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Explorations of the Highlands of the Brazil -
Captain Richard F. Burton
1869 - Tinsley Brothers, London - First Edition, First Issue
An exceptionally clean two volume set in the original publisher’s gilt decorated cloth, mostly uncut and unopened, and without library stamps or labels. Both volumes with engraved frontispiece plates, additional engraved title pages and a large folding map of Brazil.
Appointed British consul in Santos in 1865, Burton sailed to Rio de Janeiro. Together with his wife he spent three months touring the Minas Gerais and it’s gold mining district, which is described in volume I. Isabel then returned to Rio with a sprained ankle at which point Burton, true to character, made a 2,000 kilometre descent of the Rio São Francisco by raft, the fantastic and detailed description of which can be found in volume II.
Burton continued his travels in South America whilst Lady Burton sailed back to England, commissioned with with seeing this work ‘through the press’. In the short and revealing preface she expresses her personal feelings regarding her husband’s views on religion and polygamy, requesting that the ‘fair or gentle reader’ bear in mind that her husband was writing ‘from a high moral pedestal’.
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Price HK$ 19,000
1869 - Tinsley Brothers, London - First Edition, First Issue
An exceptionally clean two volume set in the original publisher’s gilt decorated cloth, mostly uncut and unopened, and without library stamps or labels. Both volumes with engraved frontispiece plates, additional engraved title pages and a large folding map of Brazil.Appointed British consul in Santos in 1865, Burton sailed to Rio de Janeiro. Together with his wife he spent three months touring the Minas Gerais and it’s gold mining district, which is described in volume I. Isabel then returned to Rio with a sprained ankle at which point Burton, true to character, made a 2,000 kilometre descent of the Rio São Francisco by raft, the fantastic and detailed description of which can be found in volume II.
Burton continued his travels in South America whilst Lady Burton sailed back to England, commissioned with with seeing this work ‘through the press’. In the short and revealing preface she expresses her personal feelings regarding her husband’s views on religion and polygamy, requesting that the ‘fair or gentle reader’ bear in mind that her husband was writing ‘from a high moral pedestal’.
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Price HK$ 19,000
The Book of the Sword -
Sir Richard Francis Burton
1884 - Chatto and Windus, London - First Edition
A magnificent work on edged weapons by Burton, who was a very skilled swordsman, and published an earlier practical work on military exercises for infantry in 1876. Profusely illustrated throughout.
Rarely encountered in such nice condition. This first part of a planned three volume work, ‘treats of the birth, parentage and early career of the sword. It begins with the very beginning, in pre-historic times and amongst proto-historic peoples; and it ends with the full growth of the Sword at the epoch of the early Roman Empire.’ Despite Lady Burton’s efforts to find someone to complete the next two volumes after Burton’s death, the haphazard collection of notes, partial manuscripts, and the commercial failure of the first volume, were enough to put off any publisher.
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Price HK$ 15,000
1884 - Chatto and Windus, London - First Edition
A magnificent work on edged weapons by Burton, who was a very skilled swordsman, and published an earlier practical work on military exercises for infantry in 1876. Profusely illustrated throughout.Rarely encountered in such nice condition. This first part of a planned three volume work, ‘treats of the birth, parentage and early career of the sword. It begins with the very beginning, in pre-historic times and amongst proto-historic peoples; and it ends with the full growth of the Sword at the epoch of the early Roman Empire.’ Despite Lady Burton’s efforts to find someone to complete the next two volumes after Burton’s death, the haphazard collection of notes, partial manuscripts, and the commercial failure of the first volume, were enough to put off any publisher.
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Price HK$ 15,000
Hudibras. With Dr. Grey’s Annotations -
Samuel Butler
1819 - Charles & Henry Baldwyn, London - New Edition, Corrected and Enlarged
Three volumes finely bound in early 20th century full tan calf. In addition to Butler’s ‘satirical polemic upon Roundheads, Puritans, Presbyterians and many of the other factions involved in the English Civil War’, this edition includes ‘The Author’s Life’ and an extensive introductory preface, combined with Zachary Grey’s details annotations throughout.
Illustrated with numerous woodcut vignettes and eight plates.
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Price HK$ 3,000
1819 - Charles & Henry Baldwyn, London - New Edition, Corrected and Enlarged
Three volumes finely bound in early 20th century full tan calf. In addition to Butler’s ‘satirical polemic upon Roundheads, Puritans, Presbyterians and many of the other factions involved in the English Civil War’, this edition includes ‘The Author’s Life’ and an extensive introductory preface, combined with Zachary Grey’s details annotations throughout.Illustrated with numerous woodcut vignettes and eight plates.
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Price HK$ 3,000
Death in the Making -
Robert Capa, Gerda Taro
1938 - Covici Friede, New York - First Edition
'If the photo isn't good enough, it's because you're not close enough.' – Robert Capa
A stunning copy of Robert Capa’s first published monograph – a landmark of 20th century war photography – in the rare dust jacket depicting a Loyalist soldier falling to his death, gun in hand, after being shot – a now iconic image of the Spanish Civil War Featuring 145 photographs by Robert Capa and Gerda Taro, captions by Robert Capa, translated and with a preface by Jay Allen, and arranged by André Kertesz. Housed in a custom clamshell case of fine black morocco leather over matching cloth, velvet lined, and lettered in gilt to the spine.
From 1936 onwards, Capa's coverage of the Spanish Civil War appeared regularly. His picture of a Loyalist soldier who had just been fatally wounded earned him his international reputation and became a powerful symbol of war. After his companion, Gerda Taro, was killed in Spain, Capa travelled to China in 1938 and emigrated to New York a year later. As a correspondent in Europe, he photographed the Second World War, covering the landing of American troops on Omaha beach on D-Day, the liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulge
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Price HK$ 60,000
1938 - Covici Friede, New York - First Edition
'If the photo isn't good enough, it's because you're not close enough.' – Robert CapaA stunning copy of Robert Capa’s first published monograph – a landmark of 20th century war photography – in the rare dust jacket depicting a Loyalist soldier falling to his death, gun in hand, after being shot – a now iconic image of the Spanish Civil War Featuring 145 photographs by Robert Capa and Gerda Taro, captions by Robert Capa, translated and with a preface by Jay Allen, and arranged by André Kertesz. Housed in a custom clamshell case of fine black morocco leather over matching cloth, velvet lined, and lettered in gilt to the spine.
From 1936 onwards, Capa's coverage of the Spanish Civil War appeared regularly. His picture of a Loyalist soldier who had just been fatally wounded earned him his international reputation and became a powerful symbol of war. After his companion, Gerda Taro, was killed in Spain, Capa travelled to China in 1938 and emigrated to New York a year later. As a correspondent in Europe, he photographed the Second World War, covering the landing of American troops on Omaha beach on D-Day, the liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulge
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Price HK$ 60,000
The Life of Benvenuto Cellini written by Himself. -
Benvenuto Cellini, John Addington Symonds, Royal Cortissoz
1906 - Brentano's, New York - First Brentano Edition
An elegantly bound two volume set of the most important autobiography from Renaissance Italy and one of the most spirited and colourful from any time or place. Illustrated ‘with reproductions of forty original portraits and views’.
‘Benvenuto Cellini was both a beloved artist in sixteenth-century Florence and a passionate and temperamental man of action who was capable of brawling, theft, and murder. He counted popes, cardinals, kings, and dukes among his patrons and was the adoring friend of - as he described them - the “divine” Michelangelo and the “marvellous” Titian, but was as well known for his violent feuds. At age twenty-seven he helped defend the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome, and his account of his imprisonment there (under a mad castellan who thought he was a bat), his escape, recapture, and confinement in “a cell of tarantulas and venomous worms” is an adventure equal to any other in fact or fiction. But it is only one in a long life lived on a grand scale.’
‘Cellini’s autobiography is not merely the record of an extraordinary life but also a dramatic and evocative account of daily life in Renaissance Italy, from its lowest taverns to its highest royal courts’ – James Fenton
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Price HK$ 2,000
1906 - Brentano's, New York - First Brentano Edition
An elegantly bound two volume set of the most important autobiography from Renaissance Italy and one of the most spirited and colourful from any time or place. Illustrated ‘with reproductions of forty original portraits and views’.‘Benvenuto Cellini was both a beloved artist in sixteenth-century Florence and a passionate and temperamental man of action who was capable of brawling, theft, and murder. He counted popes, cardinals, kings, and dukes among his patrons and was the adoring friend of - as he described them - the “divine” Michelangelo and the “marvellous” Titian, but was as well known for his violent feuds. At age twenty-seven he helped defend the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome, and his account of his imprisonment there (under a mad castellan who thought he was a bat), his escape, recapture, and confinement in “a cell of tarantulas and venomous worms” is an adventure equal to any other in fact or fiction. But it is only one in a long life lived on a grand scale.’
‘Cellini’s autobiography is not merely the record of an extraordinary life but also a dramatic and evocative account of daily life in Renaissance Italy, from its lowest taverns to its highest royal courts’ – James Fenton
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Price HK$ 2,000
Unexplored Spain -
Abel Chapman, Walter J. Buck
1910 - Edward Arnold, London - First Edition
An excellent copy of this influential work on Spain and its wildlife, with chapters on the historic hunting ground of Coto Doñana, Andalusia’s big game, wildfowl and wild geese, the Spanish bull fight, flamingoes, wild camels, the highlands of Asturias, Valencia, and sketches of Spanish bird life, together with an account of the Spanish ibex, which Chapman would go on to save from extinction.
Profusely illustrated throughout with 209 full page black and white plates and in text illustrations by Joseph Crawhall, E. Crawhall, and Abel Chapman, and from photographs.
This copy was gifted by Heatley Noble, renowned ornithologist, author, and one of the half dozen best shots at Grouse and driven Pheasant in the kingdom during the early 1900’s.
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Price HK$ 2,800
1910 - Edward Arnold, London - First Edition
An excellent copy of this influential work on Spain and its wildlife, with chapters on the historic hunting ground of Coto Doñana, Andalusia’s big game, wildfowl and wild geese, the Spanish bull fight, flamingoes, wild camels, the highlands of Asturias, Valencia, and sketches of Spanish bird life, together with an account of the Spanish ibex, which Chapman would go on to save from extinction.Profusely illustrated throughout with 209 full page black and white plates and in text illustrations by Joseph Crawhall, E. Crawhall, and Abel Chapman, and from photographs.
This copy was gifted by Heatley Noble, renowned ornithologist, author, and one of the half dozen best shots at Grouse and driven Pheasant in the kingdom during the early 1900’s.
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Price HK$ 2,800
The American Girl -
Howard Chandler Christy
1906 - Moffat, New York - First Edition
Classic work by one of the great American masters of illustration. A literary and cultural treasure, this tribute to the American girl of the new century is illustrated throughout with 16 colour plates and other illustrations in black and white by artist and journalist Howard Chandler Christy.
The Army Girl, The Socialite Girl, The Golf Girl, The Dancing Girl; they are the girls of turn-of-the-century America that Christy celebrates in their period glory. The American girl ‘has ceased, finally, to be a hothouse flower’.
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Price HK$ 2,800
1906 - Moffat, New York - First Edition
Classic work by one of the great American masters of illustration. A literary and cultural treasure, this tribute to the American girl of the new century is illustrated throughout with 16 colour plates and other illustrations in black and white by artist and journalist Howard Chandler Christy. The Army Girl, The Socialite Girl, The Golf Girl, The Dancing Girl; they are the girls of turn-of-the-century America that Christy celebrates in their period glory. The American girl ‘has ceased, finally, to be a hothouse flower’.
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Price HK$ 2,800
Savrola. A Tale of the Revolution in Laurania. -
Sir Winston Spencer Churchill
1900 - Longmans, London - First English Edition
A clean, crisp copy in a beautiful recent leather binding.
Written when Churchill was 23 and first appearing in serial form in ‘Macmillan's Magazine’, Savrola was Churchill's only novel. It embodies his early personal philosophy on life, which was to govern his later military and political career.
‘For those who know of his later exploits, it provides an amazing foreshadowing of events in his own life. Though the plot is sometimes clumsy, there are flashes of poignancy in his prose that are deeply insightful for a man of his age.’
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Price HK$ 11,500
1900 - Longmans, London - First English Edition
A clean, crisp copy in a beautiful recent leather binding.Written when Churchill was 23 and first appearing in serial form in ‘Macmillan's Magazine’, Savrola was Churchill's only novel. It embodies his early personal philosophy on life, which was to govern his later military and political career.
‘For those who know of his later exploits, it provides an amazing foreshadowing of events in his own life. Though the plot is sometimes clumsy, there are flashes of poignancy in his prose that are deeply insightful for a man of his age.’
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Price HK$ 11,500