Polo & Coaching -
Circa 1923 - British Sports and Sportsmen, London - First Edition. Royal Edition, limited to 250 copies, of which this is number 221.
A massive scarce and sumptuously bound work, one of only 250 copies of the ‘Royal Edition’, and enhanced by over 450 illustrations from photographs, paintings and sketches. The original subscriber for this copy was Edward Coleby Ransome O.B.E. (1864-1939) whose name has been blocked in gilt to the front board. Ransome, Cambridge educated, a crack shot, representing England in rifle shooting, was Mayor of Ipswich, Suffolk.
With contributions from Major-General Vaughan, T. Levins Moore, Gordon Withers, Major Hesseltine, Major-General Pitman, Keith Marsham, Lieut.-General Sir Michael Rimington, Lieut.-Colonel Nickalls, Osgold Cross, F.P.P. Rouse, “Bronco” and “Rissala”.
The majority of this work covers Polo, describing the origins of the game its history in India, Ireland, and England, tactics and rules, as well as short biographical notes on players. The last part gives a history of coaching, which, with the introduction of railways, had become more of a sporting recreation usually involving marathon distances with a carriage (coach) and team of horses.
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Price HK$ 6,000
Circa 1923 - British Sports and Sportsmen, London - First Edition. Royal Edition, limited to 250 copies, of which this is number 221.
A massive scarce and sumptuously bound work, one of only 250 copies of the ‘Royal Edition’, and enhanced by over 450 illustrations from photographs, paintings and sketches. The original subscriber for this copy was Edward Coleby Ransome O.B.E. (1864-1939) whose name has been blocked in gilt to the front board. Ransome, Cambridge educated, a crack shot, representing England in rifle shooting, was Mayor of Ipswich, Suffolk.With contributions from Major-General Vaughan, T. Levins Moore, Gordon Withers, Major Hesseltine, Major-General Pitman, Keith Marsham, Lieut.-General Sir Michael Rimington, Lieut.-Colonel Nickalls, Osgold Cross, F.P.P. Rouse, “Bronco” and “Rissala”.
The majority of this work covers Polo, describing the origins of the game its history in India, Ireland, and England, tactics and rules, as well as short biographical notes on players. The last part gives a history of coaching, which, with the introduction of railways, had become more of a sporting recreation usually involving marathon distances with a carriage (coach) and team of horses.
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Price HK$ 6,000
Fairy Tales -
Hans C. Andersen, Kay Nielsen (Illustrator)
1924 - Hodder and Stoughton Limited, London - First Edition, One of 500 &lsquo
A fine ‘Edition de Luxe’ of this magnificent presentation of Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales, number 21 of 500 examples, signed and exquisitely illustrated by Kay Nielsen.
Presented in the publisher’s deluxe gilt illustrated vellum binding, with twelve full page mounted colour plates with integrated formal and informal borders, and captioned tissue guards, seventeen full page black and white drawings, decorated initials and endpieces.
Sixteen fairy tales, including 'The Snow Queen', 'The Princess and the Pea' and 'The Hardy Tin Soldier'.
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Price HK$ 30,000
1924 - Hodder and Stoughton Limited, London - First Edition, One of 500 &lsquo
A fine ‘Edition de Luxe’ of this magnificent presentation of Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales, number 21 of 500 examples, signed and exquisitely illustrated by Kay Nielsen.Presented in the publisher’s deluxe gilt illustrated vellum binding, with twelve full page mounted colour plates with integrated formal and informal borders, and captioned tissue guards, seventeen full page black and white drawings, decorated initials and endpieces.
Sixteen fairy tales, including 'The Snow Queen', 'The Princess and the Pea' and 'The Hardy Tin Soldier'.
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Price HK$ 30,000
The Female Instructor; or Young Woman s Companion -
Anon
October - Nuttall Fisher, Liverpool - Stereotype Edition
Large and detailed ‘Female Instructor’, 560 pages including but limited to recipes, cures, instructions for various house servants, ‘Advice to the fair Sex, both Before and After Marriage’, ‘On the Mode of Introducing Young Women into Company’, ‘Pious Reflections for every day of the Month’, ‘On Female Dress’, and ‘Female Education’.
Most likely the first edition, complete with eleven engraved plates including two engraved engraved illustrated title pages. Usually found incomplete.
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Price HK$ 3,000
October - Nuttall Fisher, Liverpool - Stereotype Edition
Large and detailed ‘Female Instructor’, 560 pages including but limited to recipes, cures, instructions for various house servants, ‘Advice to the fair Sex, both Before and After Marriage’, ‘On the Mode of Introducing Young Women into Company’, ‘Pious Reflections for every day of the Month’, ‘On Female Dress’, and ‘Female Education’.Most likely the first edition, complete with eleven engraved plates including two engraved engraved illustrated title pages. Usually found incomplete.
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Price HK$ 3,000
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 collections 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 collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.
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Price HK$ 8,000
The Complete Works - Sense and Sensibility; Pride and Prejudice; Mansfield Park; Emma; Northanger Abbey and Persuasion; Lady Susan, The Watsons, and Letters -
Jane Austen
1911-12 - John Grant, Edinburgh - The Winchester Edition
‘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 twelve volume set, comprising all of Austen's works. With a portrait frontispiece to first volume, and title pages printed in red and black with a vignette 'JA' monogram.
‘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$ 35,000
1911-12 - John Grant, Edinburgh - The Winchester Edition
‘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 twelve volume set, comprising all of Austen's works. With a portrait frontispiece to first volume, and title pages printed in red and black with a vignette 'JA' monogram.
‘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$ 35,000
Made in France - Signed -
Richard Avedon, Judith Thurman
2001 - Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco - First and only edition, limited to 5000 &lsquo
A clean example of this fine large and fabulous book, signed by Avedon in his typical large scrawl.
Illustrated with 40 tritone and quadrotone plates, text by Richard Avedon and an Essay by Judith Thurman, staff writer for The New Yorker.
‘And if a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up. I know that the accident of my being a photographer has made my life possible.’ - Richard Avedon.
‘These witty, ravishing photographs were taken in the late fifties, when Avedon was still shooting Paris couture for Harper's Bazaar— Suzy Parker, in a Lanvin-Castillo evening dress, bent over a pinball machine at Café des Beaux-Arts; Audrey Hepburn, in Dior, propped up against the bar at Maxim's like a bejewelled fountain pen.
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Price HK$ 12,000
2001 - Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco - First and only edition, limited to 5000 &lsquo
A clean example of this fine large and fabulous book, signed by Avedon in his typical large scrawl.Illustrated with 40 tritone and quadrotone plates, text by Richard Avedon and an Essay by Judith Thurman, staff writer for The New Yorker.
‘And if a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up. I know that the accident of my being a photographer has made my life possible.’ - Richard Avedon.
‘These witty, ravishing photographs were taken in the late fifties, when Avedon was still shooting Paris couture for Harper's Bazaar— Suzy Parker, in a Lanvin-Castillo evening dress, bent over a pinball machine at Café des Beaux-Arts; Audrey Hepburn, in Dior, propped up against the bar at Maxim's like a bejewelled fountain pen.
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Price HK$ 12,000
The Italian Lakes -
Richard Bagot, Ella Du Cane (artist)
1905 - Adam and Charles Black, London - First Edition
An exquisitely presented work on the Italian Lakes by the English writer Richard Bagot (1860-1921) who was invested as a Grand Officer in the Order of the Crown of Italy, and as a Knight in the Sovereign Military Order of Malta for his works on Italy.
Wonderfully illustrated throughout with sixty-eight colour plates and descriptive tissue-guards from water colours by British watercolorist Ella Du Cane (1874-1943).
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Price HK$ 3,000
1905 - Adam and Charles Black, London - First Edition
An exquisitely presented work on the Italian Lakes by the English writer Richard Bagot (1860-1921) who was invested as a Grand Officer in the Order of the Crown of Italy, and as a Knight in the Sovereign Military Order of Malta for his works on Italy.Wonderfully illustrated throughout with sixty-eight colour plates and descriptive tissue-guards from water colours by British watercolorist Ella Du Cane (1874-1943).
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Price HK$ 3,000
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