Works -
Thomas Jefferson
1853-55 - John C. Riker, New York
‘I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man’
A superb set of the first collected edition of the works of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, who voiced the aspirations of a new America as no other individual of his era. As public official, historian, philosopher, and plantation owner, he served his country for over five decades.
Complete in nine volumes, with folding facsimiles and tables. Published by the Order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the Original Manuscripts deposited in the department of state. With explanatory notes, tables of contents, and a copious index to the whole, by the editor H. A. Washington.
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Price HK$ 29,000
1853-55 - John C. Riker, New York
‘I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man’A superb set of the first collected edition of the works of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, who voiced the aspirations of a new America as no other individual of his era. As public official, historian, philosopher, and plantation owner, he served his country for over five decades.
Complete in nine volumes, with folding facsimiles and tables. Published by the Order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the Original Manuscripts deposited in the department of state. With explanatory notes, tables of contents, and a copious index to the whole, by the editor H. A. Washington.
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Price HK$ 29,000
Shanghai: its Mixed Court and Council -
A. M. Kotenev
1925 - North-China Daily News & Herald, Shanghai - First Edition
A rare first edition of the most detailed work on Shanghai’s Municipal Council and Mixed Court from 1842 to 1924, the year before its demise.
Contents: Rules for the Mixed court, 1869. Rules of procedure of the International mixed court, 1914 and 1919, supplemented with provisions on general principles of the modern procedural laws of China, 1921. The provisional Criminal code of the republic of China. The provisional Criminal code amendment act.--The revised draft of the law on offences relating to morphine. The Chinese Supreme court decisions (1923). Rules for application of foreign laws (1921). Regulations relating to commerce. Copyright, 1916. The Law of publication, 1914. Rules of the Court of consuls. Land regulations and bye-laws for the Foreign settlement of Shanghai.
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Price HK$ 8,000
1925 - North-China Daily News & Herald, Shanghai - First Edition
A rare first edition of the most detailed work on Shanghai’s Municipal Council and Mixed Court from 1842 to 1924, the year before its demise.Contents: Rules for the Mixed court, 1869. Rules of procedure of the International mixed court, 1914 and 1919, supplemented with provisions on general principles of the modern procedural laws of China, 1921. The provisional Criminal code of the republic of China. The provisional Criminal code amendment act.--The revised draft of the law on offences relating to morphine. The Chinese Supreme court decisions (1923). Rules for application of foreign laws (1921). Regulations relating to commerce. Copyright, 1916. The Law of publication, 1914. Rules of the Court of consuls. Land regulations and bye-laws for the Foreign settlement of Shanghai.
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Price HK$ 8,000
The Cuckold's Chronicle; being Select Trials for Adultery, Incest, Imbecillity, Ravishment, &c. -
H. Lemoin (editor)
1793 - printed for H. Lemoin, London - First Edition
Extremely scarce two volumes (lacking plates and the title page to volume I). Over 800 pages representing ‘one of the finest examples of sensationalistic writing of the time period’ (Bearden-White).
The pinnacle of publications to satisfy the late 1700’s fascination with divorce cases - contemporary pornography. Containing a large number of trials, fascinating, and in many cases bizarre, some 'never before published', such as 'The celebrated Case and Trial of the Marquis de Gesvres, upon the complaint of his Lady, Mademoiselle de Mascranny, who, after three years Marriage, commenced a Suit against him, at Paris, for Imbecility and Impotency'; and 'The Case of John Bury, Esq. of the County of Devon, who was divorced for want of his Testicles’.
‘The 18th-century fashion for arranged marriages to secure finances and improve social and political influence, with little thought given to the personal feelings of those concerned, led to a great number of extra-marital affairs by both men and women. The reports of consequent divorce cases aroused great interest across all classes, with the trial reports becoming more sexually explicit towards the end of the century. The apogee of the development of [the criminal conversation] genre toward pornography was reached with the publication in 1793 of The Cuckold’s Chronicle’ (Wagner).
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Price HK$ 16,000
1793 - printed for H. Lemoin, London - First Edition
Extremely scarce two volumes (lacking plates and the title page to volume I). Over 800 pages representing ‘one of the finest examples of sensationalistic writing of the time period’ (Bearden-White).The pinnacle of publications to satisfy the late 1700’s fascination with divorce cases - contemporary pornography. Containing a large number of trials, fascinating, and in many cases bizarre, some 'never before published', such as 'The celebrated Case and Trial of the Marquis de Gesvres, upon the complaint of his Lady, Mademoiselle de Mascranny, who, after three years Marriage, commenced a Suit against him, at Paris, for Imbecility and Impotency'; and 'The Case of John Bury, Esq. of the County of Devon, who was divorced for want of his Testicles’.
‘The 18th-century fashion for arranged marriages to secure finances and improve social and political influence, with little thought given to the personal feelings of those concerned, led to a great number of extra-marital affairs by both men and women. The reports of consequent divorce cases aroused great interest across all classes, with the trial reports becoming more sexually explicit towards the end of the century. The apogee of the development of [the criminal conversation] genre toward pornography was reached with the publication in 1793 of The Cuckold’s Chronicle’ (Wagner).
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Price HK$ 16,000
The Scots Household in the Eighteenth Century -
Marion Lochhead
1948 - The Moray Press, Edinburgh - First Edition
A finely bound first edition of Lochhead’s comprehensive work which reflected her interests in social and domestic history.
Chapters cover, among other areas, Food, Religion, Servants, Games, Children, Social Life, the Library, the Scotswoman Abroad, and the Scots Merchant.
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Price HK$ 1,800
1948 - The Moray Press, Edinburgh - First Edition
A finely bound first edition of Lochhead’s comprehensive work which reflected her interests in social and domestic history.Chapters cover, among other areas, Food, Religion, Servants, Games, Children, Social Life, the Library, the Scotswoman Abroad, and the Scots Merchant.
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Price HK$ 1,800
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding -
John Locke
1700 - Printed for Awnsham and John Churchil at The Black-Swan in Pater-Noster-Row, London - Fourth Edition, with large Additions
‘He that would seriously set upon the search of Truth, ought in the first Place to prepare his Mind with a Love of it. For he that Loves it not, will not take much Pains to get it; nor be much concerned when he misses it.’
Fuelled by the arguments of philosopher Francis Bacon, this large and beautifully bound edition of ‘Concerning Humane Understanding’ contains Locke’s essays on the range and limitations of human knowledge in respect to God and the universe. Often regarded as the birthplace of experimental psychology, this is an important and influential work.
The fourth edition was the last to be printed in his lifetime, and includes his editorial changes, as well as two previously unpublished chapters titled, ‘On the Association of Ideas’ and ‘Enthusiasm’.
With an engraved frontispiece portrait of John Locke by P. Vanderbanck after Sylvester Brounower.
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Price HK$ 19,000
1700 - Printed for Awnsham and John Churchil at The Black-Swan in Pater-Noster-Row, London - Fourth Edition, with large Additions
‘He that would seriously set upon the search of Truth, ought in the first Place to prepare his Mind with a Love of it. For he that Loves it not, will not take much Pains to get it; nor be much concerned when he misses it.’Fuelled by the arguments of philosopher Francis Bacon, this large and beautifully bound edition of ‘Concerning Humane Understanding’ contains Locke’s essays on the range and limitations of human knowledge in respect to God and the universe. Often regarded as the birthplace of experimental psychology, this is an important and influential work.
The fourth edition was the last to be printed in his lifetime, and includes his editorial changes, as well as two previously unpublished chapters titled, ‘On the Association of Ideas’ and ‘Enthusiasm’.
With an engraved frontispiece portrait of John Locke by P. Vanderbanck after Sylvester Brounower.
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Price HK$ 19,000
Voodoo Fire in Haiti -
Richard A. Loederer
1935 - Jarrolds Publishers London Limited, London - First Edition in English
‘The drums took on a different rhythm, rattling out a sharp staccato message, accompanied by the heavy pounding of the bass. Faster and faster flew the feet of the dancers as they whirled round the fire. Their smooth muscles writhed and cramped as under the blows of an invisible whip.’
From his steamer voyage from Jazz Age New York to Cap Haitien to his punishing trek through the island's interior jungle to a rapt, yet fearful, attendance at an authentic voodoo ceremony, Loederer captures the sights, sounds, and sensations of this mysterious Caribbean republic.
A selection of the magnificent chapter headings tell all... Congo Bean Stew; Massacre River; Jungle Magic; Tropical Fever; Polychromata; Black Magic; Voodoo Fire.
Illustrated by fifty one of the author's own art deco-style woodcuts, and his wonderful piratical map of Haiti used for the endpapers, which only add to the exotic appeal.
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Price HK$ 3,000
1935 - Jarrolds Publishers London Limited, London - First Edition in English
‘The drums took on a different rhythm, rattling out a sharp staccato message, accompanied by the heavy pounding of the bass. Faster and faster flew the feet of the dancers as they whirled round the fire. Their smooth muscles writhed and cramped as under the blows of an invisible whip.’ From his steamer voyage from Jazz Age New York to Cap Haitien to his punishing trek through the island's interior jungle to a rapt, yet fearful, attendance at an authentic voodoo ceremony, Loederer captures the sights, sounds, and sensations of this mysterious Caribbean republic.
A selection of the magnificent chapter headings tell all... Congo Bean Stew; Massacre River; Jungle Magic; Tropical Fever; Polychromata; Black Magic; Voodoo Fire.
Illustrated by fifty one of the author's own art deco-style woodcuts, and his wonderful piratical map of Haiti used for the endpapers, which only add to the exotic appeal.
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Price HK$ 3,000
Hypnotisme et Spritisme -
César Lombroso
1911 - Ernest Flammarion, Paris
Scarce work of hypnotism, spiritualism, paranormal phenomena, mediums, haunted houses, by the father of modern criminology. In French, first published in 1910.
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Price HK$ 1,800
1911 - Ernest Flammarion, Paris
Scarce work of hypnotism, spiritualism, paranormal phenomena, mediums, haunted houses, by the father of modern criminology. In French, first published in 1910.
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Price HK$ 1,800
The Medium is the Massage - An Inventory of Effects. -
Marshall McLuhan, Quentin Fiore, Jerome Agel
1967 - Allen Lane Penguin Press, London - First English Edition
‘Real, total war has become information war. It is being fought by subtle electric informational media — under cold conditions, and constantly’
McLuhan’s prophesy, the first English edition published the same year as the American edition but in the much cooler dust jacket with ‘60’s’ clad model highlighting how advanced the contents of this work are.
‘In a dazzling fusion of Quentin Fiore's bold and inventive graphic design and Marshall McLuhan's unique insight into technology, advertising and mass-media, The Medium is the Massage is a unique study of human communication in the twentieth century.
Marshall McLuhan is the man who predicted the all-pervasive rise of modern mass media. Blending text, image and photography, his 1960 classic The Medium is the Massage illustrates how the growth of technology utterly reshapes society, personal lives and sensory perceptions, so that we are effectively transformed by the means we use to communicate.
His theories, many of which are illustrated in this astonishing 'inventory of effects', force us to question how modes of communication have shaped society. This concept, and his ideas such as rolling, up-to-the-minute news broadcasts and the media 'Global Village' have proved decades ahead of their time.’ [from the Penguin classic edition].
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Price HK$ 3,500
1967 - Allen Lane Penguin Press, London - First English Edition
‘Real, total war has become information war. It is being fought by subtle electric informational media — under cold conditions, and constantly’McLuhan’s prophesy, the first English edition published the same year as the American edition but in the much cooler dust jacket with ‘60’s’ clad model highlighting how advanced the contents of this work are.
‘In a dazzling fusion of Quentin Fiore's bold and inventive graphic design and Marshall McLuhan's unique insight into technology, advertising and mass-media, The Medium is the Massage is a unique study of human communication in the twentieth century.
Marshall McLuhan is the man who predicted the all-pervasive rise of modern mass media. Blending text, image and photography, his 1960 classic The Medium is the Massage illustrates how the growth of technology utterly reshapes society, personal lives and sensory perceptions, so that we are effectively transformed by the means we use to communicate.
His theories, many of which are illustrated in this astonishing 'inventory of effects', force us to question how modes of communication have shaped society. This concept, and his ideas such as rolling, up-to-the-minute news broadcasts and the media 'Global Village' have proved decades ahead of their time.’ [from the Penguin classic edition].
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Price HK$ 3,500