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Seven Pillars of Wisdom. A Triumph -
T. E. Lawrence
1935 - Jonathan Cape, London - First Trade Edition
A finely bound example of this autobiographical and legendary account of the experiences of T. E. Lawrence ('Lawrence of Arabia') while serving as a liaison officer with rebel forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks of 1916 to 1918. Illustrated with 54 plates, and four folding maps.
Winston Churchill stated that this ‘ranks with the greatest books ever written in the European Language’.
‘With its richly detailed evocation of the land and the people Lawrence passionately believed in, its incisive portraits of key players, from Faisal ibn Hussein, the future Hashemite king of Syria and Iraq, to General Sir Edmund Allenby and other members of the British imperial forces, Seven Pillars of Wisdom is an indispensable primary historical source. It helps us to understand today’s Middle East, while giving us thrilling accounts of military exploits (including the liberation of Aqaba and Damascus), clandestine activities, and human foibles.’ [Penguin]
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Price HK$ 8,000
1935 - Jonathan Cape, London - First Trade Edition
A finely bound example of this autobiographical and legendary account of the experiences of T. E. Lawrence ('Lawrence of Arabia') while serving as a liaison officer with rebel forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks of 1916 to 1918. Illustrated with 54 plates, and four folding maps.Winston Churchill stated that this ‘ranks with the greatest books ever written in the European Language’.
‘With its richly detailed evocation of the land and the people Lawrence passionately believed in, its incisive portraits of key players, from Faisal ibn Hussein, the future Hashemite king of Syria and Iraq, to General Sir Edmund Allenby and other members of the British imperial forces, Seven Pillars of Wisdom is an indispensable primary historical source. It helps us to understand today’s Middle East, while giving us thrilling accounts of military exploits (including the liberation of Aqaba and Damascus), clandestine activities, and human foibles.’ [Penguin]
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Price HK$ 8,000
Voyage dans les Mers de l'Inde -
Guillaume Joseph Le Gentil de la Galaisiere
1779 - Imprimerie Royale, Paris - First Editions
‘Two monumental volumes... crammed with details on astronomy, navigation, and natural history... His descriptions of life in Manila, Pondicherry, and Madagascar are invaluable’ (Dunmore).
A stunning set In contemporary bindings and illustrated with twenty seven folding copper engravings showing two world maps, maps charts and plans of Eastern and Western Philippines, Bay of Manila, Philippine Harbours, Manilla, Madagascar and it’s coastline, Isle de France (Mauritius), Isle de Bourbon (Réunion), Quartier S. Denis on Réunion, Eastern and Western Straits of Malacca, and Pondicherry. Together with engraved plates of animals and plant life, the ruins of Pondicherry, pagodas, Indian deities, and charts of comets and constellations.
‘In addition to the scientific details for which the voyage was undertaken, the first volume treats of the manners, customs, and religion or the people of the Malabar Coast and of the astronomy of the Brahmins. The second volume contains elaborate accounts of the Philippine Islands, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Bourbon and their inhabitants, including views and charts of the Philippines. Le Gentil gives details of the Islands, their climate, volcanoes, fertility, fruits, birds, animals, peoples, language, history, and description of Manila, the government, ecclesiastical and civil, commerce, &c.’ (Edwards).
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Price HK$ 51,000
1779 - Imprimerie Royale, Paris - First Editions
‘Two monumental volumes... crammed with details on astronomy, navigation, and natural history... His descriptions of life in Manila, Pondicherry, and Madagascar are invaluable’ (Dunmore). A stunning set In contemporary bindings and illustrated with twenty seven folding copper engravings showing two world maps, maps charts and plans of Eastern and Western Philippines, Bay of Manila, Philippine Harbours, Manilla, Madagascar and it’s coastline, Isle de France (Mauritius), Isle de Bourbon (Réunion), Quartier S. Denis on Réunion, Eastern and Western Straits of Malacca, and Pondicherry. Together with engraved plates of animals and plant life, the ruins of Pondicherry, pagodas, Indian deities, and charts of comets and constellations.
‘In addition to the scientific details for which the voyage was undertaken, the first volume treats of the manners, customs, and religion or the people of the Malabar Coast and of the astronomy of the Brahmins. The second volume contains elaborate accounts of the Philippine Islands, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Bourbon and their inhabitants, including views and charts of the Philippines. Le Gentil gives details of the Islands, their climate, volcanoes, fertility, fruits, birds, animals, peoples, language, history, and description of Manila, the government, ecclesiastical and civil, commerce, &c.’ (Edwards).
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Price HK$ 51,000
Golf -
Cecil Leitch
1922 - J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia & - First American Edition issued same year as the First English Edition.
‘The golfing life and experiences of this very great English lady golfer’ - Joseph Murdoch, The Library of Golf.
Charlotte Cecilia Pitcairn Leitch (nicknamed Cecil) was the first superstar of women’s golf. In 1914 she won the first of her four British Ladies Amateurs, taking the title from Muriel Dodd. Her opportunity to possibly win several more was interrupted for five years during the First World War. She retired having won 12 national titles, five French Ladies Amateurs and one Canadian Women's Amateur.
With fifty illustrations, including photographic plate laid onto front covers, and full page black and white photographs.
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Price HK$ 1,800
1922 - J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia & - First American Edition issued same year as the First English Edition.
‘The golfing life and experiences of this very great English lady golfer’ - Joseph Murdoch, The Library of Golf.Charlotte Cecilia Pitcairn Leitch (nicknamed Cecil) was the first superstar of women’s golf. In 1914 she won the first of her four British Ladies Amateurs, taking the title from Muriel Dodd. Her opportunity to possibly win several more was interrupted for five years during the First World War. She retired having won 12 national titles, five French Ladies Amateurs and one Canadian Women's Amateur.
With fifty illustrations, including photographic plate laid onto front covers, and full page black and white photographs.
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Price HK$ 1,800
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln -
Abraham Lincoln, Roy P. Basler (editor), Marion Dolores Prat, Lloyd A. Dunlap (assistant editors)
1953-1955 - Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick
A handsomely bound nine volume set of the most comprehensive collection to date of Abraham Lincoln’s speeches, letters and notes, together with a one volume index. A massive undertaking by the Abraham Lincoln Association of Springfield, Illinois.
Illustrated with photographs and plates reproducing documents, and engraved portrait frontispiece to volume I
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Price HK$ 24,000
1953-1955 - Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick
A handsomely bound nine volume set of the most comprehensive collection to date of Abraham Lincoln’s speeches, letters and notes, together with a one volume index. A massive undertaking by the Abraham Lincoln Association of Springfield, Illinois.Illustrated with photographs and plates reproducing documents, and engraved portrait frontispiece to volume I
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Price HK$ 24,000
The Chronicles of Scotland. Published from Several Old Manuscripts -
Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, John Graham Dalyell (editor)
1814 - Printed by George Ramsay for Archibald Constable and Company, Edinburgh
An early and rare publication of Lindsay’s Historie and Chronicles of Scotland, the first history of Scotland to be composed in Scots rather than Latin, and first published in 1728. This edition was compiled by Dalyell from four different manuscripts, and even Dalyell says that ‘perhaps it is not inconsistent to admit, that [Lindsay] may have availed himself of the materials collected by his predecessors.’
The Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen gives Lindsay some credit, by stating that ‘the earnest and honest simplicity of the good old chronicler, however, is exceedingly amusing.’ But, they go on to say that ‘as to the Chronicles themselves, it is not perhaps very easy to determine in what language they should be spoken of. They present a strange compound of endless and aimless garrulity, simplicity, credulity, and graphic delineation; the latter, however, evidently the effect not of art or design, but of a total want of them. He describes events with all the circumstantiality of an eyewitness, and with all the prolixity of one who is determined to leave nothing untold, however trifling it may be. But his credulity, in particular, seems to have been boundless, and is remarkable even for the credulous age in which he lived. He appears to have believed, without question, every thing which was told him; and, believing it, has carefully recorded it.’
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Price HK$ 5,000
1814 - Printed by George Ramsay for Archibald Constable and Company, Edinburgh
An early and rare publication of Lindsay’s Historie and Chronicles of Scotland, the first history of Scotland to be composed in Scots rather than Latin, and first published in 1728. This edition was compiled by Dalyell from four different manuscripts, and even Dalyell says that ‘perhaps it is not inconsistent to admit, that [Lindsay] may have availed himself of the materials collected by his predecessors.’The Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen gives Lindsay some credit, by stating that ‘the earnest and honest simplicity of the good old chronicler, however, is exceedingly amusing.’ But, they go on to say that ‘as to the Chronicles themselves, it is not perhaps very easy to determine in what language they should be spoken of. They present a strange compound of endless and aimless garrulity, simplicity, credulity, and graphic delineation; the latter, however, evidently the effect not of art or design, but of a total want of them. He describes events with all the circumstantiality of an eyewitness, and with all the prolixity of one who is determined to leave nothing untold, however trifling it may be. But his credulity, in particular, seems to have been boundless, and is remarkable even for the credulous age in which he lived. He appears to have believed, without question, every thing which was told him; and, believing it, has carefully recorded it.’
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Price HK$ 5,000
Voodoo Fire in Haiti -
Richard A. Loederer
1935 - Jarrolds Publishers London Limited, London - First Edition in English
‘The drums took on a different rhythm, rattling out a sharp staccato message, accompanied by the heavy pounding of the bass. Faster and faster flew the feet of the dancers as they whirled round the fire. Their smooth muscles writhed and cramped as under the blows of an invisible whip.’
From his steamer voyage from Jazz Age New York to Cap Haitien to his punishing trek through the island's interior jungle to a rapt, yet fearful, attendance at an authentic voodoo ceremony, Loederer captures the sights, sounds, and sensations of this mysterious Caribbean republic.
A selection of the magnificent chapter headings tell all... Congo Bean Stew; Massacre River; Jungle Magic; Tropical Fever; Polychromata; Black Magic; Voodoo Fire.
Illustrated by fifty one of the author's own art deco-style woodcuts, and his wonderful piratical map of Haiti used for the endpapers, which only add to the exotic appeal.
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Price HK$ 3,000
1935 - Jarrolds Publishers London Limited, London - First Edition in English
‘The drums took on a different rhythm, rattling out a sharp staccato message, accompanied by the heavy pounding of the bass. Faster and faster flew the feet of the dancers as they whirled round the fire. Their smooth muscles writhed and cramped as under the blows of an invisible whip.’From his steamer voyage from Jazz Age New York to Cap Haitien to his punishing trek through the island's interior jungle to a rapt, yet fearful, attendance at an authentic voodoo ceremony, Loederer captures the sights, sounds, and sensations of this mysterious Caribbean republic.
A selection of the magnificent chapter headings tell all... Congo Bean Stew; Massacre River; Jungle Magic; Tropical Fever; Polychromata; Black Magic; Voodoo Fire.
Illustrated by fifty one of the author's own art deco-style woodcuts, and his wonderful piratical map of Haiti used for the endpapers, which only add to the exotic appeal.
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Price HK$ 3,000
The Clans of the Scottish Highlands -
James Logan, R. R. McIan (illustrator)
1845-1847 - Ackermann and Co., Strand - First Folio Edition
First editions of the first illustrated encyclopaedia of traditional Scottish tartans. Scarce, massive and in the publisher’s original large folio bindings with the motto of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Nemo me impune lacessit to the ornate gilt covers. Housed in bespoke slipcases.
Containing seventy-two magnificent hand-coloured lithographic plates, and two colour chromolithograph titles with the coat of arms of the different Scottish clans. McIan and Logan’s extensive research into the clans was in response to Queen Victoria’s interest in her Scottish heritage, the final work being published to celebrate the centenary of the 1745 Jacobite Rising, one of the results being the 1746 Act of Proscription prohibiting the wearing of highland clothing, the second offence of which led to transportation (repealed in 1782).
McIan’s Clans is still considered the finest example of a large number of works on the subject.
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Price HK$ 85,000
1845-1847 - Ackermann and Co., Strand - First Folio Edition
First editions of the first illustrated encyclopaedia of traditional Scottish tartans. Scarce, massive and in the publisher’s original large folio bindings with the motto of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Nemo me impune lacessit to the ornate gilt covers. Housed in bespoke slipcases.Containing seventy-two magnificent hand-coloured lithographic plates, and two colour chromolithograph titles with the coat of arms of the different Scottish clans. McIan and Logan’s extensive research into the clans was in response to Queen Victoria’s interest in her Scottish heritage, the final work being published to celebrate the centenary of the 1745 Jacobite Rising, one of the results being the 1746 Act of Proscription prohibiting the wearing of highland clothing, the second offence of which led to transportation (repealed in 1782).
McIan’s Clans is still considered the finest example of a large number of works on the subject.
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Price HK$ 85,000
The Sand Pebbles -
Richard McKenna
1963 - Victor Gollancz, London - First English Edition
Fine copy in nice bright unclipped and scarce dust jacket. The story of a US naval river boat based on the Yangtze river in 1925, the author served for ten years in the US Navy in the Far East, two of them on a Yangtze River gunboat.
The basis for the film starring Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, Richard Crenna and Candice Bergen. Later republished by the U. S. Naval Institute as part of their ‘Classics of Naval Literature’ series.
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Price HK$ 2,500
1963 - Victor Gollancz, London - First English Edition
Fine copy in nice bright unclipped and scarce dust jacket. The story of a US naval river boat based on the Yangtze river in 1925, the author served for ten years in the US Navy in the Far East, two of them on a Yangtze River gunboat.The basis for the film starring Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, Richard Crenna and Candice Bergen. Later republished by the U. S. Naval Institute as part of their ‘Classics of Naval Literature’ series.
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Price HK$ 2,500