroff (1890-1942), a Russian geologist and writer, was caught up in the Russian Revolution, and became the leader of a plot to overthrow Bolshevik rule in Central Asia. The first half of this book describe’s Nazaroff’s four years in Kashgar amongst the Sarts and Chinese and the second part is the story of his harrowing escapes and journey through the Karakorams.
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Price HK$ 4,500
Translations from the Chinese and Armenian, with Notes and Illustrations. Consisting of:- History of the Pirates who Infested the China Sea, from 1807 to 1810; The Catechism of The Shamans; and Vahram’s Chronicle. -
Charles Fried (Karl Friedrich) Neumann. [Yuen Yung Lun]
1831 - The Oriental Translation Fund, London - First Edition
A collective issue of three works bound into one volume, with frontispiece of Chinese Characters.
History of the Pirates -A translation of the Jinghai fenji by Yuan Yonglun. Piracy on the coast of China in the nineteenth century inflicted chaos and serious economic damage, with large mobs of bandits attacking coastal villages as well as wreaking havoc at sea. Yung-lun Yüan's account of this period, published in Chinese in 1830 and in English in 1831, is a colourful depiction of the pirate scourge. Interwoven with the narratives of the pirates themselves as well as those of the courageous civilians who resisted them, the text describes the organisation and rules of the pirates as well as the authorities' attempts to broker peace. It is very much an unofficial history, the Chinese original appeared in Canton in November of the previous year. Neumann adds a querulous if learned preface, in which his aim seems to be to convince us of the ‘want of inquiry, and the childish remarks of unenlightened and uncultivated minds’ displayed by the modern Chinese regarding foreign nations. Appended is Richard Glasspoole's Narrative of My Captivity and Treatment Amongst the Ladrones.
The Catechism of The Shamans or the Laws and Regulations of the Priesthood of Buddha in China - The translation of a Ming period Buddhist work Shami luyi yaolue, by Zhu Hong (Choo-hung) dealing with the discipline of novices. (Shaman here is from a Chinese word for a Buddhist priest, unconnected with shamanism).
Vahram's Chronicle of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia during the time of the Crusades, to which is appended Letters between Pope Innocent III. and Leon the First Armenian King of Cilicia. and a Chronology of the Armenian Barons and Kings of Cilicia.
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Price HK$ 3,500
1831 - The Oriental Translation Fund, London - First Edition
A collective issue of three works bound into one volume, with frontispiece of Chinese Characters.History of the Pirates -A translation of the Jinghai fenji by Yuan Yonglun. Piracy on the coast of China in the nineteenth century inflicted chaos and serious economic damage, with large mobs of bandits attacking coastal villages as well as wreaking havoc at sea. Yung-lun Yüan's account of this period, published in Chinese in 1830 and in English in 1831, is a colourful depiction of the pirate scourge. Interwoven with the narratives of the pirates themselves as well as those of the courageous civilians who resisted them, the text describes the organisation and rules of the pirates as well as the authorities' attempts to broker peace. It is very much an unofficial history, the Chinese original appeared in Canton in November of the previous year. Neumann adds a querulous if learned preface, in which his aim seems to be to convince us of the ‘want of inquiry, and the childish remarks of unenlightened and uncultivated minds’ displayed by the modern Chinese regarding foreign nations. Appended is Richard Glasspoole's Narrative of My Captivity and Treatment Amongst the Ladrones.
The Catechism of The Shamans or the Laws and Regulations of the Priesthood of Buddha in China - The translation of a Ming period Buddhist work Shami luyi yaolue, by Zhu Hong (Choo-hung) dealing with the discipline of novices. (Shaman here is from a Chinese word for a Buddhist priest, unconnected with shamanism).
Vahram's Chronicle of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia during the time of the Crusades, to which is appended Letters between Pope Innocent III. and Leon the First Armenian King of Cilicia. and a Chronology of the Armenian Barons and Kings of Cilicia.
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Price HK$ 3,500
The Chater Collection -
James Orange
1924 - Thornton Butterworth Limited, London - Limited Edition, number 300 of 750 copies
First edition, comprehensively documenting this unsurpassed collection of 430 China trade paintings and engravings, including the historical context relating to each work. Written and compiled by James Orange, curator of the collection prior to it’s tragic destruction and dispersal during the Japanese occupation (1941-5), the remaining 94 pieces are now housed in Hong Kong’s City Hall Museum and Art Gallery (formerly the Hong Kong Museum of Art).
Illustrated with eighteen colour plates, 242 monochrome images, three folding colour maps, six monochrome maps, and a photogravure portrait frontispiece of Sir C. P. Chater.
Sir Catchick Paul Chater amassed a large collection of historical pictures and engravings relating to China which he gifted to the people of Hong Kong. Its backbone was the collection of Wyndham Law of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, and included oil paintings, water colours, sketches, prints and photographs, most of which are based on landscape scenes of the South China trading ports in the 18th and 19th centuries, and of British activities in China.
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Price HK$ 18,000
1924 - Thornton Butterworth Limited, London - Limited Edition, number 300 of 750 copies
First edition, comprehensively documenting this unsurpassed collection of 430 China trade paintings and engravings, including the historical context relating to each work. Written and compiled by James Orange, curator of the collection prior to it’s tragic destruction and dispersal during the Japanese occupation (1941-5), the remaining 94 pieces are now housed in Hong Kong’s City Hall Museum and Art Gallery (formerly the Hong Kong Museum of Art).Illustrated with eighteen colour plates, 242 monochrome images, three folding colour maps, six monochrome maps, and a photogravure portrait frontispiece of Sir C. P. Chater.
Sir Catchick Paul Chater amassed a large collection of historical pictures and engravings relating to China which he gifted to the people of Hong Kong. Its backbone was the collection of Wyndham Law of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, and included oil paintings, water colours, sketches, prints and photographs, most of which are based on landscape scenes of the South China trading ports in the 18th and 19th centuries, and of British activities in China.
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Price HK$ 18,000
Up the Yang-Tse. (Reprinted from the 'China Review.') With Sketch Maps -
E. H. Parker
1891 - Printed at the 'China Mail' Office, Hong Kong - First Edition
A rare first edition of this detailed and descriptive account of a journey taken by sinologist, diplomat and barrister Edward Harper Parker. His observant narrative ranges from opium, trafficking of women, infanticide, and bribery to the silk trade, farming, local customs and beliefs.
Illustrated with eight sketch maps (six of which are folding).
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Price HK$ 13,000
1891 - Printed at the 'China Mail' Office, Hong Kong - First Edition
A rare first edition of this detailed and descriptive account of a journey taken by sinologist, diplomat and barrister Edward Harper Parker. His observant narrative ranges from opium, trafficking of women, infanticide, and bribery to the silk trade, farming, local customs and beliefs.Illustrated with eight sketch maps (six of which are folding).
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Price HK$ 13,000