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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
Grasses and Pastures of South Africa -
D. Meredith (editor)
1955 - Central News Agency, Johannesburg - First Edition
A large and comprehensive work in two parts - ‘A Guide to the Identification of Grasses in South Africa’ by Lucy Chippindall, and ‘Pasture Management in South Africa’ by J. D. Scott, J. J. Theron, D. Meredith and others.
In a unique and elegant binding, initially ‘J.K. 97’, with what appear to be handmade paper end leaves incorporating wild grasses. Housed in matching bespoke marbled slipcase.
Illustrated throughout with full page colour plates and in-text black and white photographs, folding colour maps bound in at the rear.
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Price HK$ 6,000
1955 - Central News Agency, Johannesburg - First Edition
A large and comprehensive work in two parts - ‘A Guide to the Identification of Grasses in South Africa’ by Lucy Chippindall, and ‘Pasture Management in South Africa’ by J. D. Scott, J. J. Theron, D. Meredith and others.In a unique and elegant binding, initially ‘J.K. 97’, with what appear to be handmade paper end leaves incorporating wild grasses. Housed in matching bespoke marbled slipcase.
Illustrated throughout with full page colour plates and in-text black and white photographs, folding colour maps bound in at the rear.
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Price HK$ 6,000
Across East African Glaciers -
Dr. Hans Meyer, E. H. S. Caulder (translator)
1891 - George Philip &, London - First Edition in English
A superb example of the first edition, in the publisher’s original and first state illustrated cover highlighting the snow in white and additional colour to the tents and clearing, described by Neate as ‘a most handsome volume’. With mounted chromolithographed frontispiece, three folding colour maps, eight mounted photographic plates, and twelve photogravures.
‘Hans Meyer was a geologist and experienced climber who made four trips to the Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania, in 1887-1889 culminating in his successful ascent – the first undisputed summit of Kibo, 19,340 feet, the highest of the mountain's three peaks – in 1889.
In an earlier attempt, Meyer and his companion Oscar Baumann had the misfortune to arrive in the midst of an Arab revolt against German traders on the East African coast. They were captured and held hostage until a substantial ransom was paid.
Meyer's ultimate success has been attributed to his recognition that the greatest obstacle to achieving the summit was the lack of food in the upper regions. He brought a sizeable and well organised party and established several camps on the mountain, allowing him to make multiple attempts at the summit without descending to the base.
His lively and highly readable account of the expedition is arguably the most important work on African mountaineering.’ - Walkabout Books.
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Price HK$ 40,000
1891 - George Philip &, London - First Edition in English
A superb example of the first edition, in the publisher’s original and first state illustrated cover highlighting the snow in white and additional colour to the tents and clearing, described by Neate as ‘a most handsome volume’. With mounted chromolithographed frontispiece, three folding colour maps, eight mounted photographic plates, and twelve photogravures.‘Hans Meyer was a geologist and experienced climber who made four trips to the Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania, in 1887-1889 culminating in his successful ascent – the first undisputed summit of Kibo, 19,340 feet, the highest of the mountain's three peaks – in 1889.
In an earlier attempt, Meyer and his companion Oscar Baumann had the misfortune to arrive in the midst of an Arab revolt against German traders on the East African coast. They were captured and held hostage until a substantial ransom was paid.
Meyer's ultimate success has been attributed to his recognition that the greatest obstacle to achieving the summit was the lack of food in the upper regions. He brought a sizeable and well organised party and established several camps on the mountain, allowing him to make multiple attempts at the summit without descending to the base.
His lively and highly readable account of the expedition is arguably the most important work on African mountaineering.’ - Walkabout Books.
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Price HK$ 40,000
A Critical Inquiry into Antient Armour -
Samuel Rush Meyrick
1824 - Robert Jennings, London - First Edition
A beautifully illustrated huge three volume folio set of this landmark work.
Illustrated with three additional engraved titles and eighty engraved plates from Meyrick’s own paintings, seventy of which are hand coloured many embellished with gilt and silver, and twenty seven large hand-coloured and gilt historiated initials. Additional copies of colour plates XLV and LI laid in.
‘This most superb archeological work is animated with numerous novelties, curious and historical disquisitions, and brilliant and recondite learning... Sir Walter Scott justly describes this collection as the “incomparable armory, plates as fine as the monuments of Westminster Abbey. Really and truly the work is admirably executed, and deserves every eulogy"’. (Edinburgh Review, quoted in Lowndes).
‘With the history of the wars of mankind, obviously, and from the remotest periods, it is connected; with the mythology and sacred rites of almost all nations and religions; with the rise and progress of a large portion of the arts; with questions of jurisprudence and civil polity; and with some of the most favorite amusements of all ranks in antient, as well as modern, times’. (preface).
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Price HK$ 25,000
1824 - Robert Jennings, London - First Edition
A beautifully illustrated huge three volume folio set of this landmark work.Illustrated with three additional engraved titles and eighty engraved plates from Meyrick’s own paintings, seventy of which are hand coloured many embellished with gilt and silver, and twenty seven large hand-coloured and gilt historiated initials. Additional copies of colour plates XLV and LI laid in.
‘This most superb archeological work is animated with numerous novelties, curious and historical disquisitions, and brilliant and recondite learning... Sir Walter Scott justly describes this collection as the “incomparable armory, plates as fine as the monuments of Westminster Abbey. Really and truly the work is admirably executed, and deserves every eulogy"’. (Edinburgh Review, quoted in Lowndes).
‘With the history of the wars of mankind, obviously, and from the remotest periods, it is connected; with the mythology and sacred rites of almost all nations and religions; with the rise and progress of a large portion of the arts; with questions of jurisprudence and civil polity; and with some of the most favorite amusements of all ranks in antient, as well as modern, times’. (preface).
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Price HK$ 25,000
Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival, 1940-1965. Taken from the diaries of Lord Moran -
Lord Moran
1966 - Constable, London - First Edition
Finely bound, illustrated with 15 black and white photographic plates, some double-sided, including a frontispiece.
Selections from the diaries of Winston Churchill's doctor, devoted friend, and confidant, Lord Moran, which form a frank and intimate portrait of the Prime Minister from the tumultuous post-World War II years all the way up to his death in January 1965.
Presenting an invaluable picture of a complicated, contradictory individual: stubborn, defiant, prideful, yet possessing an undeniable strength and nobility. Moran chronicles not only the key political events of Churchill's last twenty years—his legendary Iron Curtain speech, his triumphant return to power in 1951 and his ensuing role in the unfolding political landscape of the Cold War era—but also Churchill's place as a Nobel Prize winning historian, voracious traveller, and enigmatic father and husband.
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Price HK$ 5,000
1966 - Constable, London - First Edition
Finely bound, illustrated with 15 black and white photographic plates, some double-sided, including a frontispiece. Selections from the diaries of Winston Churchill's doctor, devoted friend, and confidant, Lord Moran, which form a frank and intimate portrait of the Prime Minister from the tumultuous post-World War II years all the way up to his death in January 1965.
Presenting an invaluable picture of a complicated, contradictory individual: stubborn, defiant, prideful, yet possessing an undeniable strength and nobility. Moran chronicles not only the key political events of Churchill's last twenty years—his legendary Iron Curtain speech, his triumphant return to power in 1951 and his ensuing role in the unfolding political landscape of the Cold War era—but also Churchill's place as a Nobel Prize winning historian, voracious traveller, and enigmatic father and husband.
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Price HK$ 5,000
The English Lakes (In the neighbourhood of Keswick and Penrith) -
Nelson
1868 - T. Nelson &, London - First Edition
12 Chromolithograph plates of the area. Original blue cloth, lettered and blocked in gilt with a colour-printed and varnished paper title in the centre panel.
Nelson's began colour printing in 1857 and `over the next two years greatly improved their use of just five inks to create extremely convincing full-colour chromolithographs.' Gascoigne discusses their `Series of views', attractive collections of souvenir prints for tourists, at some length and notes that they were frequently updated to reflect changes. He also states that Nelson launched their series of `Pictorial guide-books' in 1869 bound in paper covers.
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Price HK$ 1,200
1868 - T. Nelson &, London - First Edition
12 Chromolithograph plates of the area. Original blue cloth, lettered and blocked in gilt with a colour-printed and varnished paper title in the centre panel. Nelson's began colour printing in 1857 and `over the next two years greatly improved their use of just five inks to create extremely convincing full-colour chromolithographs.' Gascoigne discusses their `Series of views', attractive collections of souvenir prints for tourists, at some length and notes that they were frequently updated to reflect changes. He also states that Nelson launched their series of `Pictorial guide-books' in 1869 bound in paper covers.
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Price HK$ 1,200
Life and Writings of Thomas Paine -
Thomas Paine, Daniel Edwin Wheeler (editor)
1908 - Vincent Parke and Company, New York - Independence Edition of the Centenary Issue
‘These are the times that try men's souls’
Elegantly bound ten volume set of the de luxe independence edition, number 166 of just 500 hand-numbered sets signed by the editor Daniel Edwin Wheeler, published to celebrate the centenary of Paine's death.
Included are Paine’s ‘Common Sense’, ‘The American Crises’, ‘The Rights of Man’, and ‘The Age of Reason’, as well as essays, letters and speeches. Each volume with three photogravure or facsimile plates, as well as a frontispiece, title-pages printed in two colours, autographed limitation leaf to volume one.
‘On January 10, 1776, an obscure immigrant published a small pamphlet that ignited independence in America and shifted the political landscape of the patriot movement from reform within the British imperial system to independence from it. One hundred twenty thousand copies sold in the first three months in a nation of three million people, making Common Sense the best-selling printed work by a single author in American history up to that time. Never before had a personally written work appealed to all classes of colonists. Never before had a pamphlet been written in an inspiring style so accessible to the “common” folk of America.’ - Jack Miller Center.
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Price HK$ 35,000
1908 - Vincent Parke and Company, New York - Independence Edition of the Centenary Issue
‘These are the times that try men's souls’Elegantly bound ten volume set of the de luxe independence edition, number 166 of just 500 hand-numbered sets signed by the editor Daniel Edwin Wheeler, published to celebrate the centenary of Paine's death.
Included are Paine’s ‘Common Sense’, ‘The American Crises’, ‘The Rights of Man’, and ‘The Age of Reason’, as well as essays, letters and speeches. Each volume with three photogravure or facsimile plates, as well as a frontispiece, title-pages printed in two colours, autographed limitation leaf to volume one.
‘On January 10, 1776, an obscure immigrant published a small pamphlet that ignited independence in America and shifted the political landscape of the patriot movement from reform within the British imperial system to independence from it. One hundred twenty thousand copies sold in the first three months in a nation of three million people, making Common Sense the best-selling printed work by a single author in American history up to that time. Never before had a personally written work appealed to all classes of colonists. Never before had a pamphlet been written in an inspiring style so accessible to the “common” folk of America.’ - Jack Miller Center.
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Price HK$ 35,000
Man-Eaters of Tsavo - with - In the Grip of the Nyika -
Lieut.-Col. J. H. Patterson
1907 - Macmillan and Co., London - First Editions, third/second printings (same year as first).
‘We were never long without excitement of some kind or another at Tsavo. When the camp was not being attacked by man-eating lions, it was visited by leopards, hyenas, wild dogs, wild cats and other inhabitants of the jungle around us.’
A scarce bright and sharp pair. Profusely illustrated with black and white photographs and maps. The Man-Eaters of Tsavo contains Colonel John Henry Patterson’s legendary account of hunting down two man-eating Tsavo lions, which at the time were believed to have killed 135 people, while he was overseeing the construction of a railroad bridge in East Africa, in 1898. Together with In the Grip of the Nyika, the account of Colonel John Henry Patterson’s hunting trips during his later expeditions to East Africa, it includes reminiscences of the Tsavo man-eaters episode, as well as his various experiences on safari, his visit to Nairobi, and his numerous encounters with big game animals, including lions, elephants, and rhino.
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Price HK$ 6,000
1907 - Macmillan and Co., London - First Editions, third/second printings (same year as first).
‘We were never long without excitement of some kind or another at Tsavo. When the camp was not being attacked by man-eating lions, it was visited by leopards, hyenas, wild dogs, wild cats and other inhabitants of the jungle around us.’A scarce bright and sharp pair. Profusely illustrated with black and white photographs and maps. The Man-Eaters of Tsavo contains Colonel John Henry Patterson’s legendary account of hunting down two man-eating Tsavo lions, which at the time were believed to have killed 135 people, while he was overseeing the construction of a railroad bridge in East Africa, in 1898. Together with In the Grip of the Nyika, the account of Colonel John Henry Patterson’s hunting trips during his later expeditions to East Africa, it includes reminiscences of the Tsavo man-eaters episode, as well as his various experiences on safari, his visit to Nairobi, and his numerous encounters with big game animals, including lions, elephants, and rhino.
More details
Price HK$ 6,000