A Christmas Carol - and - The Cricket on the Hearth -
Charles Dickens, George Alfred Williams (illustrator)
1905 - The Baker & Taylor Company, New York - First Edition illustrated by Williams
Elegantly bound volume of Charles Dickens’ two beloved Christmas tales, illustrated with ten full page colour plates by George Alfred Williams.
A Christmas Carol – When old, surly Ebenezer Scrooge receives a visit from the ghost of Marley, his late business partner, on Christmas eve, he beholds a series of visions of the past, present, and future that make him decide to amend his ways…
The Cricket on the Hearth – The cricket ‘is a sort of barometer of life at the home of John Peerybingle and his much younger wife Dot. When things go well, the cricket on the hearth chirps; it is silent when there is sorrow. Tackleton, a jealous old man, poisons John’s mind about Dot, but the cricket through its supernatural powers restores John’s confidence and all ends happily’ (Britannica)
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Price HK$ 3,500
1905 - The Baker & Taylor Company, New York - First Edition illustrated by Williams
Elegantly bound volume of Charles Dickens’ two beloved Christmas tales, illustrated with ten full page colour plates by George Alfred Williams.A Christmas Carol – When old, surly Ebenezer Scrooge receives a visit from the ghost of Marley, his late business partner, on Christmas eve, he beholds a series of visions of the past, present, and future that make him decide to amend his ways…
The Cricket on the Hearth – The cricket ‘is a sort of barometer of life at the home of John Peerybingle and his much younger wife Dot. When things go well, the cricket on the hearth chirps; it is silent when there is sorrow. Tackleton, a jealous old man, poisons John’s mind about Dot, but the cricket through its supernatural powers restores John’s confidence and all ends happily’ (Britannica)
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Price HK$ 3,500
The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy -
Hannah Glasse
1763 - A. Millar, London - Eighth Edition
A finely bound early edition of this classic 18th century cookbook, which ‘revolutionised the way the British cook’.
‘She's the first domestic goddess, the queen of the dinner party and the most important cookery writer to know about. No, not Isabella Beeton; not Delia Smith nor Nigella Lawson, but an earlier incarnation of a kitchen trouble-shooter, Hannah Glasse’ - Rose Prince, The Independent (2006).
‘The Art of Cookery has a River Cafe Cookbook quality - in fact her excessive use of butter, which can have a lovely clear flavour, can be likened to the liberal dribbling of olive oil in Rogers' and Gray's recipes. The power of the book, though, is the clarity of the writing. She's authoritative but she is also intimate, treating you as an equal’ – Bee Wilson (food journalist and author).
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Price HK$ 6,500
1763 - A. Millar, London - Eighth Edition
A finely bound early edition of this classic 18th century cookbook, which ‘revolutionised the way the British cook’.‘She's the first domestic goddess, the queen of the dinner party and the most important cookery writer to know about. No, not Isabella Beeton; not Delia Smith nor Nigella Lawson, but an earlier incarnation of a kitchen trouble-shooter, Hannah Glasse’ - Rose Prince, The Independent (2006).
‘The Art of Cookery has a River Cafe Cookbook quality - in fact her excessive use of butter, which can have a lovely clear flavour, can be likened to the liberal dribbling of olive oil in Rogers' and Gray's recipes. The power of the book, though, is the clarity of the writing. She's authoritative but she is also intimate, treating you as an equal’ – Bee Wilson (food journalist and author).
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Price HK$ 6,500
Tess of The D'Urbervilles -
Thomas Hardy
1895 - Osgood, London - First Single Volume Edition
Finely bound early edition, and the first to contain a new additional preface by Thomas Hardy, as well as a frontispiece portrait of the author by H Macbeth-Raeburn
‘In Tess, Hardy presents a world in which the human spirit is battered down by the forces, not of fate, but of social hierarchy. Tess’s eventual death, one of the most famous in literature, is a direct result of human cruelty and as such represents one of the most moving indictments of the lives of nineteenth-century English women in all of literature’ – Alvin Birdy.
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Price HK$ 5,500
1895 - Osgood, London - First Single Volume Edition
Finely bound early edition, and the first to contain a new additional preface by Thomas Hardy, as well as a frontispiece portrait of the author by H Macbeth-Raeburn‘In Tess, Hardy presents a world in which the human spirit is battered down by the forces, not of fate, but of social hierarchy. Tess’s eventual death, one of the most famous in literature, is a direct result of human cruelty and as such represents one of the most moving indictments of the lives of nineteenth-century English women in all of literature’ – Alvin Birdy.
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Price HK$ 5,500
Princess Badoura. A Tale from the Arabian Nights -
Laurence Housman, Edmund Dulac (illustrator)
1913 - Hodder and Stoughton, London - First Trade Edition
Intricately and enchantingly bound by Bayntun-Riviere in full crimson morocco, combined with decorative red and gold hand silk-screened Chiyogami endpapers.
Illustrated with ten full-page tipped-in colour plates by Edmund Dulac, each one a delicately worked, beautiful, otherworldly arabesque of old Persia.
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Price HK$ 19,000
1913 - Hodder and Stoughton, London - First Trade Edition
Intricately and enchantingly bound by Bayntun-Riviere in full crimson morocco, combined with decorative red and gold hand silk-screened Chiyogami endpapers.Illustrated with ten full-page tipped-in colour plates by Edmund Dulac, each one a delicately worked, beautiful, otherworldly arabesque of old Persia.
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Price HK$ 19,000
Culinary Jottings: A Treatise in Thirty Chapters on Reformed Cookery for Anglo-Indian Exiles -
Colonel Kenney-Herbert “Wyvern”
1885 - Higginbotham & Co., Madras - Fifth Edition
A scarce example of this popular cook book by ‘Wyvern’, expanded and revised from the first edition (’Culinary Jottings for Madras)published seven years earlier. All early editions are scarce because being a working cook book it is prone to all the usual issues that modern cookbooks are also in danger of, combined with the original cheap paper and glues used for its production in Madras.
With numerous chapters including two on ‘Our Curries’ and ‘Curries and Mulligatunny’, as well as ‘Camp Cookery’, ending with a fascinating essay about the British kitchens of India.
Recipes include helpful hints and advice, for example ‘Potted Prawns ought to be oftener seen at Madras than they are’ and suggestions on where to purchase the best potted meats, anecdotes (see ‘Mulligatunny’), a complete chapter titled ‘Notes on Curing of Meat’.
Published by legendary Indian book sellers Higginbotham’s, this work and other titles by ‘Wyvern’ ‘swept Higginbotham’s from being just a book establishment into becoming a part of India’s print and publishing history’ [Bangalore Mirror]
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Price HK$ 3,800
1885 - Higginbotham & Co., Madras - Fifth Edition
A scarce example of this popular cook book by ‘Wyvern’, expanded and revised from the first edition (’Culinary Jottings for Madras)published seven years earlier. All early editions are scarce because being a working cook book it is prone to all the usual issues that modern cookbooks are also in danger of, combined with the original cheap paper and glues used for its production in Madras.With numerous chapters including two on ‘Our Curries’ and ‘Curries and Mulligatunny’, as well as ‘Camp Cookery’, ending with a fascinating essay about the British kitchens of India.
Recipes include helpful hints and advice, for example ‘Potted Prawns ought to be oftener seen at Madras than they are’ and suggestions on where to purchase the best potted meats, anecdotes (see ‘Mulligatunny’), a complete chapter titled ‘Notes on Curing of Meat’.
Published by legendary Indian book sellers Higginbotham’s, this work and other titles by ‘Wyvern’ ‘swept Higginbotham’s from being just a book establishment into becoming a part of India’s print and publishing history’ [Bangalore Mirror]
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Price HK$ 3,800
Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám -
Omar Khayyám, Richard Le Gallienne
1925 - Dodd, New York - A New Edition with Fifty added Quatrains
Awake ! my soul, and haste betimes to drink,
This sun that rises all too soon shall sink,–
Come,come, O vintner, ope thy drowsy door !
We die of thirst upon the fountains brink.
A fine John Grabau binding of the Persian poem of life, by the renowned 11th century philosopher, poet, mathematician and astronomer Omar Khayyám, paraphrased by Richard Le Gallienne.
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Price HK$ 7,000
1925 - Dodd, New York - A New Edition with Fifty added Quatrains
Awake ! my soul, and haste betimes to drink,This sun that rises all too soon shall sink,–
Come,come, O vintner, ope thy drowsy door !
We die of thirst upon the fountains brink.
A fine John Grabau binding of the Persian poem of life, by the renowned 11th century philosopher, poet, mathematician and astronomer Omar Khayyám, paraphrased by Richard Le Gallienne.
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Price HK$ 7,000
Travels in West Africa - Congo Français, Corisco and Cameroons -
Mary Henrietta Kingsley
1897 - Macmillan and Co., London - First Edition
A near fine first edition, illustrated throughout, including 16 halftone plates, 2 lithographic plates, and numerous in-text photographs.
‘From fighting with crocodiles, to being caught in a tornado on the slopes of Mount Cameroon, all while wearing her habitual trailing skirts, high collars, and fur cap, the solo adventures of Victorian traveller Mary Kingsley (1862-1900), as narrated in her best selling book, Travels in West Africa are nothing short of incredible.’
‘I have seen many wild animals in their native wilds, but never have I seen anything to equal gorillas going through the bush; it is a graceful, powerful, superbly perfect hand-trapeze performance.’
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Price HK$ 5,000
1897 - Macmillan and Co., London - First Edition
A near fine first edition, illustrated throughout, including 16 halftone plates, 2 lithographic plates, and numerous in-text photographs.‘From fighting with crocodiles, to being caught in a tornado on the slopes of Mount Cameroon, all while wearing her habitual trailing skirts, high collars, and fur cap, the solo adventures of Victorian traveller Mary Kingsley (1862-1900), as narrated in her best selling book, Travels in West Africa are nothing short of incredible.’
‘I have seen many wild animals in their native wilds, but never have I seen anything to equal gorillas going through the bush; it is a graceful, powerful, superbly perfect hand-trapeze performance.’
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Price HK$ 5,000
Memoirs of Mrs. Fitzherbert -
Charles Langdale
1856 - Richard Bentley, London - First Edition
Extra-illustrated with an additional 37 plates, combined with the original 38 plates of which 10 are colour.
Maria Fitzherbert (1756–1837) was already twice widowed when the young Prince of Wales began his pursuit of her in 1784. Initially refusing his offer of marriage, she eventually accepted it and the couple were wed in secret the following year. Though legitimate in her eyes, the union was invalid under the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, and controversial because of her Catholicism.
A posthumous attack on her faith and morals, penned by Lord Holland in his Memoirs of the Whig Party, provoked her close friend Charles Langdale (1787–1868) into publishing this defence in 1856. A champion of Catholic emancipation, Langdale was one of the first Catholics elected to Parliament. These memoirs are based on Maria Fitzherbert's own recollections, recounted to Langdale's brother, Lord Stourton. They reveal the values and beliefs of an exceptional woman who occupied a unique and precarious position within British high society.
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Price HK$ 16,000
1856 - Richard Bentley, London - First Edition
Extra-illustrated with an additional 37 plates, combined with the original 38 plates of which 10 are colour.Maria Fitzherbert (1756–1837) was already twice widowed when the young Prince of Wales began his pursuit of her in 1784. Initially refusing his offer of marriage, she eventually accepted it and the couple were wed in secret the following year. Though legitimate in her eyes, the union was invalid under the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, and controversial because of her Catholicism.
A posthumous attack on her faith and morals, penned by Lord Holland in his Memoirs of the Whig Party, provoked her close friend Charles Langdale (1787–1868) into publishing this defence in 1856. A champion of Catholic emancipation, Langdale was one of the first Catholics elected to Parliament. These memoirs are based on Maria Fitzherbert's own recollections, recounted to Langdale's brother, Lord Stourton. They reveal the values and beliefs of an exceptional woman who occupied a unique and precarious position within British high society.
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Price HK$ 16,000