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Johnson Over Jordan - The Play. And All About It (An Essay) -
J. B. Priestley
1939 - William Heinemann Ltd, London - First Edition
‘J.B. Priestley is one of our literary icons of the 20th Century. And it is time that we all became re-acquainted with his genius’ – Dame Judi Dench
A smartly bound copy of J.B. Priestley’s ‘adventure in theatre’, Johnson Over Jordan – the story of ‘everyman’ Robert Johnson who attempts to make sense of a life half lived – was the play he considered his finest and most ambitious achievement. Also features an essay by Priestly on the writing of the play and its origins, and the critical reception of the stage production.
Illustrated with 8 full page black and white photographic plates of the original 1939 stage production, which starred Ralph Richardson and featured a musical score by Benjamin Britten.
With a black and white photographic portrait of the playwright tipped in to front endpaper and the front panel of the original dust jacket laid in.
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Price HK$ 1,500
1939 - William Heinemann Ltd, London - First Edition
‘J.B. Priestley is one of our literary icons of the 20th Century. And it is time that we all became re-acquainted with his genius’ – Dame Judi DenchA smartly bound copy of J.B. Priestley’s ‘adventure in theatre’, Johnson Over Jordan – the story of ‘everyman’ Robert Johnson who attempts to make sense of a life half lived – was the play he considered his finest and most ambitious achievement. Also features an essay by Priestly on the writing of the play and its origins, and the critical reception of the stage production.
Illustrated with 8 full page black and white photographic plates of the original 1939 stage production, which starred Ralph Richardson and featured a musical score by Benjamin Britten.
With a black and white photographic portrait of the playwright tipped in to front endpaper and the front panel of the original dust jacket laid in.
More details
Price HK$ 1,500
History of the Royal Residences -
William Henry Pyne
1819 - Printed for A. Dry, London - First Edition
A beautiful and luxurious first edition of one of the most ambitious aquatint books to be published on English interiors. Three finely bound volumes containing one hundred exquisite hand-coloured plates with accompanying text.
This celebrated work was the first to illustrate royal palaces and houses in any detail: volume I is a valuable record of the state rooms of Windsor Castle formed for Charles II, and concludes with the more domestic scenes of Frogmore, purchased by Queen Charlotte as a country retreat in 1793; volume II is devoted to Hampton Court, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace; volume III's subjects are St James's Palace and Carlton House; the twenty plates devoted to the Prince Regent's residence depict what were regarded as the most spectacular interiors in Regency London.
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Price HK$ 80,000
1819 - Printed for A. Dry, London - First Edition
A beautiful and luxurious first edition of one of the most ambitious aquatint books to be published on English interiors. Three finely bound volumes containing one hundred exquisite hand-coloured plates with accompanying text.This celebrated work was the first to illustrate royal palaces and houses in any detail: volume I is a valuable record of the state rooms of Windsor Castle formed for Charles II, and concludes with the more domestic scenes of Frogmore, purchased by Queen Charlotte as a country retreat in 1793; volume II is devoted to Hampton Court, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace; volume III's subjects are St James's Palace and Carlton House; the twenty plates devoted to the Prince Regent's residence depict what were regarded as the most spectacular interiors in Regency London.
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Price HK$ 80,000
The Stones of Venice - The Foundations, The Sea-Stories; The Fall. With Illustrations drawn by the Author -
John Ruskin
1873-1874 - Smith, London - Signed Limited Edition
Illustrated with 53 mixed technique plates (including lithograph, mezzotint, aquatint and engraved, some tinted or hand-coloured), together with wood engraved illustrations and diagrams throughout the text.
‘Among the many strange things that have befallen Venice, she had the good fortune to become the object of passion to a man of splendid genius’ - Henry James on John Ruskin.
The book aroused considerable interest in Victorian Britain and beyond. The chapter "The Nature of Gothic" (from volume 2) was admired by William Morris, who published it separately in an edition which is in itself an example of Gothic revival. It inspired Marcel Proust; the narrator of the Recherche visits Venice with his mother in a state of enthusiasm for Ruskin
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Price HK$ 30,000
1873-1874 - Smith, London - Signed Limited Edition
Illustrated with 53 mixed technique plates (including lithograph, mezzotint, aquatint and engraved, some tinted or hand-coloured), together with wood engraved illustrations and diagrams throughout the text.‘Among the many strange things that have befallen Venice, she had the good fortune to become the object of passion to a man of splendid genius’ - Henry James on John Ruskin.
The book aroused considerable interest in Victorian Britain and beyond. The chapter "The Nature of Gothic" (from volume 2) was admired by William Morris, who published it separately in an edition which is in itself an example of Gothic revival. It inspired Marcel Proust; the narrator of the Recherche visits Venice with his mother in a state of enthusiasm for Ruskin
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Price HK$ 30,000
The Compleat Housewife: or, Accomplish d Gentlewoman s Companion -
E. Smith
1753 - Printed for R. Ware, London - Fifteenth Edition, with Additions
A wonderful early edition of Eliza Smith’s best-selling compendium of recipes, home remedies, and medicinal guidance, and complete with six engraved folding plates showing table settings. A great success in London, where it is was originally published in 1727, it later had the distinction of being the first cookery book printed in America, when it was printed and published in Williamsburg, Virginia, by William Parks in 1742.
Created as a household guide for the 18th century urban housewife, Smith’s extensive experience as a cook in various aristocratic houses, in addition to her chiding of the male culinary writers of the period, whom she claimed concealed their best recipes from the public, made her a popular figure amongst her contemporary female audience.
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Price HK$ 7,000
1753 - Printed for R. Ware, London - Fifteenth Edition, with Additions
A wonderful early edition of Eliza Smith’s best-selling compendium of recipes, home remedies, and medicinal guidance, and complete with six engraved folding plates showing table settings. A great success in London, where it is was originally published in 1727, it later had the distinction of being the first cookery book printed in America, when it was printed and published in Williamsburg, Virginia, by William Parks in 1742.Created as a household guide for the 18th century urban housewife, Smith’s extensive experience as a cook in various aristocratic houses, in addition to her chiding of the male culinary writers of the period, whom she claimed concealed their best recipes from the public, made her a popular figure amongst her contemporary female audience.
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Price HK$ 7,000
The Female Economist; or, A Plain System of Cookery, for the Use of Families. -
Mrs. Smith
1822 - Samuel Leigh, London - Eighth Edition
A fascinating book, in pretty later binding.
Well written, simple to understand, covering a wide range of required knowledge in the early 1800’s for ‘Females in the middle classes of society, who superintend to their own familyaffairs, and who wish to unite hospitality with economy’.
With a large number of recipes Wine, Cordial, and other spirits, see page 257 ‘to make four Gallons of rich Usquebaugh’...
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Price HK$ 2,000
1822 - Samuel Leigh, London - Eighth Edition
A fascinating book, in pretty later binding.Well written, simple to understand, covering a wide range of required knowledge in the early 1800’s for ‘Females in the middle classes of society, who superintend to their own familyaffairs, and who wish to unite hospitality with economy’.
With a large number of recipes Wine, Cordial, and other spirits, see page 257 ‘to make four Gallons of rich Usquebaugh’...
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Price HK$ 2,000
A Treatise on Cyder-Making -
Hugh Stafford, Anonymous
1753 - Printed for E. Cave, London - First Edition
Legendary and rare first edition of this anonymous work, all of which is generally but erroneously attributed to Hugh Stafford who contributed the sixteen page ‘Dissertation on Cyder and Cyder-Fruit’ at the beginning.
Covering the entire process from identifying and growing the best cider apples, collection, pressing, fermentation, racking, preserving and remedial action for a variety of issues ‘which are incident to Cyder’. With fold-out engraving of cider press (opp. p.32), in-text wood-cut diagrams to pages 43 and 68 (‘One side of the framed Press...’.) and wood-cut decorations to pages v, 47, and 61.
‘As Cyder therefore is generally allowed to be an wholesome drink, and as it is the natural product of our own country, he will surely be thought to contribute something towards the good of the public, who gives infallible directions for making it universally agreeable by varrying it so as to suit every palate, and by improving the flavour and the quality, both of the rough and the smooth, divesting it of its tendency to produce cholics, and giving it the sparkle of Champaign, without an eager and windy fermentation, and rendering it more spirituous than a small wine tho' less inflaming’. [Preface]
An influential work, Benjamin Franklin, who was partial to a drop himself, ordered three copies to be reprinted as pamphlets and distributed amongst the New England farmers after failing with their vineyards. It was plagiarised into various publications including encyclopaedias, cookbooks and later reference works related to cider.
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Price HK$ 42,000
1753 - Printed for E. Cave, London - First Edition
Legendary and rare first edition of this anonymous work, all of which is generally but erroneously attributed to Hugh Stafford who contributed the sixteen page ‘Dissertation on Cyder and Cyder-Fruit’ at the beginning.Covering the entire process from identifying and growing the best cider apples, collection, pressing, fermentation, racking, preserving and remedial action for a variety of issues ‘which are incident to Cyder’. With fold-out engraving of cider press (opp. p.32), in-text wood-cut diagrams to pages 43 and 68 (‘One side of the framed Press...’.) and wood-cut decorations to pages v, 47, and 61.
‘As Cyder therefore is generally allowed to be an wholesome drink, and as it is the natural product of our own country, he will surely be thought to contribute something towards the good of the public, who gives infallible directions for making it universally agreeable by varrying it so as to suit every palate, and by improving the flavour and the quality, both of the rough and the smooth, divesting it of its tendency to produce cholics, and giving it the sparkle of Champaign, without an eager and windy fermentation, and rendering it more spirituous than a small wine tho' less inflaming’. [Preface]
An influential work, Benjamin Franklin, who was partial to a drop himself, ordered three copies to be reprinted as pamphlets and distributed amongst the New England farmers after failing with their vineyards. It was plagiarised into various publications including encyclopaedias, cookbooks and later reference works related to cider.
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Price HK$ 42,000
Scar-Strangled Banger -
Ralph Steadman
1988 - Salem House Publishers, Massachusetts - First American Edition
Scar Strangled Banger is one of two large books (the other one being America) giving Steadman's view of America in retrospect-sharply satirizing all aspects of 1970’s and 1980’s life in American society, peppered with his sharp, powerful and incredible full-page and double-spread, colour and black & white drawings.
‘In Scar-Strangled Banger, Ralph Steadman turns his satirical attentions to America, the Land of the Free, where even God can be acquired with a credit card. In this land of seemingly limitless opportunities, of All-Nite Liquor stores, aerobic work-outs, silicone lifts and Saturday Night Specials, a country where lettuce is served with everything, he finds that the quality of life is dependent mainly on personal wealth and air conditioning.
This extraordinary collection of paintings and drawings, in colour and black and white, gleefully satirizes all aspects of life in modern America. Whether it be people, places or politics, nothing is safe from Ralph Steadman’s razor sharp pen and even sharper wit. Nixon is “a satirists dream”, Texas is where “ the oil wells are so deep they have lease land rights from the Australian government before they drill” and political conventions are “campaigns in the ass”. His portraits of the Nixon years, Vietnam and Watergate, the Reagan years, Pearlygate and the 1988 Presidential Election are powerful, disturbing and above all savagely funny. It will leave you asking has anything really changed.’
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Price HK$ 1,000
1988 - Salem House Publishers, Massachusetts - First American Edition
Scar Strangled Banger is one of two large books (the other one being America) giving Steadman's view of America in retrospect-sharply satirizing all aspects of 1970’s and 1980’s life in American society, peppered with his sharp, powerful and incredible full-page and double-spread, colour and black & white drawings.‘In Scar-Strangled Banger, Ralph Steadman turns his satirical attentions to America, the Land of the Free, where even God can be acquired with a credit card. In this land of seemingly limitless opportunities, of All-Nite Liquor stores, aerobic work-outs, silicone lifts and Saturday Night Specials, a country where lettuce is served with everything, he finds that the quality of life is dependent mainly on personal wealth and air conditioning.
This extraordinary collection of paintings and drawings, in colour and black and white, gleefully satirizes all aspects of life in modern America. Whether it be people, places or politics, nothing is safe from Ralph Steadman’s razor sharp pen and even sharper wit. Nixon is “a satirists dream”, Texas is where “ the oil wells are so deep they have lease land rights from the Australian government before they drill” and political conventions are “campaigns in the ass”. His portraits of the Nixon years, Vietnam and Watergate, the Reagan years, Pearlygate and the 1988 Presidential Election are powerful, disturbing and above all savagely funny. It will leave you asking has anything really changed.’
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Price HK$ 1,000
Evidence - Signed -
Larry Sultan, Mike Mandel
1977 - Clatworthy Colorvues, Greenbrae - First Edition
Fine first edition of this ‘pioneering work in photography's engagement with meaning and context’ [Blind Magazine, The 50 Most Influential Photobooks of All Time]
Signed by both Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel.
With 60 halftones from photographs, and an afterword by Robert F. Forth.
Described by Martin Parr in ‘The Photobook: A History’, as ‘one of the most beautiful, dense and puzzling photobooks in existence, an endless visual box of tricks’.
Sultan and Mandel sifted through thousands of photographs in the files of the Bechtel Corporation, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Jet Propulsion Laboratories, the US Department of the Interior, Stanford Research Institute and many other corporations, institutions, and government agencies looking for photographs that were made and used as documents and objective instruments, as evidence.
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Price HK$ 15,000
1977 - Clatworthy Colorvues, Greenbrae - First Edition
Fine first edition of this ‘pioneering work in photography's engagement with meaning and context’ [Blind Magazine, The 50 Most Influential Photobooks of All Time]Signed by both Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel.
With 60 halftones from photographs, and an afterword by Robert F. Forth.
Described by Martin Parr in ‘The Photobook: A History’, as ‘one of the most beautiful, dense and puzzling photobooks in existence, an endless visual box of tricks’.
Sultan and Mandel sifted through thousands of photographs in the files of the Bechtel Corporation, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Jet Propulsion Laboratories, the US Department of the Interior, Stanford Research Institute and many other corporations, institutions, and government agencies looking for photographs that were made and used as documents and objective instruments, as evidence.
More details
Price HK$ 15,000