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Modern Lawn Tennis - Illustrated by Explanatory Diagrams and Action Photographs taken expressly for this Work. -
Pembroke Arnold Vaile
1904 - William Heinemann, London - First Edition
A near fine copy of a comprehensive work by Pembroke Arnold Vaile, an attorney who wrote what for years were considered the authoritative texts on golf and tennis. Brilliantly illustrated with 29 full page photographic plates taken by George W. Beldam, a renowned sports photographer .
This copy is cleaner than a set of whites at Wimbledon in 1904, although as one can see from the image of Mr. Vaile ‘playing a smash’, the fashion for black knee-length socks and black belt is, for better or worse, no longer fashionable.
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Price HK$ 1,400
1904 - William Heinemann, London - First Edition
A near fine copy of a comprehensive work by Pembroke Arnold Vaile, an attorney who wrote what for years were considered the authoritative texts on golf and tennis. Brilliantly illustrated with 29 full page photographic plates taken by George W. Beldam, a renowned sports photographer .This copy is cleaner than a set of whites at Wimbledon in 1904, although as one can see from the image of Mr. Vaile ‘playing a smash’, the fashion for black knee-length socks and black belt is, for better or worse, no longer fashionable.
More details
Price HK$ 1,400
Among the Kara-Korum Glaciers in 1925 -
Jenny Visser-Hooft, PH. C. Visser
1926 - Edward Arnold &, London - First Edition
The second Dutch expedition to the Karakoram, by Jenny Visser-Hooft (1888-1939) a respected Dutch explorer and mountaineer, variously Honorary Member of the Royal Netherlands Geographical Society and the Ducth Alpine Club, and Vice-President of the Ladies’ Alpine Club in London. Together with her husband Dr. Philip Visser (1882-1955), a distinguished Dutch diplomat and mountain explorer who unravelled many Karakoram glacier puzzles.
After the war the Visser-Hoofts moved to Stockholm, and a grand total of four expeditions to the Karakoram Glaciers soon followed, during which time the couple became first-hand experts on ‘one of the most difficult fields of exploration on earth’; that great, inaccessible watershed between the Hindu Kush and the Hunza Valley. Jenny took charge of botany and general planning, relishing the long marches through hazardous scrac and rotten ice or along blady, unknown mountain ridges, and by the 1930’s the Visser-Hoofts and that other climbing partnership the Workmans had effectively filled in most of the blank spaces on the Karakoram map’ - Jane Robinson, Wayward Women.
First edition, illustrated with 25 full page photographic plates one single page map an done folding map to the rear.
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Price HK$ 1,500
1926 - Edward Arnold &, London - First Edition
The second Dutch expedition to the Karakoram, by Jenny Visser-Hooft (1888-1939) a respected Dutch explorer and mountaineer, variously Honorary Member of the Royal Netherlands Geographical Society and the Ducth Alpine Club, and Vice-President of the Ladies’ Alpine Club in London. Together with her husband Dr. Philip Visser (1882-1955), a distinguished Dutch diplomat and mountain explorer who unravelled many Karakoram glacier puzzles.After the war the Visser-Hoofts moved to Stockholm, and a grand total of four expeditions to the Karakoram Glaciers soon followed, during which time the couple became first-hand experts on ‘one of the most difficult fields of exploration on earth’; that great, inaccessible watershed between the Hindu Kush and the Hunza Valley. Jenny took charge of botany and general planning, relishing the long marches through hazardous scrac and rotten ice or along blady, unknown mountain ridges, and by the 1930’s the Visser-Hoofts and that other climbing partnership the Workmans had effectively filled in most of the blank spaces on the Karakoram map’ - Jane Robinson, Wayward Women.
First edition, illustrated with 25 full page photographic plates one single page map an done folding map to the rear.
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Price HK$ 1,500
With Boat and Gun in the Yangtze Valley -
Henling Thomas Wade
1910 - Shanghai Mercury Ltd., Shanghai - Second Edition
Second and enlarged edition of this practical guide to shooting in the lower reaches of the Yangtze, intended primarily for the Shanghai expatriate community; ‘Even before Shanghai was opened by treaty, officers from the well-manned opium schooners lying at Woosung used to organise shooting parties...’. A comprehensive treatise, with over 40 articles contributed by various authors, including chapters on Chinese methods of game-hunting, hunting districts, house-boats and their owners, cookery, vocabulary, field medicine, how to break in dogs, and ‘What to do in case of Trouble with the Natives’.
Illustrated with five maps, two full page schematics of the author’s 80ft boat The Thistle and a 50ft steel house boat, full page diagram of Snipes tail fathers for identification, five charming woodblock illustrations, and several other in-text diagrams.
‘A foreign sportsman is usually fully equipped with a fowling-piece with the latest improvements, the newest and best ammunition and a good dog...... the Chinaman takes the field clad in straw sandals and the poorest of clothes and uses a common, roughly made gingal [the large Chinese matchlock], inferior native powder, and shot of unequal sizes. If comparison be made of the results attained by the two shooters.... the palm must be given to the latter, who use their inferior matchlocks with singular dexterity and precision.’
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Price HK$ 4,800
1910 - Shanghai Mercury Ltd., Shanghai - Second Edition
Second and enlarged edition of this practical guide to shooting in the lower reaches of the Yangtze, intended primarily for the Shanghai expatriate community; ‘Even before Shanghai was opened by treaty, officers from the well-manned opium schooners lying at Woosung used to organise shooting parties...’. A comprehensive treatise, with over 40 articles contributed by various authors, including chapters on Chinese methods of game-hunting, hunting districts, house-boats and their owners, cookery, vocabulary, field medicine, how to break in dogs, and ‘What to do in case of Trouble with the Natives’.Illustrated with five maps, two full page schematics of the author’s 80ft boat The Thistle and a 50ft steel house boat, full page diagram of Snipes tail fathers for identification, five charming woodblock illustrations, and several other in-text diagrams.
‘A foreign sportsman is usually fully equipped with a fowling-piece with the latest improvements, the newest and best ammunition and a good dog...... the Chinaman takes the field clad in straw sandals and the poorest of clothes and uses a common, roughly made gingal [the large Chinese matchlock], inferior native powder, and shot of unequal sizes. If comparison be made of the results attained by the two shooters.... the palm must be given to the latter, who use their inferior matchlocks with singular dexterity and precision.’
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Price HK$ 4,800
The Complete Angler -
Izaak Walton, Charles Cotton, Edward Jesse (editor)
1861 - Henry G. Bohn, London - The Second Jesse Edition
A finely bound copy of one of the most profusely illustrated editions, the second to be edited by Edward Jesse. According to Oliver, ‘this edition has been criticized as having been somewhat too fully annotated and illustrated, but the illustrations, in our opinion, add as much to the charm of the book, as the notes do to its interest’.
‘Indeed, my good scholar, we may say of angling, as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries,
" Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did ";
and so, if I might be judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.’
The most enduring distinction of the Complete Angler is the one cast off by its subtitle The Contemplative Man's Recreation with its graceful evocations of a life free from hurly-burly in the company of friends intent on physical and moral sustenance. The range of perspectives that Walton brings to bear on his rural descriptions embrace literature, poetry, music and anecdote.
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Price HK$ 9,500
1861 - Henry G. Bohn, London - The Second Jesse Edition
A finely bound copy of one of the most profusely illustrated editions, the second to be edited by Edward Jesse. According to Oliver, ‘this edition has been criticized as having been somewhat too fully annotated and illustrated, but the illustrations, in our opinion, add as much to the charm of the book, as the notes do to its interest’.‘Indeed, my good scholar, we may say of angling, as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries,
" Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did ";
and so, if I might be judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.’
The most enduring distinction of the Complete Angler is the one cast off by its subtitle The Contemplative Man's Recreation with its graceful evocations of a life free from hurly-burly in the company of friends intent on physical and moral sustenance. The range of perspectives that Walton brings to bear on his rural descriptions embrace literature, poetry, music and anecdote.
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Price HK$ 9,500
The Complete Angler or Contemplative Man's Recreation, Being a Discourse on Rivers, Fish-ponds, Fish, and Fishing -
Izaak Walton, Charles Cotton, Sir John Hawkins, J. E. Harting
1893 - Samuel Bagster and Sons, London - The Harting Edition. Tercentenary Edition. No. 300 of 350 copies.
‘Indeed, my good scholar, we may say of angling, as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries,
" Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did ";
and so, if I might be judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.’
A finely bound two volume set of the Harting Edition. With 54 illustrations and additional vignettes, and embellishments after John Linnell, G. E. Lodge, Huysman, Alexander, Wale, Samuel, and Percy Thomas, engraved by Audinet, Hayter, and Greig.
‘Edited from a Naturalist point of view’ by J. E. Harting, librarian of the Linnaen Society of London. The date of the founding of the Bagster publishing house was April 19,1794, and this profusely illustrated edition, limited to 350 numbered copies, was partly intended to commemorate the event. Included is an abridgement of the Lives of the Authors by Sir John Hawkins
‘It breathes the very spirit of innocence, purity, and simplicity of the heart. There are many choice old verses interspersed in it; it would sweeten a man's temper at any time to read it’ - Charles Lamb in his letter to Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
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Price HK$ 10,000
1893 - Samuel Bagster and Sons, London - The Harting Edition. Tercentenary Edition. No. 300 of 350 copies.
‘Indeed, my good scholar, we may say of angling, as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries, " Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did ";
and so, if I might be judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.’
A finely bound two volume set of the Harting Edition. With 54 illustrations and additional vignettes, and embellishments after John Linnell, G. E. Lodge, Huysman, Alexander, Wale, Samuel, and Percy Thomas, engraved by Audinet, Hayter, and Greig.
‘Edited from a Naturalist point of view’ by J. E. Harting, librarian of the Linnaen Society of London. The date of the founding of the Bagster publishing house was April 19,1794, and this profusely illustrated edition, limited to 350 numbered copies, was partly intended to commemorate the event. Included is an abridgement of the Lives of the Authors by Sir John Hawkins
‘It breathes the very spirit of innocence, purity, and simplicity of the heart. There are many choice old verses interspersed in it; it would sweeten a man's temper at any time to read it’ - Charles Lamb in his letter to Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
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Price HK$ 10,000
The Cricket Bat and How to Use It. -
Nicholas Wanostrocht Felix An Old Cricketer
1863 - Houlston and Wright, London - First Edition, Second Issue
A pretty example of this early and important work by the great ‘Felix’, rare in the original gilt cloth boards.
And with five such mighty cricketers 'twas but natural to win
As Felix, Wenman, Hillyer, Fuller Pilch and Alfred Mynn.
Nicholas ‘Felix’ Wanostrocht (1804-76) was a noted English amateur (’Gentleman’) cricketer, a classical scholar, musician, linguist, inventor, writer and artist. When his father died in 1824 he had inherited the running of his school, aged only nineteen, and he was afraid that the parents of pupils might think that cricket was too frivolous a pastime for a schoolmaster, so he played under the name of ‘Felix’. A specialist left-handed batsman, though he did occasionally bowl underarm slow left-arm orthodox, Felix was a mainstay of the great Kent team of the mid-19th century alongside such players as Alfred Mynn, Fuller Pilch, William Hillyer and Ned Wenman.
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Price HK$ 4,000
1863 - Houlston and Wright, London - First Edition, Second Issue
A pretty example of this early and important work by the great ‘Felix’, rare in the original gilt cloth boards.And with five such mighty cricketers 'twas but natural to win
As Felix, Wenman, Hillyer, Fuller Pilch and Alfred Mynn.
Nicholas ‘Felix’ Wanostrocht (1804-76) was a noted English amateur (’Gentleman’) cricketer, a classical scholar, musician, linguist, inventor, writer and artist. When his father died in 1824 he had inherited the running of his school, aged only nineteen, and he was afraid that the parents of pupils might think that cricket was too frivolous a pastime for a schoolmaster, so he played under the name of ‘Felix’. A specialist left-handed batsman, though he did occasionally bowl underarm slow left-arm orthodox, Felix was a mainstay of the great Kent team of the mid-19th century alongside such players as Alfred Mynn, Fuller Pilch, William Hillyer and Ned Wenman.
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Price HK$ 4,000
Football for Players and Coaches -
Glenn Scobey Warner - Athletic Director Carlisle Indian School
1912Carlisle - First Edition
Pre-dating Bear Bryant and Bobby Bowden, Glenn Scobey ‘Pop’ Warner had the most wins of any coach in major college football history (319–106–32). Warner was the innovator behind the single-wing formation, a precursor to the modern spread and shotgun formations. Warner coached four teams to national championships: in 1915, 1916, and 1918 with Pittsburgh and in 1926 with Stanford. He was inducted as a coach into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.
‘The plan of teaching football by mail was suggested to me several years ago by the fact that there seemed to be no means available by which a student of the game could obtain instruction except by putting himself under the supervision of professional coaches upon the field of play . . . The course has not been prepared for the general public but is strictly a text book for players and for those whose business or pleasure it may be to instruct players and teams.‘ – From the preface.
A bright and clean copy of this early work, profusely illustrated with photographic figures and drawn diagrams of equipment, technique, and strategy. There is a frontispiece photograph of the author.
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Price HK$ 2,800
1912Carlisle - First Edition
Pre-dating Bear Bryant and Bobby Bowden, Glenn Scobey ‘Pop’ Warner had the most wins of any coach in major college football history (319–106–32). Warner was the innovator behind the single-wing formation, a precursor to the modern spread and shotgun formations. Warner coached four teams to national championships: in 1915, 1916, and 1918 with Pittsburgh and in 1926 with Stanford. He was inducted as a coach into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.‘The plan of teaching football by mail was suggested to me several years ago by the fact that there seemed to be no means available by which a student of the game could obtain instruction except by putting himself under the supervision of professional coaches upon the field of play . . . The course has not been prepared for the general public but is strictly a text book for players and for those whose business or pleasure it may be to instruct players and teams.‘ – From the preface.
A bright and clean copy of this early work, profusely illustrated with photographic figures and drawn diagrams of equipment, technique, and strategy. There is a frontispiece photograph of the author.
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Price HK$ 2,800
Views In India, Chiefly Among The Himalaya Mountains -
Lieut. George Francis White, Emma Roberts (editor)
1838 - Fisher, London & - Second Edition
A superior copy of this folio, in the publisher’s original gilt decorated burgundy morocco binding. With descriptions of White’s journey together with twenty nine full-page engraved plates, and extra illustrated engraved title page, after sketches by White, Grindlay as well as from water-colours by various artists including Turner.
Between 1829 and 1832 Lieutenant White (1808-98) travelled ‘in that portion of the Himalayan regions lying between the rivers Sutlej and Kelee’ making sketches of sites along the Ganges and Jumna, at Sutlej, the Keeree pass, Hardwar, Mussoorie, Jamnotri, Gangotri, Simla, Nahaun, including an account of the ascent of Choor, there are also views in Rajputana, Bombay, the Deccan and Kathiawar.
First published in 1836, but without the valuable input and editing of Emma Roberts (1794-1840) who worked as an editor and writer in India whilst staying with her sister, and later under commission form the Asiatic Journal.
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Price HK$ 9,000
1838 - Fisher, London & - Second Edition
A superior copy of this folio, in the publisher’s original gilt decorated burgundy morocco binding. With descriptions of White’s journey together with twenty nine full-page engraved plates, and extra illustrated engraved title page, after sketches by White, Grindlay as well as from water-colours by various artists including Turner.Between 1829 and 1832 Lieutenant White (1808-98) travelled ‘in that portion of the Himalayan regions lying between the rivers Sutlej and Kelee’ making sketches of sites along the Ganges and Jumna, at Sutlej, the Keeree pass, Hardwar, Mussoorie, Jamnotri, Gangotri, Simla, Nahaun, including an account of the ascent of Choor, there are also views in Rajputana, Bombay, the Deccan and Kathiawar.
First published in 1836, but without the valuable input and editing of Emma Roberts (1794-1840) who worked as an editor and writer in India whilst staying with her sister, and later under commission form the Asiatic Journal.
More details
Price HK$ 9,000