The Works -
Theodore Roosevelt, Hermann Hagedorn (editor), under the Auspices of The Roosevelt Memorial Association
1923-6 - Charles Scribner's Sons, New York - The National Edition
A finely bound twenty volume set of Roosevelt’s works. With additional notes to the beginning of each volume, sometimes biographical sometimes Roosevelt’s own notes.
The complete set of writings and essays including: The Rough Riders, Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail, The Winning of the West, African Game Trails, Through the Brazilian Wilderness, Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter, etc.
Roosevelt was an historian, a biographer, a statesman, a hunter, a naturalist, and an orator. His prodigious literary output includes twenty-six books, over a thousand magazine articles, thousands of speeches and letters. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1906, in his position as President of the United States of America and collaborator of various peace treaties.
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Price HK$ 36,000
1923-6 - Charles Scribner's Sons, New York - The National Edition
A finely bound twenty volume set of Roosevelt’s works. With additional notes to the beginning of each volume, sometimes biographical sometimes Roosevelt’s own notes.The complete set of writings and essays including: The Rough Riders, Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail, The Winning of the West, African Game Trails, Through the Brazilian Wilderness, Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter, etc.
Roosevelt was an historian, a biographer, a statesman, a hunter, a naturalist, and an orator. His prodigious literary output includes twenty-six books, over a thousand magazine articles, thousands of speeches and letters. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1906, in his position as President of the United States of America and collaborator of various peace treaties.
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Price HK$ 36,000
A Trilogy of Epic Historic Poems - Marmion; The Lady of the Lake; Rokeby -
Sir Walter Scott
1808 - Archibald Constable & John Ballantyne, Edinburgh - Fourth, Twelfth, and Second Editions respectively
An early trilogy of three of Sir Walter Scott’s most popular epic historical poems, uniformly bound in contemporary tan tree-calf.
‘Marmion; A Tale of Flodden Field’ – ‘Marmion was Walter Scott’s second historical romance and one of his most popular epic poems. The chivalric tale of love, betrayal, loyalty and honour ends with the English victory over James IV of Scotland at the Battle of Flodden in 1513.’
‘The Lady of the Lake, A Poem’ – ‘Scott’s Highland poem concerning the struggle between King James V and the powerful clan Douglas. Composed of six cantos, and set in the Trossachs of the Scottish Highlands in the 16th century, it mines Gaelic history to retell a well-known legend of graceful, feudal heroine, Ellen Douglas, and the contest between three young men to win her love.
A huge critical and commercial success at the time of its first publication, breaking all records for the sale of poetry, and cementing Scott’s fame and reputation as a poet in both Britain and the United States.
‘Rokeby; A Poem’ – ‘After the monumental success of his Highland poem The Lady of the Lake (1810), for his next historical epic poem, Walter Scott moved the setting to England, perhaps to appease his increasing English readership. Set in County Durham during the English Civil Wars, in the immediate aftermath of the Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644.’
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Price HK$ 5,000
1808 - Archibald Constable & John Ballantyne, Edinburgh - Fourth, Twelfth, and Second Editions respectively
An early trilogy of three of Sir Walter Scott’s most popular epic historical poems, uniformly bound in contemporary tan tree-calf.‘Marmion; A Tale of Flodden Field’ – ‘Marmion was Walter Scott’s second historical romance and one of his most popular epic poems. The chivalric tale of love, betrayal, loyalty and honour ends with the English victory over James IV of Scotland at the Battle of Flodden in 1513.’
‘The Lady of the Lake, A Poem’ – ‘Scott’s Highland poem concerning the struggle between King James V and the powerful clan Douglas. Composed of six cantos, and set in the Trossachs of the Scottish Highlands in the 16th century, it mines Gaelic history to retell a well-known legend of graceful, feudal heroine, Ellen Douglas, and the contest between three young men to win her love.
A huge critical and commercial success at the time of its first publication, breaking all records for the sale of poetry, and cementing Scott’s fame and reputation as a poet in both Britain and the United States.
‘Rokeby; A Poem’ – ‘After the monumental success of his Highland poem The Lady of the Lake (1810), for his next historical epic poem, Walter Scott moved the setting to England, perhaps to appease his increasing English readership. Set in County Durham during the English Civil Wars, in the immediate aftermath of the Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644.’
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Price HK$ 5,000
The Comedies; Tragedies; Histories and Poems -
William Shakespeare, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Edward Dowden, W. J. Craig
1967 - Oxford University Press, London
A fine three volume set of Shakespeare in elegant bindings by Bayntun of Bath, housed together in a matching felt-lined slipcase.
The text prepared by W. J. Craig; with a General Introduction by Algernon Charles Swinburne; Introductory Studies of the several Plays and Poems by Edward Dowden, and full Glossaries.
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Price HK$ 10,000
1967 - Oxford University Press, London
A fine three volume set of Shakespeare in elegant bindings by Bayntun of Bath, housed together in a matching felt-lined slipcase.The text prepared by W. J. Craig; with a General Introduction by Algernon Charles Swinburne; Introductory Studies of the several Plays and Poems by Edward Dowden, and full Glossaries.
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Price HK$ 10,000
A Ballad Book -
Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Sir Walter Scott, David Laing (editor)
1880 - William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London - First Edition
‘I think you do me much honour by preserving my scribbles’ writes the colourful and eccentric Sharpe in the tipped in letter that accompanies his finely bound Ballad Book, re-edited by David Laing, with additions from Sharpe's manuscripts, and which he first printed only 30 copies in 1823, although according to Henderson, the majority of the added ballads in 1880 were of more or less questionable authenticity (ODNB). The final portion of the book prints Sir Walter Scott’s commentary on the original poems, and is taken from correspondence between Scott and his friend Sharpe.
Scarce. Illustrated with a colour frontispiece portrait, woodblock engraving plate and headpiece (as used for the original 1823 edition).
A speculative note regarding the letter - As stated in the editor’s introduction (ix) ‘Mr Sharpe’s own annotated copy’ was carefully followed to produce this work, a copy that was ‘in the possession of Sir James Gibson-Craig’. Gibson-Craig had one of the finest collection of Scottish works ever assembled, and other correspondence from Sharpe to Gibson-Craig did begin with ‘Signor Mio’, leading us to speculate that this letter accompanied the original and rare 1823 printing of which only 30 were produced, and which in this case was later given by Sharpe to Gibson-Craig.
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Price HK$ 5,000
1880 - William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London - First Edition
‘I think you do me much honour by preserving my scribbles’ writes the colourful and eccentric Sharpe in the tipped in letter that accompanies his finely bound Ballad Book, re-edited by David Laing, with additions from Sharpe's manuscripts, and which he first printed only 30 copies in 1823, although according to Henderson, the majority of the added ballads in 1880 were of more or less questionable authenticity (ODNB). The final portion of the book prints Sir Walter Scott’s commentary on the original poems, and is taken from correspondence between Scott and his friend Sharpe.Scarce. Illustrated with a colour frontispiece portrait, woodblock engraving plate and headpiece (as used for the original 1823 edition).
A speculative note regarding the letter - As stated in the editor’s introduction (ix) ‘Mr Sharpe’s own annotated copy’ was carefully followed to produce this work, a copy that was ‘in the possession of Sir James Gibson-Craig’. Gibson-Craig had one of the finest collection of Scottish works ever assembled, and other correspondence from Sharpe to Gibson-Craig did begin with ‘Signor Mio’, leading us to speculate that this letter accompanied the original and rare 1823 printing of which only 30 were produced, and which in this case was later given by Sharpe to Gibson-Craig.
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Price HK$ 5,000
Classic Cricket Reminiscences, Memoirs, and Autobiographies - Six Volumes -
Various Authors
1888-1977
Felix on the Bat : Being a Memoir of Nicholas Felix, Together with the Full Text of the Second Edition of Felix on the Bat – by Gerald Brodribb. - One of the all time classic works on cricket first published in 1845, together with the first edition of Brodrib’s biography of Nicholas ‘Felix’ Wanostrocht (1804-76), the noted English amateur (’Gentleman’) cricketer, classical scholar, musician, linguist, inventor, writer and artist. When his father died in 1824 Wanostrocht inherited the running of his school, aged only nineteen, and afraid that the parents of pupils might think that cricket was too frivolous a pastime for a schoolmaster he played under the name of ‘Felix’. Felix was a mainstay of the great Kent team of the mid-19th century alongside such players as Alfred Mynn, Fuller Pilch, William Hillyer and Ned Wenman... And with five such mighty cricketers 'twas but natural to win, As Felix, Wenman, Hillyer, Fuller Pilch and Alfred Mynn. He also invented the Catapulta (a bowling machine) as well as India-rubber batting gloves.
The Game of Cricket – by Frederick “Old Buffer” Gale (1823-1904), one of the most loved cricket writers of his generation, see the frontispiece for a portrait of the “Old Buffer” aka “Wykhamist” his two nom-de plumes. Favourite chapter - ‘Cricket Homilies’. [Second Edition of 1888]
The Walkers of Southgate: A Famous Brotherhood of Cricketers – Seven brothers for seven bats? Born between 1826 and 1844, Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge educated, founders of the Southgate Cricket Club in 1855, a Middlesex team in 1859, the official Middlesex County Cricket Club in 1864, and instrumental in establishing the home of the county at Lords in 1877. Both the United All-England team and the MCC would visit Southgate to take on the seven brothers and their team, attended by crowds of up to 10,000. A fabulous book by Walter Ambrose Bettesworth (1856-1929) one of Cricket’s greatest writers, interspersed with reminiscences by famous players and authors. [First Edition of 1900]
The Book of Cricket – by Sir Pelham ‘Plum’ Warner, the ‘Grand Old Man’ of English cricket, captain of Middlesex and England and editor of The Cricketer. [First Edition of 1911]
A Cricketer’s Log – by Gilbert Laird Jessop (1874-1955), nicknamed the "Croucher", ‘one of the most exciting players of his, or any era. A fast bowler good enough to be selected for England purely in this role, a superlative cover fielder, Jessop is best remembered for his thrilling batsmanship. To quote HS Altham "no cricketer that has ever lived hit the ball so often, so fast and with such a bewildering variety of strokes". He held the record for the fastest double century in first class cricket - 120 minutes in 1903, only surpassed by Shastri in 1984 (113 minutes) and Shafiqulllah Shinwari in 2017 (103 minutes). Jessop’s great innings included 286 in less than 3 hours, 157 runs in an hour against the West Indian team of 1900, and famously, the century that won the Oval Test of 1902. Going in with England 48/5 he made 104 out of 139 in 75 minutes, taking England to an improbable victory’[ESPNcricinfo]. [First Edition of 1922]
The King of Games – by Frank Woolley (1887-1978), one of the finest and most elegant left-handed all-rounders of all time. In a first-class career extending from 1906 to 1938 he hit 58,969 runs - a total exceeded only by Sir Jack Hobbs - including 145 centuries, to average 40.75; he took 2,066 wickets for 19.87 runs each, and he held 1,018 catches, mainly at slip, a record which remains unsurpassed. Bill Woodfull, who captained Australia in 25 test matches said Woolley "made the game look so untidy. It appeared as if the wrong bowlers were on and the fieldsmen all in the wrong places”. [First Edition of 1936]
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Price HK$ 2,500
1888-1977
Felix on the Bat : Being a Memoir of Nicholas Felix, Together with the Full Text of the Second Edition of Felix on the Bat – by Gerald Brodribb. - One of the all time classic works on cricket first published in 1845, together with the first edition of Brodrib’s biography of Nicholas ‘Felix’ Wanostrocht (1804-76), the noted English amateur (’Gentleman’) cricketer, classical scholar, musician, linguist, inventor, writer and artist. When his father died in 1824 Wanostrocht inherited the running of his school, aged only nineteen, and afraid that the parents of pupils might think that cricket was too frivolous a pastime for a schoolmaster he played under the name of ‘Felix’. Felix was a mainstay of the great Kent team of the mid-19th century alongside such players as Alfred Mynn, Fuller Pilch, William Hillyer and Ned Wenman... And with five such mighty cricketers 'twas but natural to win, As Felix, Wenman, Hillyer, Fuller Pilch and Alfred Mynn. He also invented the Catapulta (a bowling machine) as well as India-rubber batting gloves.The Game of Cricket – by Frederick “Old Buffer” Gale (1823-1904), one of the most loved cricket writers of his generation, see the frontispiece for a portrait of the “Old Buffer” aka “Wykhamist” his two nom-de plumes. Favourite chapter - ‘Cricket Homilies’. [Second Edition of 1888]
The Walkers of Southgate: A Famous Brotherhood of Cricketers – Seven brothers for seven bats? Born between 1826 and 1844, Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge educated, founders of the Southgate Cricket Club in 1855, a Middlesex team in 1859, the official Middlesex County Cricket Club in 1864, and instrumental in establishing the home of the county at Lords in 1877. Both the United All-England team and the MCC would visit Southgate to take on the seven brothers and their team, attended by crowds of up to 10,000. A fabulous book by Walter Ambrose Bettesworth (1856-1929) one of Cricket’s greatest writers, interspersed with reminiscences by famous players and authors. [First Edition of 1900]
The Book of Cricket – by Sir Pelham ‘Plum’ Warner, the ‘Grand Old Man’ of English cricket, captain of Middlesex and England and editor of The Cricketer. [First Edition of 1911]
A Cricketer’s Log – by Gilbert Laird Jessop (1874-1955), nicknamed the "Croucher", ‘one of the most exciting players of his, or any era. A fast bowler good enough to be selected for England purely in this role, a superlative cover fielder, Jessop is best remembered for his thrilling batsmanship. To quote HS Altham "no cricketer that has ever lived hit the ball so often, so fast and with such a bewildering variety of strokes". He held the record for the fastest double century in first class cricket - 120 minutes in 1903, only surpassed by Shastri in 1984 (113 minutes) and Shafiqulllah Shinwari in 2017 (103 minutes). Jessop’s great innings included 286 in less than 3 hours, 157 runs in an hour against the West Indian team of 1900, and famously, the century that won the Oval Test of 1902. Going in with England 48/5 he made 104 out of 139 in 75 minutes, taking England to an improbable victory’[ESPNcricinfo]. [First Edition of 1922]
The King of Games – by Frank Woolley (1887-1978), one of the finest and most elegant left-handed all-rounders of all time. In a first-class career extending from 1906 to 1938 he hit 58,969 runs - a total exceeded only by Sir Jack Hobbs - including 145 centuries, to average 40.75; he took 2,066 wickets for 19.87 runs each, and he held 1,018 catches, mainly at slip, a record which remains unsurpassed. Bill Woodfull, who captained Australia in 25 test matches said Woolley "made the game look so untidy. It appeared as if the wrong bowlers were on and the fieldsmen all in the wrong places”. [First Edition of 1936]
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Price HK$ 2,500
The Ring of the Niblung -
Richard Wagner, Arthur Rackham (illustrator), Margaret Armour (translator)
1910 - William Heinemann, London - Edition de luxes, each one limited to 1, 150 copies signed by Rackham
A magnificent set of Rackham's dramatic interpretation of Wagner's libretti, in the large deluxe vellum bindings, each one numbered and signed by Rackham.
Wagner’s ‘Trilogy, with a Prelude’, his libretti for The Ring of Niblung cycle, stunningly illustrated by Arthur Rackham, featuring sixty-four beautiful tipped-in colour plates each with descriptive tissue guards, and twenty-three black and white drawings across two volumes.
Translated from the German into English by Margaret Armour.
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Price HK$ 48,000
1910 - William Heinemann, London - Edition de luxes, each one limited to 1, 150 copies signed by Rackham
A magnificent set of Rackham's dramatic interpretation of Wagner's libretti, in the large deluxe vellum bindings, each one numbered and signed by Rackham.Wagner’s ‘Trilogy, with a Prelude’, his libretti for The Ring of Niblung cycle, stunningly illustrated by Arthur Rackham, featuring sixty-four beautiful tipped-in colour plates each with descriptive tissue guards, and twenty-three black and white drawings across two volumes.
Translated from the German into English by Margaret Armour.
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Price HK$ 48,000
The Complete Angler -
Izaak Walton, Charles Cotton, Edward Jesse (editor)
1861 - Henry G. Bohn, London - The Second Jesse Edition
A finely bound copy of one of the most profusely illustrated editions, the second to be edited by Edward Jesse. According to Oliver, ‘this edition has been criticized as having been somewhat too fully annotated and illustrated, but the illustrations, in our opinion, add as much to the charm of the book, as the notes do to its interest’.
‘Indeed, my good scholar, we may say of angling, as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries,
" Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did ";
and so, if I might be judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.’
The most enduring distinction of the Complete Angler is the one cast off by its subtitle The Contemplative Man's Recreation with its graceful evocations of a life free from hurly-burly in the company of friends intent on physical and moral sustenance. The range of perspectives that Walton brings to bear on his rural descriptions embrace literature, poetry, music and anecdote.
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Price HK$ 9,500
1861 - Henry G. Bohn, London - The Second Jesse Edition
A finely bound copy of one of the most profusely illustrated editions, the second to be edited by Edward Jesse. According to Oliver, ‘this edition has been criticized as having been somewhat too fully annotated and illustrated, but the illustrations, in our opinion, add as much to the charm of the book, as the notes do to its interest’.‘Indeed, my good scholar, we may say of angling, as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries,
" Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did ";
and so, if I might be judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.’
The most enduring distinction of the Complete Angler is the one cast off by its subtitle The Contemplative Man's Recreation with its graceful evocations of a life free from hurly-burly in the company of friends intent on physical and moral sustenance. The range of perspectives that Walton brings to bear on his rural descriptions embrace literature, poetry, music and anecdote.
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Price HK$ 9,500
Ten Thousand A-Year -
Samuel Warren
1889 - Little, Boston - Number 69 of a limited 200 copies
One of the most popular novels of the era and some consider the first to feature a lawyer as the main character.
Featuring a firm of attorneys who discover that Tittlebat Titmouse, a poor draper's clerk, may have a claim to the large estate of Yatton. The attorneys commence an action which results in Titmouse displacing the unbelievably pious John Aubrey as the owner of the estate, and its annual income of £10,000. Titmouse revels in his new found wealth, until a new round of litigation is commenced which returns Aubrey to his place as squire of Yatton. Titmouse is disgraced, and ends his life in a lunatic asylum.
The author, Samuel Warren (1807-77), was an English barrister, Member of Parliament, and his narrator repeatedly tells the reader that the English legal system is close to perfection, but the actual workings of the law in ‘Ten Thousand a-Year’ paint a more negative picture. Dickens seems to have read Warren's fiction and non-fiction, and to have borrowed images and ideas. [ODNB].
In addition to Warren’s knowledge of the law, he was well versed on asylum and the welfare of the mentally ill, occupying the position of ‘Master in Lunacy’ from 1859 to 1877.
A fine and finely bound three volume set, the upper covers blocked in gilt with the crest, coat of arms and motto of ‘Tittlebat Titmouse Esq M.P. according to the description of Sir Gorgeous Tintack, Garter King at Arms.’ Volume I with sepia toned portrait frontispiece on vellum.
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Price HK$ 6,000
1889 - Little, Boston - Number 69 of a limited 200 copies
One of the most popular novels of the era and some consider the first to feature a lawyer as the main character.Featuring a firm of attorneys who discover that Tittlebat Titmouse, a poor draper's clerk, may have a claim to the large estate of Yatton. The attorneys commence an action which results in Titmouse displacing the unbelievably pious John Aubrey as the owner of the estate, and its annual income of £10,000. Titmouse revels in his new found wealth, until a new round of litigation is commenced which returns Aubrey to his place as squire of Yatton. Titmouse is disgraced, and ends his life in a lunatic asylum.
The author, Samuel Warren (1807-77), was an English barrister, Member of Parliament, and his narrator repeatedly tells the reader that the English legal system is close to perfection, but the actual workings of the law in ‘Ten Thousand a-Year’ paint a more negative picture. Dickens seems to have read Warren's fiction and non-fiction, and to have borrowed images and ideas. [ODNB].
In addition to Warren’s knowledge of the law, he was well versed on asylum and the welfare of the mentally ill, occupying the position of ‘Master in Lunacy’ from 1859 to 1877.
A fine and finely bound three volume set, the upper covers blocked in gilt with the crest, coat of arms and motto of ‘Tittlebat Titmouse Esq M.P. according to the description of Sir Gorgeous Tintack, Garter King at Arms.’ Volume I with sepia toned portrait frontispiece on vellum.
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Price HK$ 6,000