The Spy Who Loved Me -
Ian Lancaster Fleming
1962 - Jonathan Cape, London - First Edition
The tenth book in the James Bond series; A beautiful girl with a sensual past, Vivienne Michell is different from all the women 007 has known before. When she is confronted with two evil killers there is only one man who can save her - Bond himself.
Appropriately housed in a bespoke black morocco leather, felt lined, clamshell case, with gilt lettering to the spine.
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Price HK$ 11,000
1962 - Jonathan Cape, London - First Edition
The tenth book in the James Bond series; A beautiful girl with a sensual past, Vivienne Michell is different from all the women 007 has known before. When she is confronted with two evil killers there is only one man who can save her - Bond himself.Appropriately housed in a bespoke black morocco leather, felt lined, clamshell case, with gilt lettering to the spine.
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Price HK$ 11,000
Association Football & The Men Who Made It -
Alfred Gibson, William Pickford
1906 - The Caxton Publishing Company, London - First Edition
A lovely clean four volume set of this significant and unrivalled work, detailing the history of the game, the clubs and early players. Magnificently illustrated throughout, with sepia and monochrome photographs of players, teams and matches. Becoming scarce in first edition and decent condition.
‘The holy grail for any serious collector of football literature, this work is unrivalled in affording the contemporary reader a detailed understanding of the teams, players and administrators who dominated the game in the nineteenth century. Set across four volumes, the figures profiled inside are almost universally forgotten to modern football fans and yet the calibre of the writing within makes them come alive. Even though the game they played was markedly different to that of the current day, the vitality and energy of the era is clear.’ - Ademir to Zizinho, The 20 Greatest Football Books.
‘The authors, Alfred Gibson who worked for The Football Star, and William Pickford who worked for the Athletic News, were two football insiders who celebrated the game which others had labelled a mania but they recognised as one of the wonders of modern times. The book was dedicated ‘to all who loved the game’ and was intended as ‘a monument for the men who have made it’. It was a celebration of all football, the recreational as well as the spectacular, amateurs and professionals, those who looked on and those who played’. - Oxford DNB.
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Price HK$ 5,500
1906 - The Caxton Publishing Company, London - First Edition
A lovely clean four volume set of this significant and unrivalled work, detailing the history of the game, the clubs and early players. Magnificently illustrated throughout, with sepia and monochrome photographs of players, teams and matches. Becoming scarce in first edition and decent condition.‘The holy grail for any serious collector of football literature, this work is unrivalled in affording the contemporary reader a detailed understanding of the teams, players and administrators who dominated the game in the nineteenth century. Set across four volumes, the figures profiled inside are almost universally forgotten to modern football fans and yet the calibre of the writing within makes them come alive. Even though the game they played was markedly different to that of the current day, the vitality and energy of the era is clear.’ - Ademir to Zizinho, The 20 Greatest Football Books.
‘The authors, Alfred Gibson who worked for The Football Star, and William Pickford who worked for the Athletic News, were two football insiders who celebrated the game which others had labelled a mania but they recognised as one of the wonders of modern times. The book was dedicated ‘to all who loved the game’ and was intended as ‘a monument for the men who have made it’. It was a celebration of all football, the recreational as well as the spectacular, amateurs and professionals, those who looked on and those who played’. - Oxford DNB.
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Price HK$ 5,500
Grape Culture, Wines, and Wine-Making -
Agoston Haraszthy
1862 - Harper & Brothers, New York - First Edition
The rare first edition of this essential work by the ‘father’ of California viticulture, a Hungarian nobleman who pioneered the finer vintages of California and was described as ‘a vade-mecum for success: brilliant, energetic, imaginative, personable and with a nose for money’. Clean and bright copy in the original cloth binding, with woodcut frontispiece of the author's home (Buena Vista Ranche, Sonoma County, California), and numerous woodcut illustrations throughout.
The object of Haraszthy’s trip through ‘parts of France, the Netherlands, Holland, Rhenish, Prussia, Bavaria, Nassau, Baden, Switzerland, Spain, Italy and England’, was to examine the different varieties of grapes and the methods of making wine in the wine growing countries of Europe. It was sanctioned by Californian Governor J.G. Downey.
‘Aside from its historical value as a reference on 19th century European methods of viticulture and wine making, Haraszthy’s descriptions of the wines he drank, the towns he visited, the countryside through which he travelled and anecdotes of the people he met make for entertaining reading.’ - Gabler, Wine into Words.
Putting all this in perspective, the California Gold Rush had just taken place, and as Haraszthy points out whilst traveling through Europe – ‘The Emperor Napoleon is at this moment in the bathing-place of Biarritz, about twenty minutes drive from here’.
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Price HK$ 20,000
1862 - Harper & Brothers, New York - First Edition
The rare first edition of this essential work by the ‘father’ of California viticulture, a Hungarian nobleman who pioneered the finer vintages of California and was described as ‘a vade-mecum for success: brilliant, energetic, imaginative, personable and with a nose for money’. Clean and bright copy in the original cloth binding, with woodcut frontispiece of the author's home (Buena Vista Ranche, Sonoma County, California), and numerous woodcut illustrations throughout.The object of Haraszthy’s trip through ‘parts of France, the Netherlands, Holland, Rhenish, Prussia, Bavaria, Nassau, Baden, Switzerland, Spain, Italy and England’, was to examine the different varieties of grapes and the methods of making wine in the wine growing countries of Europe. It was sanctioned by Californian Governor J.G. Downey.
‘Aside from its historical value as a reference on 19th century European methods of viticulture and wine making, Haraszthy’s descriptions of the wines he drank, the towns he visited, the countryside through which he travelled and anecdotes of the people he met make for entertaining reading.’ - Gabler, Wine into Words.
Putting all this in perspective, the California Gold Rush had just taken place, and as Haraszthy points out whilst traveling through Europe – ‘The Emperor Napoleon is at this moment in the bathing-place of Biarritz, about twenty minutes drive from here’.
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Price HK$ 20,000
Bentley: The Vintage Years - Signed -
Michael Hay
1986 - Dalton Watson, London - First Edition, Deluxe Limited Edition
‘I am confident that Bentley: The Vintage Years will find a space on every Bentley enthusiast’s shelf and be held as an example by others, endeavouring to write a definitive work on any motoring subject’ – Gibbs Pancheri.
Magnificently Bentley! The special limited edition, number 68 of 200, signed by author Michael Hays, bound in custom green morocco leather, lettered and edged in gilt, housed in bespoke slipcase.
A most comprehensive survey of the Vintage Bentley from 1919 to 1931, with over 500 photographs of coach built Bentleys, as well as a full account of Bentley’s racing history into the early 1930’s.
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Price HK$ 14,000
1986 - Dalton Watson, London - First Edition, Deluxe Limited Edition
‘I am confident that Bentley: The Vintage Years will find a space on every Bentley enthusiast’s shelf and be held as an example by others, endeavouring to write a definitive work on any motoring subject’ – Gibbs Pancheri.Magnificently Bentley! The special limited edition, number 68 of 200, signed by author Michael Hays, bound in custom green morocco leather, lettered and edged in gilt, housed in bespoke slipcase.
A most comprehensive survey of the Vintage Bentley from 1919 to 1931, with over 500 photographs of coach built Bentleys, as well as a full account of Bentley’s racing history into the early 1930’s.
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Price HK$ 14,000
Green Hills of Africa -
Ernest Hemingway
1935 - Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York - First Edition, First State dust jacket
‘There are some things which cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring. They are the very simplest things, and because it takes a man's life to know them the little new that each man gets from life is very costly and the only heritage he has to leave’
A very good example of what is a notoriously difficult first edition to find in prime condition.
‘In the winter of 1933, Ernest Hemingway and his wife Pauline set out on a two-month safari in the big-game country of East Africa, camping out on the great Serengeti Plain at the foot of magnificent Mount Kilimanjaro. "I had quite a trip," the author told his friend Philip Percival, with characteristic understatement.’ - from a later edition.
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Price HK$ 9,500
1935 - Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York - First Edition, First State dust jacket
‘There are some things which cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring. They are the very simplest things, and because it takes a man's life to know them the little new that each man gets from life is very costly and the only heritage he has to leave’A very good example of what is a notoriously difficult first edition to find in prime condition.
‘In the winter of 1933, Ernest Hemingway and his wife Pauline set out on a two-month safari in the big-game country of East Africa, camping out on the great Serengeti Plain at the foot of magnificent Mount Kilimanjaro. "I had quite a trip," the author told his friend Philip Percival, with characteristic understatement.’ - from a later edition.
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Price HK$ 9,500
Golf - The Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes. -
Horace G. Hutchinson (Duke of Beaufort, editor), Assisted by Alfred E.T. Watson
1890 - Longmans, London - First Edition
‘One of the great books of the sport and deserves an honoured spot in every golf library.’ - Joseph Murdoch, The Library of Golf.
An unusually bright sharp and mostly uncut copy, in a fine custom clamshell case with tipped-on Vanity Fair colour print of the flamboyant Horace Hutchinson himself. Covering the history of golf, celebrated golfers and celebrated links, styles, etiquette, giving odds, and, I assume, relevant for the day - ‘hints to cricketers who are taking up golf’. Illustrated by Thomas Hodge and Harry Furniss with 22 plates, several woodcuts in text, and many further illustrations.
Hutchinson, one of the best sports writers and editors of his era, was also an accomplished golfer, captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, winner of the first two official British Amateur Championships in 1886 and 1887, and known for his comment that ‘if profanity had an influence on the flight of the ball, the game of golf would be played far better than it is.’
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Price HK$ 5,000
1890 - Longmans, London - First Edition
‘One of the great books of the sport and deserves an honoured spot in every golf library.’ - Joseph Murdoch, The Library of Golf.An unusually bright sharp and mostly uncut copy, in a fine custom clamshell case with tipped-on Vanity Fair colour print of the flamboyant Horace Hutchinson himself. Covering the history of golf, celebrated golfers and celebrated links, styles, etiquette, giving odds, and, I assume, relevant for the day - ‘hints to cricketers who are taking up golf’. Illustrated by Thomas Hodge and Harry Furniss with 22 plates, several woodcuts in text, and many further illustrations.
Hutchinson, one of the best sports writers and editors of his era, was also an accomplished golfer, captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, winner of the first two official British Amateur Championships in 1886 and 1887, and known for his comment that ‘if profanity had an influence on the flight of the ball, the game of golf would be played far better than it is.’
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Price HK$ 5,000
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
Mr. Punch On The Links -
E. V. Knox, L. B. Gullick, et al.
Circa 1935 - The Educational Book Company Ltd., London - First Edition
There are few pastimes that provide their followers with more innocent merriment than is afforded by “the royal and ancient”.
It may be taken that there is no better way of reducing a man’s self-conceit than to place him on the teeing ground for the first time, present him with a driver and invite him to strike a little rubber-cored ball to a distance of 200 yards in a given direction.
Consequently we have here most excellent material for fun; and you may depend upon it MR. PUNCH has not had his eyes long shut to the humours of the links.
Finely bound, and abounding with numerous anecdotes, highlighted with 260 illustrations and a fabulously 1920’s colour frontispiece, not by Edvard Munch.
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Price HK$ 3,200
Circa 1935 - The Educational Book Company Ltd., London - First Edition
There are few pastimes that provide their followers with more innocent merriment than is afforded by “the royal and ancient”.It may be taken that there is no better way of reducing a man’s self-conceit than to place him on the teeing ground for the first time, present him with a driver and invite him to strike a little rubber-cored ball to a distance of 200 yards in a given direction.
Consequently we have here most excellent material for fun; and you may depend upon it MR. PUNCH has not had his eyes long shut to the humours of the links.
Finely bound, and abounding with numerous anecdotes, highlighted with 260 illustrations and a fabulously 1920’s colour frontispiece, not by Edvard Munch.
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Price HK$ 3,200