The Plays. From the corrected text of Johnson and Steevens. Embellished with plates -
William Shakespeare
1807 - John Stockdale, London - First Heath Edition
Magnificent large quarto six volume set of Shakespeare’s plays, with 22 copperplates engraved by James Heath after Thomas Stothard, William Hamilton and Henry Fuseli.
James Heath (1757–1834) was the London-born son of a bookbinder. The family originated in Nottingham where James Heath’s grandfather Joseph Heath was a bookseller and writing-master. James was apprenticed to the engraver Joseph Collyer the younger in 1771 and became established as one of the leading line engravers of his time. His first major success was in engraving plates for Bell’s edition of The Poets of Great Britain. He was employed by the Robinson family of booksellers from 1779 to 1804. He became one of the most widely-employed engravers of the age, producing illustrations for many celebrated works including Lavater’s Essays on Physiognomy; Vancouver’s A voyage of discovery to the north Pacific Ocean, and round the world; Bruce’s Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile; and the frontispiece portrait to Boswell’s Life of Johnson. He engraved some plates for Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery, and in 1807 published this six-volume set of Shakespeare illustrated with engravings after works by Stothard and Henry Fuseli on his own account, a substantial demonstration of his huge popularity.
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Price HK$ 35,000
1807 - John Stockdale, London - First Heath Edition
Magnificent large quarto six volume set of Shakespeare’s plays, with 22 copperplates engraved by James Heath after Thomas Stothard, William Hamilton and Henry Fuseli.James Heath (1757–1834) was the London-born son of a bookbinder. The family originated in Nottingham where James Heath’s grandfather Joseph Heath was a bookseller and writing-master. James was apprenticed to the engraver Joseph Collyer the younger in 1771 and became established as one of the leading line engravers of his time. His first major success was in engraving plates for Bell’s edition of The Poets of Great Britain. He was employed by the Robinson family of booksellers from 1779 to 1804. He became one of the most widely-employed engravers of the age, producing illustrations for many celebrated works including Lavater’s Essays on Physiognomy; Vancouver’s A voyage of discovery to the north Pacific Ocean, and round the world; Bruce’s Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile; and the frontispiece portrait to Boswell’s Life of Johnson. He engraved some plates for Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery, and in 1807 published this six-volume set of Shakespeare illustrated with engravings after works by Stothard and Henry Fuseli on his own account, a substantial demonstration of his huge popularity.
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Price HK$ 35,000
The Works of William Shakespeare -
William Shakespeare, Alexander Dyce
1891 - Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London - Sixth Edition
An attractively bound ten volume set of Shakespeare, volume I with Dyce’s Life of Shakespeare, prefaces, and history of the early editions, volume X containing a 526 page glossary.
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Price HK$ 18,000
1891 - Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London - Sixth Edition
An attractively bound ten volume set of Shakespeare, volume I with Dyce’s Life of Shakespeare, prefaces, and history of the early editions, volume X containing a 526 page glossary.
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Price HK$ 18,000
A Midsummer-Night's Dream -
William Shakespeare, Arthur Rackham (illustrator)
1908 - William Heinemann, London - First Rackham Trade Edition
‘How now spirit! whither wander you?’
An exquisitely bound, magical combination of Shakespeare and Rackham. Enchantingly illustrated with 40 tipped-in color plates, black & white vignettes and decorations.
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Price HK$ 9,000
1908 - William Heinemann, London - First Rackham Trade Edition
‘How now spirit! whither wander you?’An exquisitely bound, magical combination of Shakespeare and Rackham. Enchantingly illustrated with 40 tipped-in color plates, black & white vignettes and decorations.
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Price HK$ 9,000
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
Life of Napoleon Bonaparte -
William Milligan Sloane
1896 - The Century Co., New York - First Edition
Four magnificent and finely bound quarto volumes of this monumental history on Napoleon, ‘the product of many years of elaborate investigation, it was sumptuously illustrated and composed’. [DAB].
First edition, profusely illustrated with 80 colour plates, 200 black & white and tinted plates, and 17 maps.
‘Generally there is no mystery in the power of domination: he rules who is indispensable. The Jacobins needed a man, they found him in the unscrupulous Bonaparte; the Directory needed a man, they found him in the expert artillerist; France needed a man, she found him in the conqueror of Italy.’
‘Sloane, who believed "there exists no record of human activity more complete" than Bonaparte's, also summed up Napoleon's failure in one word -- exhaustion. It was not until his opponents learned the lessons "which he taught his generals by a series of object demonstrations lasting 20 years, that the teacher began to diminish in success and splendor. Judged either historically or theoretically, the strategy of Napoleon is "original, unique and unexcelled." Sloane noted that this was Napoleon's greatest achievement, because it was "his most creative."’ [Vance]
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Price HK$ 13,000
1896 - The Century Co., New York - First Edition
Four magnificent and finely bound quarto volumes of this monumental history on Napoleon, ‘the product of many years of elaborate investigation, it was sumptuously illustrated and composed’. [DAB].First edition, profusely illustrated with 80 colour plates, 200 black & white and tinted plates, and 17 maps.
‘Generally there is no mystery in the power of domination: he rules who is indispensable. The Jacobins needed a man, they found him in the unscrupulous Bonaparte; the Directory needed a man, they found him in the expert artillerist; France needed a man, she found him in the conqueror of Italy.’
‘Sloane, who believed "there exists no record of human activity more complete" than Bonaparte's, also summed up Napoleon's failure in one word -- exhaustion. It was not until his opponents learned the lessons "which he taught his generals by a series of object demonstrations lasting 20 years, that the teacher began to diminish in success and splendor. Judged either historically or theoretically, the strategy of Napoleon is "original, unique and unexcelled." Sloane noted that this was Napoleon's greatest achievement, because it was "his most creative."’ [Vance]
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Price HK$ 13,000
Duty - With illustrations of Courage Patience and Endurance -
Samuel Smiles
1905 - John Murray, London - Early edition (first published 1880)
‘Not once or twice in our rough island story,
The path of Duty was the way to glory’ - Tennyson.
The last in Samuel Smiles’ wise and popular ‘Self-Help’ series, in which ‘the reader will find, in the following pages, numerous examples given of thee best and bravest men and women in the career of well-doing’.
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Price HK$ 1,200
1905 - John Murray, London - Early edition (first published 1880)
‘Not once or twice in our rough island story,The path of Duty was the way to glory’ - Tennyson.
The last in Samuel Smiles’ wise and popular ‘Self-Help’ series, in which ‘the reader will find, in the following pages, numerous examples given of thee best and bravest men and women in the career of well-doing’.
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Price HK$ 1,200
An Inquiry into the Natures and Causes of the Wealth of Nations -
Adam Smith
1796 - Printed for A. Strahan, London - Eighth Edition
‘Published in the same year as the American Declaration of Independence it has been argued that the global effect of Smith’s work has exceeded that of American constitutionalists. And if the wealth of a nation or a people is the foundation of all else, then from Hong Kong and Shanghai to Peru, from the oil and gas fields of Russia to the United States itself, from Estonia to Australia, it can be claimed that the principles and economic dynamics at work in all these places come from a book by a scholar of Scotland published before the French Revolution, before the Industrial Revolution and eighty four years before Das Kapital by Karl Marx.’ - Melvyn Bragg – 12 Books That Changed the World.
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Price HK$ 22,000
1796 - Printed for A. Strahan, London - Eighth Edition
‘Published in the same year as the American Declaration of Independence it has been argued that the global effect of Smith’s work has exceeded that of American constitutionalists. And if the wealth of a nation or a people is the foundation of all else, then from Hong Kong and Shanghai to Peru, from the oil and gas fields of Russia to the United States itself, from Estonia to Australia, it can be claimed that the principles and economic dynamics at work in all these places come from a book by a scholar of Scotland published before the French Revolution, before the Industrial Revolution and eighty four years before Das Kapital by Karl Marx.’ - Melvyn Bragg – 12 Books That Changed the World.
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Price HK$ 22,000
Heidi -
Johanna Spyri
1922 - David McKay Company, Philadelphia
A finely bound ‘Heidi’, wonderfully illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, with colour pictorial title page, 10 full page colour plates, 23 full page black and white plates, and coloured endpapers.
At the age of five, little orphan Heidi is sent to live with her grandfather in the Alps. Everyone in the village is afraid of him, but Heidi is fascinated by his long beard and bushy grey eyebrows. She loves her life in the mountains, playing in the sunshine and growing up amongst the goats and birds. But one terrible day, Heidi is collected by her aunt and is made to live with a new family in town. Heidi cannot bear being away from the mountains and is determined to return to the happiness of life with her grandfather. Penguin]
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Price HK$ 9,000
1922 - David McKay Company, Philadelphia
A finely bound ‘Heidi’, wonderfully illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, with colour pictorial title page, 10 full page colour plates, 23 full page black and white plates, and coloured endpapers.At the age of five, little orphan Heidi is sent to live with her grandfather in the Alps. Everyone in the village is afraid of him, but Heidi is fascinated by his long beard and bushy grey eyebrows. She loves her life in the mountains, playing in the sunshine and growing up amongst the goats and birds. But one terrible day, Heidi is collected by her aunt and is made to live with a new family in town. Heidi cannot bear being away from the mountains and is determined to return to the happiness of life with her grandfather. Penguin]
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Price HK$ 9,000