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Laughing Torso - Signed -
Nina Hamnett
1932 - Constable &, London - First Edition
‘A lady was the last thing I wanted to be’
Signed the year before her tragic death, rare in first edition even more so signed.
The witty, irresistible memoirs of the self-effacing artist and ‘Queen of Bohemia’, Nina Hamnett – her always enchanting and occasionally deadpan account of Bohemian life in Paris and a bestseller upon its first appearance in 1932 in both Britain and America.
A model as well as a painter, Hamnett shamelessly name-drops the innumerable artists and celebrities she encounters at Montmarte’s popular cafés and night spots – including Modigliani, Lytton Strachey, Erik Satie, André Gide, Walter Epstein, Nancy Cunard, and Jean Cocteau, among dozens of others – and with whom she engages in fancy dress parties, all night drinking, and naked dancing. She even sang nursery rhymes with James Joyce, who she described as ‘the most respectable and old fashioned man I have ever met’.
Wonderfully illustrated throughout with 23 black and white photographs and sketches and paintings by the author, including the infamous ‘torso’ as frontispiece, which can now be found at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
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Price HK$ 8,000
1932 - Constable &, London - First Edition
‘A lady was the last thing I wanted to be’ Signed the year before her tragic death, rare in first edition even more so signed.
The witty, irresistible memoirs of the self-effacing artist and ‘Queen of Bohemia’, Nina Hamnett – her always enchanting and occasionally deadpan account of Bohemian life in Paris and a bestseller upon its first appearance in 1932 in both Britain and America.
A model as well as a painter, Hamnett shamelessly name-drops the innumerable artists and celebrities she encounters at Montmarte’s popular cafés and night spots – including Modigliani, Lytton Strachey, Erik Satie, André Gide, Walter Epstein, Nancy Cunard, and Jean Cocteau, among dozens of others – and with whom she engages in fancy dress parties, all night drinking, and naked dancing. She even sang nursery rhymes with James Joyce, who she described as ‘the most respectable and old fashioned man I have ever met’.
Wonderfully illustrated throughout with 23 black and white photographs and sketches and paintings by the author, including the infamous ‘torso’ as frontispiece, which can now be found at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
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Price HK$ 8,000
The House-Keeper s Pocket-Book, and Compleat Family Cook. -
Sarah Harrison
1777 - for J. Rivington and Sons, London - Ninth Edition revised and corrected
A prettily bound example of this scarce early work, the title (which is transcribed in full below) gives full details of that contained therein.
With twenty pages of tables showing the rate of farthings to l.s.d.f., six pages of ‘Tables of Interest’ showing the cost of borrowing at 3, 3.5, 4, and 5 percent, over periods ranging from one day to 12 months. Index incorrectly bound before tables.
The full title is as follows:- ‘The House-Keeper’s Pocket-Book, and Compleat Family Cook: Containing Above Twelve Hundred Curious and Uncommon Receipts in Cookery, Pastry, Preserving, Pickling, Candying, Collaring, &c. with Plain and easy Instructions for Preparing and Dressing every Thing Suitable for an Elegant Entertainment, from Two Dishes to Five or Ten, &c.
Also a copious and useful Bill of Fare, of all Manner of Provision in Season, for every Month in the Year.
Together with Directions for making all Sorts of Wine, Mead, Cyder, Shrub, Distilling Strong-Waters, &c. For Brewing Ale and Small Beer in a cleanly, frugal Manner: And for Managing and Breeding Poultry to Advantage.
Likewise several useful Family Receipts for taking out Stains, preserving Furniture, cleaning Plate, taken Iron-moulds out of Linen, &c.
As also easy Tables, of Sums ready cast up, from one Farthing to one Pound, for the Use of those not conversant in Arithmetic: And Tables shewing the Interest of Money from 3, 3 1/2, 4 and 5 per Cent. from one Day to a Year.
The Whole is so contrived as to contain mor than any Book of double the Price; and the Excellency of the Receipts renders it the most useful Book of the Kind.
The Ninth Edition, revised and corrected. To which are now added several modern Receipts, by very good Judges.
Also, Every one their own Physician: A Collection of the most approved Receipts for the Cure of the Disorders incident to Human Bodies’
Provenance: From the world renowned culinary library of Alan Davidson, the man who spent 20 years compiling the ‘Oxford Companion to Food’. With his bookplate.
More details
Price HK$ 5,000
1777 - for J. Rivington and Sons, London - Ninth Edition revised and corrected
A prettily bound example of this scarce early work, the title (which is transcribed in full below) gives full details of that contained therein.With twenty pages of tables showing the rate of farthings to l.s.d.f., six pages of ‘Tables of Interest’ showing the cost of borrowing at 3, 3.5, 4, and 5 percent, over periods ranging from one day to 12 months. Index incorrectly bound before tables.
The full title is as follows:- ‘The House-Keeper’s Pocket-Book, and Compleat Family Cook: Containing Above Twelve Hundred Curious and Uncommon Receipts in Cookery, Pastry, Preserving, Pickling, Candying, Collaring, &c. with Plain and easy Instructions for Preparing and Dressing every Thing Suitable for an Elegant Entertainment, from Two Dishes to Five or Ten, &c.
Also a copious and useful Bill of Fare, of all Manner of Provision in Season, for every Month in the Year.
Together with Directions for making all Sorts of Wine, Mead, Cyder, Shrub, Distilling Strong-Waters, &c. For Brewing Ale and Small Beer in a cleanly, frugal Manner: And for Managing and Breeding Poultry to Advantage.
Likewise several useful Family Receipts for taking out Stains, preserving Furniture, cleaning Plate, taken Iron-moulds out of Linen, &c.
As also easy Tables, of Sums ready cast up, from one Farthing to one Pound, for the Use of those not conversant in Arithmetic: And Tables shewing the Interest of Money from 3, 3 1/2, 4 and 5 per Cent. from one Day to a Year.
The Whole is so contrived as to contain mor than any Book of double the Price; and the Excellency of the Receipts renders it the most useful Book of the Kind.
The Ninth Edition, revised and corrected. To which are now added several modern Receipts, by very good Judges.
Also, Every one their own Physician: A Collection of the most approved Receipts for the Cure of the Disorders incident to Human Bodies’
Provenance: From the world renowned culinary library of Alan Davidson, the man who spent 20 years compiling the ‘Oxford Companion to Food’. With his bookplate.
More details
Price HK$ 5,000
Fancy Dresses Described; Or, What to Wear at Fancy Balls -
Arden Holt
1882 - Debenham &, London - Third and Greatly Enlarged Edition
‘But, what are we to wear?’
A charming, comprehensive guide to late 19th century fancy dress, with detailed descriptions of countless costume ideas, from the abstract, such as ‘Air’, ‘Sleep’, and ‘Five O’clock Tea’ to the more specific like ‘Marie Antoinette’, ‘Gipsy’ and ‘Joan of Arc’, and featuring sixteen wonderful colour plates as well as numerous in-text illustrations.
More details
Price HK$ 1,200
1882 - Debenham &, London - Third and Greatly Enlarged Edition
‘But, what are we to wear?’A charming, comprehensive guide to late 19th century fancy dress, with detailed descriptions of countless costume ideas, from the abstract, such as ‘Air’, ‘Sleep’, and ‘Five O’clock Tea’ to the more specific like ‘Marie Antoinette’, ‘Gipsy’ and ‘Joan of Arc’, and featuring sixteen wonderful colour plates as well as numerous in-text illustrations.
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Price HK$ 1,200
Topographie de Tous les Vignobles Connus -
Andr Jullien, Charles
1866 - Mme Ve. Bouchard-Huzard, Paris - Cinquiè
A finely bound edition of Jullien’s important and encyclopaedic work, with text in French. Half of this work is on foreign wines, and considered by Andé Simon as one ‘of the highest interest because most of the information it contains is absolutely original’.
Set in two parts, the second, covering the rest of the world, deals, amongst others, with the vineyards of Portugal, Africa, the Rhine and Moselle, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Switzerland, Austria, Russia, America, Africa, Chile, Syria, Hungary, and China.
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Price HK$ 5,000
1866 - Mme Ve. Bouchard-Huzard, Paris - Cinquiè
A finely bound edition of Jullien’s important and encyclopaedic work, with text in French. Half of this work is on foreign wines, and considered by Andé Simon as one ‘of the highest interest because most of the information it contains is absolutely original’. Set in two parts, the second, covering the rest of the world, deals, amongst others, with the vineyards of Portugal, Africa, the Rhine and Moselle, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Switzerland, Austria, Russia, America, Africa, Chile, Syria, Hungary, and China.
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Price HK$ 5,000
Culinary Jottings: A Treatise in Thirty Chapters on Reformed Cookery for Anglo-Indian Exiles -
Colonel Kenney-Herbert Wyvern
1885 - Higginbotham &, 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 &, 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
A Collection of above Three Hundred Receipts -
Mary Kettilby, By Several Hands
1734 - First Part - Printed for Executrix of Mary Kettilby, London - Fifth Edition of Part I, Fourth Edition of Part II
Originally published in 1714, Kettilby's book was a collective effort, with recipes taken from various sources, as indicated in the Preface: ‘a Number of very Curious and Delicate House-wives Clubb'd to furnish out this Collection’.
It contains a wide-range of recipes and home remedies; the second part, with a separate title-page 'A collection of receipts in cookery, physick and surgery’, as well as 'a great Number of Excellent Receipts, for Preserving and Conserving of Sweet-Meats, &c.'
This work is usually credited with having the first recipe for marmalade. Many of the recipes seem irresistible, like ‘The best orange pudding that ever was tasted’. Of course there are other important and wonderful ‘receipts’ included, covering many areas from mad dog bites, in-growing toenails, thicker hair, and apoplectick pain in the head, to scurvy in the teeth.
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Price HK$ 6,200
1734 - First Part - Printed for Executrix of Mary Kettilby, London - Fifth Edition of Part I, Fourth Edition of Part II
Originally published in 1714, Kettilby's book was a collective effort, with recipes taken from various sources, as indicated in the Preface: ‘a Number of very Curious and Delicate House-wives Clubb'd to furnish out this Collection’. It contains a wide-range of recipes and home remedies; the second part, with a separate title-page 'A collection of receipts in cookery, physick and surgery’, as well as 'a great Number of Excellent Receipts, for Preserving and Conserving of Sweet-Meats, &c.'
This work is usually credited with having the first recipe for marmalade. Many of the recipes seem irresistible, like ‘The best orange pudding that ever was tasted’. Of course there are other important and wonderful ‘receipts’ included, covering many areas from mad dog bites, in-growing toenails, thicker hair, and apoplectick pain in the head, to scurvy in the teeth.
More details
Price HK$ 6,200
Atlas de la France Vinicole - III. Les Vins du C -
Louis Larmat
1943 - Louis Larmat, Paris - First Editions
Two large folios (49.5x33cm) of this beautifully detailed and produced work, rare to find in the publisher’s original coloured embossed wrappers in such fine condition.
The text is generally in French, with portions also translated into English, German and Italian.
Each folio contains four large folding colour maps, in addition to which Côte du Rhône is illustrated with eight woodblock prints, Côteaux de la Loire is illustrated with twenty five black and white photographs and eleven coats of arms.
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Price HK$ 12,000
1943 - Louis Larmat, Paris - First Editions
Two large folios (49.5x33cm) of this beautifully detailed and produced work, rare to find in the publisher’s original coloured embossed wrappers in such fine condition.The text is generally in French, with portions also translated into English, German and Italian.
Each folio contains four large folding colour maps, in addition to which Côte du Rhône is illustrated with eight woodblock prints, Côteaux de la Loire is illustrated with twenty five black and white photographs and eleven coats of arms.
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Price HK$ 12,000
Atlas de la France Vinicole - Tome IV. Les Vins de Champagne -
Louis Larmat
1944 - Louis Larmat, Paris - First Edition
Beautiful and finely bound large format folio, profusely illustrated with colour maps, chart, photographs and vignettes, with descriptions and history of the Champagne areas, text in French apart from the preface which is also in English, German and Spanish.
Containing seven large colour folding maps of: Champagne (size 100x52cm); Montagne de Reims; Vallée de la Marne; La Cote des Blancs; Vallée de la Marne et L’Aisne (100x42cm); Montagne de Reims & Vallée de L’Ardre; Vignobles du Bar-Séquanais et du Bar-Sur-Aubois (62x40cm).
The large folding chart in colour shows the annual production of Champagne between 1844-1942, colour coded with the quality of each Vintage from Trés Bon to Trés Mauvais. In addiiton to the chart and maps are twelve full page illustrations, some from photographs, and numerous vignettes throughout.
More details
Price HK$ 10,500
1944 - Louis Larmat, Paris - First Edition
Beautiful and finely bound large format folio, profusely illustrated with colour maps, chart, photographs and vignettes, with descriptions and history of the Champagne areas, text in French apart from the preface which is also in English, German and Spanish.Containing seven large colour folding maps of: Champagne (size 100x52cm); Montagne de Reims; Vallée de la Marne; La Cote des Blancs; Vallée de la Marne et L’Aisne (100x42cm); Montagne de Reims & Vallée de L’Ardre; Vignobles du Bar-Séquanais et du Bar-Sur-Aubois (62x40cm).
The large folding chart in colour shows the annual production of Champagne between 1844-1942, colour coded with the quality of each Vintage from Trés Bon to Trés Mauvais. In addiiton to the chart and maps are twelve full page illustrations, some from photographs, and numerous vignettes throughout.
More details
Price HK$ 10,500