You searched for: William Black

A Practical Treatise on Brewing - William Black

1844 - Longman, London - Third Edition, &lsquo
A near fine, and unopened copy, of this important and popular treatise, first published in 1835

Folding plate ‘
Delineation of the New Improved Saccharometer’ to the rear.

The
Spectator in it’s review notes that this is ‘A new edition of a book we formerly noticed as a useful and original-minded treatise. The additional matter has been revised by Professor Graham, of the London University.’

Perhaps the most well known historical Scottish brewing firm was that of William Black & Company of Aberdeen believed to have been established in 1803, and his ‘Devanha Brewery’ used the former Paper Mills by the Wellington Suspension Bridge in Aberdeen. Black’s Devanha Porter - a dark beer resembling stout - became famous throughout the UK, the Brewery being conveniently close to the railway halt at the Cattle Bank. The firm itself was laterally acquired in 1819 to become the Gilcomston Brewery and again by the Devanha Brewery Company Limited, registered as a limited liability company in 1910. Brewing finally ceased in 1930 after the firm was acquired by Thomas Usher & Son Ltd. of Edinburgh. William Black & Co. also ran the Devanha Distillery, built about a mile upstream from the Brewery in 1825. [Durden Park Beer Circle / The Doric Columns].
 
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Price HK$ 3,500



Commentaries on the Laws of England. - William Blackstone, Esq. Solicitor General to Her Majesty

1770 - The Clarendon Press, Oxford - Fourth Edition
It Is Better That Ten Persons Escape, Than That One Innocent Suffer.

‘Blackstone's great work on the laws of England is the extreme example of justification of an existing state of affairs by virtue of its history. Until the ‘Commentaries’, the ordinary Englishman had viewed the law as a vast, unintelligible and unfriendly machine; nothing but trouble, even danger, was to be expected from contact with it. Blackstone's great achievement was to popularise the law and the traditions which had influenced its formation.’
Printing and the Mind of Man.

An attractive four volume quarto set [28 x 23 cm] in contemporary full calf binding. With two engraved tables, being the
Table of Consanguinity [Vol. II p.203] and the folding Table of Descents [Vol. II p.240]. 
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Price HK$ 32,000



Carrington s Cases - J. Storer Clouston

1920 - William Blackwood and Sons, London - First Edition
‘I don’t believe there is any business in the world in which a man gets more puzzlers as to what is his duty, than in mine.’ said Carrington. ‘In the kind of private work I do, I’m constantly up against the nastiest snags, but one generally has to toughen one’s hide and go ahead anyway.’

Presented with a charmingly illustrated front cover, this Queen's Quorum thriller features the adventures of the wonderful F.T. Carrington, the monocled young private detective ‘with a round, ingenuous, very agreeable face... a little neatly trimmed moustache’ – the inquiry agent, as he preferred to call himself. He tackles crimes and mysteries such as misplaced spouses, haunted houses, and medical misnomers, all done with Clouston’s trademark talent for absorbing plot, balanced with his deft hand for humour.

‘One of the most sought-after collections of detective short stories’ – Eric Quayle,
Detective Fiction. 
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Price HK$ 2,000



Youth : A Narrative, and Two Other Stories - Joseph Conrad

1902 - William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London - First Edition with second state of publisher&rsquo
‘The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.

First edition of Conrad's acclaimed short story collection, including his masterpiece '
The Heart of Darkness', which with its generation of visual scene upon visual scene each charged with more intense emotive impact, and a final cumulative effect of human imbecility, evil and horror, is now regarded as one of the greatest short stories ever written.

‘I couldn't help asking him once what he meant by coming here at all. “To make money, of course. What do you think?” he said scornfully.


The Horror! The Horror! 
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Price HK$ 12,000



1880 - William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London - First Edition
I think you do me much honour by preserving my scribbles’ writes the colourful and eccentric Sharpe in the tipped in letter that accompanies his finely bound Ballad Book, re-edited by David Laing, with additions from Sharpe's manuscripts, and which he first printed only 30 copies in 1823, although according to Henderson, the majority of the added ballads in 1880 were of more or less questionable authenticity (ODNB). The final portion of the book prints Sir Walter Scott’s commentary on the original poems, and is taken from correspondence between Scott and his friend Sharpe.

Scarce. Illustrated with a colour frontispiece portrait, woodblock engraving plate and headpiece (as used for the original 1823 edition).

A speculative note regarding the letter - As stated in the editor’s introduction (ix) ‘
Mr Sharpe’s own annotated copy’ was carefully followed to produce this work, a copy that was ‘in the possession of Sir James Gibson-Craig’. Gibson-Craig had one of the finest collection of Scottish works ever assembled, and other correspondence from Sharpe to Gibson-Craig did begin with ‘Signor Mio’, leading us to speculate that this letter accompanied the original and rare 1823 printing of which only 30 were produced, and which in this case was later given by Sharpe to Gibson-Craig. 
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Price HK$ 5,000