Russian Ballet. Camera Studies by Gordon Anthony. With an Introduction by Arnold Haskell -
Gordon Anthony
1939 - Geoffrey Bles, London - First Edition
Illustrated with 96 tipped-in black and white photographs of Russian ballet stars, including a frontispiece.
A series of photographic studies of the stars of both Russian ballet companies at the time, including a portrait of the choreographer Michael Fokine, young Serge Lifar, Irina Baronova, Anton Dolin, Alexandra Danilova, Frederick Franklin, Tamara Grigorieva, David Lichine, Alicia Markova, Marc Platoff, Leonide Massine, Mia Slavenska and others.
Gordon Anthony was born James Gordon Dawson Stannus in Wicklow, Ireland on 23 December 1902. He started working in photography in 1926, making images of the students at his sister's ballet school in London. In 1933 he became the portrait photographer to the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford. His photographs helped to make the Royal Ballet known across the world in the 1930s. In 1948, he published the first ever book of colour photography in Great Britain, Studies of Dancers.
Anthony's photographs are held in major collection including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.
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Price HK$ 8,000
1939 - Geoffrey Bles, London - First Edition
Illustrated with 96 tipped-in black and white photographs of Russian ballet stars, including a frontispiece.A series of photographic studies of the stars of both Russian ballet companies at the time, including a portrait of the choreographer Michael Fokine, young Serge Lifar, Irina Baronova, Anton Dolin, Alexandra Danilova, Frederick Franklin, Tamara Grigorieva, David Lichine, Alicia Markova, Marc Platoff, Leonide Massine, Mia Slavenska and others.
Gordon Anthony was born James Gordon Dawson Stannus in Wicklow, Ireland on 23 December 1902. He started working in photography in 1926, making images of the students at his sister's ballet school in London. In 1933 he became the portrait photographer to the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford. His photographs helped to make the Royal Ballet known across the world in the 1930s. In 1948, he published the first ever book of colour photography in Great Britain, Studies of Dancers.
Anthony's photographs are held in major collection including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.
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Price HK$ 8,000
Complete Novels - Pride and Prejudice; Sense and Sensibility; Mansfield Park; Emma; Northanger Abbey and Persuasion -
Jane Austen, Austin Dobson (editor), Charles E. Brock, Hugh Thomson, (illustrator)
1912-1929 - Macmillan and Co., London
‘I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.'
An elegantly bound little five volume set, comprising all of Austen's novels. Beautifully illustrated throughout by Hugh Thomson and Charles Brock. Each volume with an introduction by Austin Dobson. Presented in a matching bespoke fleece-lined scarlet cloth-covered slipcase with ribbon pull.
‘Affectation of candour is common enough—one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design—to take the good of everybody's character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad—belongs to you alone.’
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Price HK$ 20,000
1912-1929 - Macmillan and Co., London
‘I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.'An elegantly bound little five volume set, comprising all of Austen's novels. Beautifully illustrated throughout by Hugh Thomson and Charles Brock. Each volume with an introduction by Austin Dobson. Presented in a matching bespoke fleece-lined scarlet cloth-covered slipcase with ribbon pull.
‘Affectation of candour is common enough—one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design—to take the good of everybody's character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad—belongs to you alone.’
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Price HK$ 20,000
The Complete Novels - Sense and Sensibility; Pride and Prejudice; Mansfield Park; Emma; Northanger Abbey and Persuasion -
Jane Austen, J. C. Squire (introduction)
1928 - William Heinemann Ltd, London - First Single Volume Edition
A lovely presentation of the first single volume to contain all of Austen’s novels, finely bound by the great bindery of Bayntun-Rivière of Bath.
With a long introduction by Sir John Collings Squire [1884-1958].
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Price HK$ 10,000
1928 - William Heinemann Ltd, London - First Single Volume Edition
A lovely presentation of the first single volume to contain all of Austen’s novels, finely bound by the great bindery of Bayntun-Rivière of Bath.With a long introduction by Sir John Collings Squire [1884-1958].
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Price HK$ 10,000
The Yellow Book -
Aubrey Beardsley
April 1894-April 1897 - Elkin Mathews &, London
A complete, clean and better than normally encountered thirteen volume set of this groundbreaking art nouveau publication, in the publisher’s bright yellow illustrated covers with designs by Aubrey Beardsley. Together with ‘A Selection’ published in 1950 and bound in yellow cloth to match the earlier set. Fourteen volumes in total.
From its initial visually arresting issue, for which Aubrey Beardsley was art editor and for which Max Beerbohm wrote an essay, ‘A Defence of Cosmetics’, ‘The Yellow Book’ attained immediate notoriety.
Published by John Lane and edited by Henry Harland, ‘The Yellow Book’ attracted many outstanding writers and artists of the era, such as Arnold Bennett, Charlotte Mew, Henry James, Edmund Gosse, Richard Le Gallienne, and Walter Sickert.
Although dominated by the illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley, and his decadent fin de siècle aura, many other distinguished artists contributed to the quarterly, notably Frederic Leighton, Will Rothenstein, Walter Sickert and Philip Wilson Steer; contributors to the text included Max Beerbohm, John Buchan, Baron Corvo, Edmund Gosse, Kenneth Grahame, Henry James, E. Nesbit and W. B. Yeats.
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Price HK$ 10,000
April 1894-April 1897 - Elkin Mathews &, London
A complete, clean and better than normally encountered thirteen volume set of this groundbreaking art nouveau publication, in the publisher’s bright yellow illustrated covers with designs by Aubrey Beardsley. Together with ‘A Selection’ published in 1950 and bound in yellow cloth to match the earlier set. Fourteen volumes in total.From its initial visually arresting issue, for which Aubrey Beardsley was art editor and for which Max Beerbohm wrote an essay, ‘A Defence of Cosmetics’, ‘The Yellow Book’ attained immediate notoriety.
Published by John Lane and edited by Henry Harland, ‘The Yellow Book’ attracted many outstanding writers and artists of the era, such as Arnold Bennett, Charlotte Mew, Henry James, Edmund Gosse, Richard Le Gallienne, and Walter Sickert.
Although dominated by the illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley, and his decadent fin de siècle aura, many other distinguished artists contributed to the quarterly, notably Frederic Leighton, Will Rothenstein, Walter Sickert and Philip Wilson Steer; contributors to the text included Max Beerbohm, John Buchan, Baron Corvo, Edmund Gosse, Kenneth Grahame, Henry James, E. Nesbit and W. B. Yeats.
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Price HK$ 10,000
A Pilgrimage To Nejd -
Lady Anne Blunt
1881 - John Murray, London - First Edition
First edition of the second of Lady Blunt’s two classic travel accounts, in publisher’s original gilt pictorial cloth, and describing the journey that she and her husband, the poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, made in the winter of 1878–7, across the Nejd from Beirut, south into the Great Nefud, north to Baghdad and east to the Persian Gulf. Lady Anne was the first European woman to reach the Nejd and, together with her husband, they were the first Europeans to enter the Jebel Shammar in the Nejd. At Hail they met the Emir who received them courteously, having recently knifed his nephew and cut off the feet of his cousins, leaving them to bleed to death.
With over 30 black and white illustrations including fifteen wood-engraved plates, and large folding colour map.
‘To find out how the Bedouin lived, Lady Anne lived like one herself: she became a temporary nomad, riding the two thousand miles from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf for the most part in Arab dress, and without guides or the usual caravan. This was quite an innovation, and prompted Blunt to dub his wife ‘the first bona-fide tourist who has taken the Euphrates road'. - Jane Robinson, Wayward Women.
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Price HK$ 12,000
1881 - John Murray, London - First Edition
First edition of the second of Lady Blunt’s two classic travel accounts, in publisher’s original gilt pictorial cloth, and describing the journey that she and her husband, the poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, made in the winter of 1878–7, across the Nejd from Beirut, south into the Great Nefud, north to Baghdad and east to the Persian Gulf. Lady Anne was the first European woman to reach the Nejd and, together with her husband, they were the first Europeans to enter the Jebel Shammar in the Nejd. At Hail they met the Emir who received them courteously, having recently knifed his nephew and cut off the feet of his cousins, leaving them to bleed to death.With over 30 black and white illustrations including fifteen wood-engraved plates, and large folding colour map.
‘To find out how the Bedouin lived, Lady Anne lived like one herself: she became a temporary nomad, riding the two thousand miles from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf for the most part in Arab dress, and without guides or the usual caravan. This was quite an innovation, and prompted Blunt to dub his wife ‘the first bona-fide tourist who has taken the Euphrates road'. - Jane Robinson, Wayward Women.
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Price HK$ 12,000
The Works of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte -
Anne, Charlotte & Emily Bront
1893 - J.M. Dent and Company, London
An elegantly bound twelve volume set of the Brontë sisters works, each volume with a decorated title page and frontispiece, and two further black and white illustrated plates by Greig and Tilney (three to volume I).
Presented in a matching navy fleece-lined slipcase with ribbon-pull.
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Price HK$ 25,000
1893 - J.M. Dent and Company, London
An elegantly bound twelve volume set of the Brontë sisters works, each volume with a decorated title page and frontispiece, and two further black and white illustrated plates by Greig and Tilney (three to volume I).Presented in a matching navy fleece-lined slipcase with ribbon-pull.
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Price HK$ 25,000
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland - with - Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There -
Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]
1874 - Macmillan and Co., London - Early Editions
“Whilst Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass were intended for children “fresh from God’s hand”, it is equally enthralling and delightfully magical for adults as they follow Alice on her vibrant adventures escorted by her famous companions. Who can possibly not have been carried away into the fantastically crazy world of the Mad Hatter? Or never have heard of Tweedledee and Tweedledum? Who cannot have been struck by Carroll’s love for sophisticated play with words?.” - Stephanie Chan.
A finely bound pair, in which Tenniel’s illustrations, 42 in Wonderland and 50 in Looking-Glass, perfectly capture Alice’s upside-down world and are considered to be his finest and most enduring achievement.
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Price HK$ 50,000
1874 - Macmillan and Co., London - Early Editions
“Whilst Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass were intended for children “fresh from God’s hand”, it is equally enthralling and delightfully magical for adults as they follow Alice on her vibrant adventures escorted by her famous companions. Who can possibly not have been carried away into the fantastically crazy world of the Mad Hatter? Or never have heard of Tweedledee and Tweedledum? Who cannot have been struck by Carroll’s love for sophisticated play with words?.” - Stephanie Chan.A finely bound pair, in which Tenniel’s illustrations, 42 in Wonderland and 50 in Looking-Glass, perfectly capture Alice’s upside-down world and are considered to be his finest and most enduring achievement.
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Price HK$ 50,000
The Decisive Moment -
Henri Cartier-Bresson
1952 - Simon and Schuster in collaboration with É, New York - First Edition in English
One of the most important photography books of the 20th century, containing 126 full or double page heliogravures, considered ‘unique in providing an international portrait or impression of humanity covering the two decades prior to its publication’. Divided into two chronological and geographical sections: the first spans the years 1932 to 1947 and is made up of photographs taken in the west; the second spans 1947 to 1952 and was shot mostly in the east.
Prefaced by Cartier-Bresson’s 4,500-word philosophical essay, whose keynote ‘There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment.’ was taken from the 17th century Cardinal de Reitz.
‘The idea of the 'decisive moment' is one of the most enduring in photographic literature, and no one has articulated it better than its coiner, in his preface to this book: 'To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression.’’ - David Levi Strauss.
An elusively fine copy, the book without the commonly found chips to spine, in a superior example of the delicate dust jacket, both showing the striking illustration provided by Cartier-Bresson’s friend Henri Matisse. The original 12 leaf ‘Captions’ pamphlet laid in, as published.
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Price HK$ 19,000
1952 - Simon and Schuster in collaboration with É, New York - First Edition in English
One of the most important photography books of the 20th century, containing 126 full or double page heliogravures, considered ‘unique in providing an international portrait or impression of humanity covering the two decades prior to its publication’. Divided into two chronological and geographical sections: the first spans the years 1932 to 1947 and is made up of photographs taken in the west; the second spans 1947 to 1952 and was shot mostly in the east.Prefaced by Cartier-Bresson’s 4,500-word philosophical essay, whose keynote ‘There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment.’ was taken from the 17th century Cardinal de Reitz.
‘The idea of the 'decisive moment' is one of the most enduring in photographic literature, and no one has articulated it better than its coiner, in his preface to this book: 'To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression.’’ - David Levi Strauss.
An elusively fine copy, the book without the commonly found chips to spine, in a superior example of the delicate dust jacket, both showing the striking illustration provided by Cartier-Bresson’s friend Henri Matisse. The original 12 leaf ‘Captions’ pamphlet laid in, as published.
More details
Price HK$ 19,000