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The Later Ceramic Wares of China - Robert Lockhart Hobson

1925 - Ernest Benn, London - First Edition. Deluxe Issue. Number 28 of 250 signed copies
A fine copy of the limited edition which was signed by Hobson and contains five additional colour plates (plates A to E), in the publisher’s deluxe full glazed pigskin binding.

Hobson’s exhaustive and scholarly work, is a natural sequel to
Wares of the Ming Dynasty, carrying on the history of Chinese pottery and porcelain and completing the trilogy that began with Early Ceramic Wares of China. Chapters include general history, detailed studies of various periods, European influences on Chinese porcelain, as well as explanations of shapes, designs, and marks.

Profusely illustrated with twenty four full page colour plates, eight folding colour plates, and fifty full page monochrome plates. There are also a small number of in-text emblems, symbols, and the final chapter on potter’s marks provides five pages of examples.
 
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Price HK$ 18,000



1857 to 1858
The original 320 page hand-written journal of Captain Robert Jenkins, during his time as Commander of HMS Actaeon for the year 1857 and HMS Comus in 1857, both ships active off the coast of China, mostly around Canton. Included is a hand drawn and water coloured sketch of Chinese villagers being forced to kowtow to the Union Jack. Finely bound in contemporary black calf and brass locks.

HMS Actaeon was commissioned in 1857 to serve as a survey vessel off the coast of China, under the command of Captain William Thornton Bate. She was present at the bombardment of Canton in 1857,where Bate was shot and killed on 29th. December. Captain Robert Jenkins took over the command of the ship and his journal refers to the bombardment of Canton, surveying factories, disputes over land between British and Chinese merchants. It also covers skirmishes with armed junks and defence of the Barrier. Locations include Hong Kong ,Canton, Macao and Amoy.

According to the Journal it appears that Jenkins was wounded seriously on June 30th 1858, and on September 16th ‘Joined Commander J Ward, [vice?] Captain R Jenkins discharged to Half Pay’, September 18th ‘I went to Shanghai with Commander Ward’, from whence Jenkins travelled to Hong Kong, Singapore, Penang, Galli, Aden, Alexandria, Malta, Gibralter, Falmouth, arriving in Southampton 19th November, one month after leaving Shanghai.

Journal (binding size 29x23.5cm), pp. [4] [144 (1st January to 31st December 1857 as Commander of HMS Comus)] [9 (Summary of year 1857 as Commander of HMS Comus)] [1]; [7(January 1-19th, last days as Commander of HMS Comus)] [1] [92 (January 20th to 19th November as Commander of HMS Actaeon)] [4] [8 (Summary of year 1857 as Commander of HMS Actaeon)] [50]. Paper watermarked ‘1852’ ‘Fellows’.
 
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Price HK$ 130,000



The Tourists' Guide and Merchants' Manual. Being an English-Chinese Vocabulary of Articles of Commerce and of Domestic Use; also, All the Known Names Connected with the Sciences of Natural History, Chemistry, Pharmacy, &c. &c. &c. In the Court and Punti Dialects - Rev. Wilhelm Lobscheid

1864 - Printed and Published at the office of the &ldquo, Hongkong - First Edition
Rare early Cantonese (’Punti’) and Mandarin vocabulary published by The Daily Press, compiled by Rev. Wilhelm Lobscheid (1822-1893) whose groundbreaking four volume dictionary was also published by The Daily Press two years later in 1866.

The Daily Press was the first daily English-language newspaper in Hong Kong, published from 1857 for about 80 years. Founded and edited by George M Ryder. 
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Price HK$ 18,000



Celebrities of the Shanghai Turf - Juel Madsen, Edmund

1923 - Juel Madsen, Shanghai - First and only edition
A rare piece of Shanghai horse racing history, in remarkably clean condition.

Containing 54 full page captioned illustrations of prominent members of the Shanghai community, by Danish artists Juel Madsen, and Edmund Toeg, with an introduction by A. W. "Bertie" Burkill, Steward of the Shanghai Race Club.

The illustrations consist of 33 individual portraits of members of the Shanghai Race Club, Shanghai Paper Hunt Club, and International Recreation Club, beginning with G. H. Stitt, then Chairman of the Shanghai Racing Club (and Shanghai manager of the Hong Kong bank, interesting trivia – the right hand lion below the HSBC building in Hong Kong is nicknamed Stitt); 5 group sketches of Shanghai Race Club and Paper Hunt Club; 2 group sketches of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps (those featured are named below each sketch); 2 horses; all by Juel Madsen and 12 caricature sketches by Edmund Toeg.

Possibly the last publication and showing some of the last sketches by the Danish artist and war correspondent Juel Madsen who was killed in September 1923 in the Great Kantō Japanese earthquake.
 
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Price HK$ 15,000



On a Chinese Screen - William Somerset Maugham

1922 - William Heinemann, London - First English Edition
First edition of Maugham’s collection of sketches on China.

Maugham spent the winter months of 1919 travelling fifteen hundred miles up the Yangtze river, with what are clearly long stops in Shanghai and Hong Kong amongst other treaty ports. Always more interested in people than places, he noted down acute and finely crafted sketches of those he met on countless scraps of paper.

In the resulting collection we encounter Western missionaries, army officers and company managers who are culturally out of their depth in the immensity of the Chinese civilisation. Maugham keenly observes, and gently ridicules, their dogged and oblivious persistence with the life they know. In total 58 sketches.
 
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Price HK$ 15,000



The Chinese Government. A Manual of Chinese Titles, Categorically Arranged and Explained, with an Appendix - William Frederick Mayers, revised by G.M.H, Playfair, H.B.M. Consul, Ningpo

1897 - Kelly &, Shanghai - Third Edition
A rare example of this detailed work on the inner workings of China’s complex administrative network, by one of the foremost Chinese scholars of the period.

This work became a standard reference for consulates (this copy being formerly owned by the German Consulate in Nanking and then Shanghai), as well as merchants and those translating Chinese texts and edicts.
 
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Price HK$ 16,000



Shanghai Paper Hunt Club - A Short Resume of the Season 1929-1930. - Major E. H. McMichael

1930 - North-China Daily News &, Shanghai - First and Only Edition
An extremely rare and fine little one-off production, only printed for this particular season. As explained in the foreword ‘For certain reasons it was deemed undesirable to publish the accounts of the past Season’s Hunts in the daily press, but in order that a complete record of the sport during 1929-30 might be preserved for future reference, the Stewards considered that it would be much appreciated, both by members and friends, if some account of the Hunts held could be published in pamphlet form.’ Why it was ‘deemed undesirable’ they do not explain.

A fine copy illustrated with 20 photographs and two sketches. The resume covers nine Paper Hunts and three Handicap races from November 24th, 1929 to February 23rd, 1930. With a list of events for the Shanghai Hounds’ Drag Hunts Season of 1929-30 to the rear.
 
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Price HK$ 9,000



Glimpses of China. A Series of Vandyck Photogravures illustrating Chinese life and surroundings - Donald Mennie

Circa 1920 - A. S. Watson &, 16 Nanking Road - First Edition
A clean and superior example of this work by the Scottish born Donald Mennie, published by A. S. Watson in Shanghai.

Presenting thirty large photogravure plates tipped onto a dark brown background each with Mennie’s personal descriptive text.

In the publisher’s original card wrappers, without soiling, stains, chips or foxing, scarce as such.
 
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Price HK$ 12,000



 
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