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Night Clubs -
Jimmy Durante, Jack Kofoed
1931 - Alfred A. Knopf, New York - First Edition
Inscribed by Jimmy Durante ‘To Anne – a pleasure to know you – Jimmy Durante, Mar 30-42’.
This is not a ‘guide’, it contains anecdotes, characters, deals, entertainers and speakeasy challenges that only someone deeply connected with the scene could piece together, and if anyone knew the night clubs of New York it was the great entertainer Jimmy ‘Schnozzola’ Durante. Performing from 17 in Coney Island dives, Manhattan slums and gangster hangouts in Harlem, moving from a Mafia club ‘The Alamo’ to open his own small establishment ‘The Durant’ (the signmaker forgot to paint the ‘e’), but this was prohibition and soon after they were raided. Durante with his by now well known partners Eddie Jackson and Lou Clayton, moved on from there to become one of the all-time great night club acts. All this before becoming a film star, radio star, and television star.....
Illustrated with 16 photographs, illustrated title page and endpapers. The fabulous and rather risqué dust jacket was illustrated by Herbert Roese.
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Price HK$ 9,000
1931 - Alfred A. Knopf, New York - First Edition
Inscribed by Jimmy Durante ‘To Anne – a pleasure to know you – Jimmy Durante, Mar 30-42’.This is not a ‘guide’, it contains anecdotes, characters, deals, entertainers and speakeasy challenges that only someone deeply connected with the scene could piece together, and if anyone knew the night clubs of New York it was the great entertainer Jimmy ‘Schnozzola’ Durante. Performing from 17 in Coney Island dives, Manhattan slums and gangster hangouts in Harlem, moving from a Mafia club ‘The Alamo’ to open his own small establishment ‘The Durant’ (the signmaker forgot to paint the ‘e’), but this was prohibition and soon after they were raided. Durante with his by now well known partners Eddie Jackson and Lou Clayton, moved on from there to become one of the all-time great night club acts. All this before becoming a film star, radio star, and television star.....
Illustrated with 16 photographs, illustrated title page and endpapers. The fabulous and rather risqué dust jacket was illustrated by Herbert Roese.
More details
Price HK$ 9,000
The London Art of Cookery -
John Farley
1801 - James Scatcherd, London - Tenth Edition, With the Addition of many new and elegant Receipts in the various Branches of Cookery
A clean example of Farley’s popular work, illustrated with 13 copper-engraved plates including frontispiece portrait of John Farley and his establishment, and bills of fare for each month.
With additional sections on ‘Culinary Poisons’, ‘Wines, Cordial Waters, and Malt Liquors’, ‘Necessary Articles for Seafaring Persons’, and ‘Proper Nourishment for the Sick’.
Farley was principal cook at the London Tavern, and ‘contributed much to the popularity of the London Tavern as an eating house, an inn whose generous helpings attracted customers from far and wide‘. This work is in effect a combination of the two most popular cookbooks of the time written by Hannah Glasse and Elizabeth Raffald, with the small remainder taken from others.
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Price HK$ 2,800
1801 - James Scatcherd, London - Tenth Edition, With the Addition of many new and elegant Receipts in the various Branches of Cookery
A clean example of Farley’s popular work, illustrated with 13 copper-engraved plates including frontispiece portrait of John Farley and his establishment, and bills of fare for each month.With additional sections on ‘Culinary Poisons’, ‘Wines, Cordial Waters, and Malt Liquors’, ‘Necessary Articles for Seafaring Persons’, and ‘Proper Nourishment for the Sick’.
Farley was principal cook at the London Tavern, and ‘contributed much to the popularity of the London Tavern as an eating house, an inn whose generous helpings attracted customers from far and wide‘. This work is in effect a combination of the two most popular cookbooks of the time written by Hannah Glasse and Elizabeth Raffald, with the small remainder taken from others.
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Price HK$ 2,800
The Table. How to buy food, how to cook it etc. -
Alessandro Filippini
1889 - Charles L. Webster & Company, New York - First Edition - Publisher's de luxe leather binding
'The pleasures of the table are enjoyed by all those who possess good health.’
A classic compendium of recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, from renowned Delmonico's chef, Alessandro Filippini. In the scarce and rather splendid deluxe publishers binding, intricately blind embossed, with titles in gilt.
The Table is dedicated to the Delmonico family, Filippini was chef at Delmonico's restaurant in New York during the mid to late 1800s. A hand-written copy of Filippini's dedication letter, and correspondence to Charles Delmonico, features at the front of this edition
Originally from Switzerland, Filippini was first hired by Lorenzo Delmonico in 1849, and would go on to work at the famed New York establishment for almost forty years. When he retired in 1888, Filippini dedicated himself to writing cookbooks. His cookbooks were some of the first to give precise measurements; previously, most cookbook measurements were imprecise or inaccurate.
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Price HK$ 4,000
1889 - Charles L. Webster & Company, New York - First Edition - Publisher's de luxe leather binding
'The pleasures of the table are enjoyed by all those who possess good health.’A classic compendium of recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, from renowned Delmonico's chef, Alessandro Filippini. In the scarce and rather splendid deluxe publishers binding, intricately blind embossed, with titles in gilt.
The Table is dedicated to the Delmonico family, Filippini was chef at Delmonico's restaurant in New York during the mid to late 1800s. A hand-written copy of Filippini's dedication letter, and correspondence to Charles Delmonico, features at the front of this edition
Originally from Switzerland, Filippini was first hired by Lorenzo Delmonico in 1849, and would go on to work at the famed New York establishment for almost forty years. When he retired in 1888, Filippini dedicated himself to writing cookbooks. His cookbooks were some of the first to give precise measurements; previously, most cookbook measurements were imprecise or inaccurate.
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Price HK$ 4,000
A Sleep of Prisoners, A Play - with - The Dark Is Light Enough -
Christopher Fry, Ronald Searle (illustrator)
1951 - Geoffrey Cumberlege, London New York Toronto - First Editions
Dark and cold we may be, but this
Is no winter now. The frozen misery
Of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move;
The thunder is the thunder of the floes,
The thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring.
Thank God our time is now when wrong
Comes up to face us everywhere,
Never to leave us till we take
The longest stride of soul we ever took.
Affairs are now soul size.
The enterprise
Is exploration into God.
Where are you making for? It takes
So many thousand years to wake,
But will you wake for pity's sake!
A highly imaginative, poignant drama about four prisoners of war locked up in a church in enemy territory, together with Fry’s 1954 play The Dark is Light Enough, his ‘winter comedy’ set during the nineteenth century Hungarian Revolution, and companion play to his earlier works The Lady’s Not for Burning, and Venus Observed. Two volumes in dust jackets illustrated by Ronald Searle.
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Price HK$ 1,200
1951 - Geoffrey Cumberlege, London New York Toronto - First Editions
Dark and cold we may be, but thisIs no winter now. The frozen misery
Of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move;
The thunder is the thunder of the floes,
The thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring.
Thank God our time is now when wrong
Comes up to face us everywhere,
Never to leave us till we take
The longest stride of soul we ever took.
Affairs are now soul size.
The enterprise
Is exploration into God.
Where are you making for? It takes
So many thousand years to wake,
But will you wake for pity's sake!
A highly imaginative, poignant drama about four prisoners of war locked up in a church in enemy territory, together with Fry’s 1954 play The Dark is Light Enough, his ‘winter comedy’ set during the nineteenth century Hungarian Revolution, and companion play to his earlier works The Lady’s Not for Burning, and Venus Observed. Two volumes in dust jackets illustrated by Ronald Searle.
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Price HK$ 1,200
Architectura Navalis - bound with - Architectura Civilis, Nova & Antiqua -
Josephum Furttenbach, Georg Andreas Böckler [Boeckler]
1629 - Johan Saurn, Ulm - First Editions
A stunning, clean and complete copy of Joseph Furttenbach’s famous treaty on shipbuilding, Architectura Navalis with double-page engraved title, title in red and black, twenty stunning double-page engraved plates showing boat design, and various types of boats many engaged in action with other boats and monsters of the sea. Furttenbach was a highly influential German architect, who attempted to cover all fields of architecture in his writings. Böckler corresponded with Furttenbach and his works on architecture were intended to contribute to the rebuilding of Germany after the devastation of the Thirty Years War, his Architectura Civilis, Nova & Antiqua presents a comparative treatment of the Orders [Architectural Styles] and is illustrated with forty engraved plates, woodcut printer’s device and red and black text to title page, woodcut head pieces, and initials.
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Price HK$ 95,000
1629 - Johan Saurn, Ulm - First Editions
A stunning, clean and complete copy of Joseph Furttenbach’s famous treaty on shipbuilding, Architectura Navalis with double-page engraved title, title in red and black, twenty stunning double-page engraved plates showing boat design, and various types of boats many engaged in action with other boats and monsters of the sea. Furttenbach was a highly influential German architect, who attempted to cover all fields of architecture in his writings. Böckler corresponded with Furttenbach and his works on architecture were intended to contribute to the rebuilding of Germany after the devastation of the Thirty Years War, his Architectura Civilis, Nova & Antiqua presents a comparative treatment of the Orders [Architectural Styles] and is illustrated with forty engraved plates, woodcut printer’s device and red and black text to title page, woodcut head pieces, and initials.
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Price HK$ 95,000
The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy -
Hannah Glasse
1763 - A. Millar, London - Eighth Edition
A finely bound early edition of this classic 18th century cookbook, which ‘revolutionised the way the British cook’.
‘She's the first domestic goddess, the queen of the dinner party and the most important cookery writer to know about. No, not Isabella Beeton; not Delia Smith nor Nigella Lawson, but an earlier incarnation of a kitchen trouble-shooter, Hannah Glasse’ - Rose Prince, The Independent (2006).
‘The Art of Cookery has a River Cafe Cookbook quality - in fact her excessive use of butter, which can have a lovely clear flavour, can be likened to the liberal dribbling of olive oil in Rogers' and Gray's recipes. The power of the book, though, is the clarity of the writing. She's authoritative but she is also intimate, treating you as an equal’ – Bee Wilson (food journalist and author).
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Price HK$ 6,500
1763 - A. Millar, London - Eighth Edition
A finely bound early edition of this classic 18th century cookbook, which ‘revolutionised the way the British cook’.‘She's the first domestic goddess, the queen of the dinner party and the most important cookery writer to know about. No, not Isabella Beeton; not Delia Smith nor Nigella Lawson, but an earlier incarnation of a kitchen trouble-shooter, Hannah Glasse’ - Rose Prince, The Independent (2006).
‘The Art of Cookery has a River Cafe Cookbook quality - in fact her excessive use of butter, which can have a lovely clear flavour, can be likened to the liberal dribbling of olive oil in Rogers' and Gray's recipes. The power of the book, though, is the clarity of the writing. She's authoritative but she is also intimate, treating you as an equal’ – Bee Wilson (food journalist and author).
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Price HK$ 6,500
The Kingdom of Swing - Signed -
Benny Goodman, Irving Kolodin
1939 - Stackpole Sons, New York - First Edition
Signed by Goodman on the frontispiece portrait, a nice example in the scarce and rather delicate dust jacket.
‘”The Kingdom of Swing," written in collaboration with Irving Kolodin, might be called "From Rags to Riches." It's the narrative of a boy who learned to play clarinet in a synagogue music class for "maybe a quarter a lesson," and who has risen, by way of jazz, to an eminence where he earns maybe a quarter a note for playing the instrument as leader of one of the most famous of all dance bands. "The Kingdom of Swing" is a success story, but it's more than a chronicle of afflatus and affluence. It "sets" swing music in a clear perspective, explains it, gives out, as swingumbobs have it, with solid stuff about an important musical influence.’ – taken from a 1939 review by Robert A. Simon, music critic for The New Yorker.
With five full page black and white photographic illustrations.
‘My memory of those early days is hazier than that of most kids, because we moved around a lot. But I can remember a time when we lived in a basement without heat during the winter, and a couple of times when there wasn't anything to eat. I don't mean much to eat. I mean anything. That isn't an experience you forget in a hurry. I haven't ever forgotten it.’
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Price HK$ 18,000
1939 - Stackpole Sons, New York - First Edition
Signed by Goodman on the frontispiece portrait, a nice example in the scarce and rather delicate dust jacket.‘”The Kingdom of Swing," written in collaboration with Irving Kolodin, might be called "From Rags to Riches." It's the narrative of a boy who learned to play clarinet in a synagogue music class for "maybe a quarter a lesson," and who has risen, by way of jazz, to an eminence where he earns maybe a quarter a note for playing the instrument as leader of one of the most famous of all dance bands. "The Kingdom of Swing" is a success story, but it's more than a chronicle of afflatus and affluence. It "sets" swing music in a clear perspective, explains it, gives out, as swingumbobs have it, with solid stuff about an important musical influence.’ – taken from a 1939 review by Robert A. Simon, music critic for The New Yorker.
With five full page black and white photographic illustrations.
‘My memory of those early days is hazier than that of most kids, because we moved around a lot. But I can remember a time when we lived in a basement without heat during the winter, and a couple of times when there wasn't anything to eat. I don't mean much to eat. I mean anything. That isn't an experience you forget in a hurry. I haven't ever forgotten it.’
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Price HK$ 18,000
Things that Happen. Published in the Interests of Good Health & Good Cheer. -
Charles Grave & other Well-known Artists
1926 - WorthingtonFirst Edition
‘If you do miss the Boat race, the race for Worthington is worth winning!’
27 full page amusing advertisements and other cartoons for Worthington Beer. Covering many topics including golf, skiing, driving, football, swimming and rowing, and how they can be remedied with Worthington.
Note this is the scarce original edition, in tanned illustrated wrappers, not the facsimile edition produced by Bass Brewery in 1977.
[27x18.7 cm]
More details
Price HK$ 2,000
1926 - WorthingtonFirst Edition
‘If you do miss the Boat race, the race for Worthington is worth winning!’27 full page amusing advertisements and other cartoons for Worthington Beer. Covering many topics including golf, skiing, driving, football, swimming and rowing, and how they can be remedied with Worthington.
Note this is the scarce original edition, in tanned illustrated wrappers, not the facsimile edition produced by Bass Brewery in 1977.
[27x18.7 cm]
More details
Price HK$ 2,000