The Holy Bible. Ornamented with Engravings by James Fittler from Celebrated Pictures by Old Masters, the Letter Press by Thomas Bensley -
1795 - R. Bowyer &, London - First Illustrated by Fittler
A lovely two volume bible in contemporary 18th century binding.
Containing the Old Testament and New Testament, profusely illustrated with 63 engraved plates and three engraved titles by James Fittler (1758-1835) after Old Master paintings by Dürer, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Rubens, etc. With text is in two columns, volume I contains Genesis to Psalms, volume II - Proverbs to Revelation
Sometimes referred to as the Killer Bible for its typographical error in Mark 7, verse 27: ‘Let the children be killed’ rather than ‘filled’.
Provenance: With detailed 19th-century genealogical entries relating to the Gouthwaite family (Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Liverpool), and the armourial bookplate of S. Hemingway to upper pastedowns.
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Price HK$ 11,000
1795 - R. Bowyer &, London - First Illustrated by Fittler
A lovely two volume bible in contemporary 18th century binding.Containing the Old Testament and New Testament, profusely illustrated with 63 engraved plates and three engraved titles by James Fittler (1758-1835) after Old Master paintings by Dürer, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Rubens, etc. With text is in two columns, volume I contains Genesis to Psalms, volume II - Proverbs to Revelation
Sometimes referred to as the Killer Bible for its typographical error in Mark 7, verse 27: ‘Let the children be killed’ rather than ‘filled’.
Provenance: With detailed 19th-century genealogical entries relating to the Gouthwaite family (Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Liverpool), and the armourial bookplate of S. Hemingway to upper pastedowns.
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Price HK$ 11,000
The Essays Or Counsels, Civil and Moral -
Sir Francis Bacon
1680 - Printed by M. Clark, London - Enlarged by the Honourable Author himself
'One of the major political figures of his time, Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) served in the court of Elizabeth I and ultimately became Lord Chancellor under James I in 1617. A scholar, wit, lawyer and statesman, he wrote widely on politics, philosophy and science - declaring early in his career that 'I have taken all knowledge as my province'.’
An early edition of Bacon’s most famous work, in which he considers a diverse range of subjects, such as death and marriage, ambition and atheism, in prose that is vibrant and rich in Renaissance learning. Bacon believed that rhetoric - the force of eloquence and persuasion - could lead the mind to the pure light of reason, and his own rhetorical genius is nowhere better expressed than in these vivid essays'.
‘Deeper and more discriminating than any earlier, or almost any later, work in the English language’ - Henry Hallam.
Essays and Counsels consists of 58 essays on a diverse range of important topics including: Truth; Death; Love; Parents and Children; Envy; Superstition; Travel; Riches; Friendship; Youth and Age; ; Beauty; Studies; Honor and Reputation; Revenge; Cunning; Fortune; Anger; and Ambition.
Added to the Essays are the Colours of Good and Evil , and Wisdom of the Ancients, in which Bacon unveils the ancient wisdom behind Greek fables, thirty-one of which he retells here, suggesting that they contain hidden teachings on varied issues such as morality, philosophy, religion, civility, politics, science, and art.
With frontispiece portrait of Sir Francis Bacon engraved by F. H. Van Houe.
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Price HK$ 8,000
1680 - Printed by M. Clark, London - Enlarged by the Honourable Author himself
'One of the major political figures of his time, Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) served in the court of Elizabeth I and ultimately became Lord Chancellor under James I in 1617. A scholar, wit, lawyer and statesman, he wrote widely on politics, philosophy and science - declaring early in his career that 'I have taken all knowledge as my province'.’An early edition of Bacon’s most famous work, in which he considers a diverse range of subjects, such as death and marriage, ambition and atheism, in prose that is vibrant and rich in Renaissance learning. Bacon believed that rhetoric - the force of eloquence and persuasion - could lead the mind to the pure light of reason, and his own rhetorical genius is nowhere better expressed than in these vivid essays'.
‘Deeper and more discriminating than any earlier, or almost any later, work in the English language’ - Henry Hallam.
Essays and Counsels consists of 58 essays on a diverse range of important topics including: Truth; Death; Love; Parents and Children; Envy; Superstition; Travel; Riches; Friendship; Youth and Age; ; Beauty; Studies; Honor and Reputation; Revenge; Cunning; Fortune; Anger; and Ambition.
Added to the Essays are the Colours of Good and Evil , and Wisdom of the Ancients, in which Bacon unveils the ancient wisdom behind Greek fables, thirty-one of which he retells here, suggesting that they contain hidden teachings on varied issues such as morality, philosophy, religion, civility, politics, science, and art.
With frontispiece portrait of Sir Francis Bacon engraved by F. H. Van Houe.
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Price HK$ 8,000
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
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
A Treatise on Cobbett's Corn -
William Cobbett
1828 - By William Cobbett, London - First Edition
In 1820 on returning from the United States, were he had fled fearing arrest for his arguably seditious writings, Cobbett established a plant nursery at Kensington, where he trialed a dwarf strain of maize he found growing in a French cottage garden which grew well in England’s shorter summer. To help sell this variety, Cobbett published Treatise on Cobbett’s Corn. Charmingly written, including anecdotes of his travels through America, and the farming techniques and people he encounters there. The title and contents pages are printed on paper made from the husks and stalks of ‘Indian Corn’ (Maize).
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Price HK$ 2,500
1828 - By William Cobbett, London - First Edition
In 1820 on returning from the United States, were he had fled fearing arrest for his arguably seditious writings, Cobbett established a plant nursery at Kensington, where he trialed a dwarf strain of maize he found growing in a French cottage garden which grew well in England’s shorter summer. To help sell this variety, Cobbett published Treatise on Cobbett’s Corn. Charmingly written, including anecdotes of his travels through America, and the farming techniques and people he encounters there. The title and contents pages are printed on paper made from the husks and stalks of ‘Indian Corn’ (Maize).
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Price HK$ 2,500
The Morals of Confucius -
Confucius
Circa 1760-80 - Printed for Randal Taylor, London - First Thus
A rare later 18th century reprint of this work and the first to include the folding frontispiece engraving of Confucius (often missing). First published in 1691 and scarce in any early edition, more so this edition with the engraving. In contemporary binding, and with decorations to title page, six headpieces, and three tailpieces.
Beginning with a ‘Preface’ introducing this translation and its sources, followed by ‘Part First’ titled ‘Of the Antiquity and Philosophy of the Chinese’, then ‘Part II’ which offers selected translations from the three books, and ends with 80 ‘Maxims’.
‘The great Chinese teacher Confucius (551 BC–479 BC) articulated a philosophy based on the concepts of ren (‘benevolence’ or ‘compassion’) and li (‘ritual’ or ‘propriety’). He hoped to create the ideal, superior man (junzi) and thereby facilitate a just society.
Confucius’s teachings were highly influential across China and large areas of east Asia for almost two millennia before this 1691 work offered English readers their first introduction to his philosophical approach. It provides an account of Confucius’s life and times, as well as 80 of his maxims.
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Price HK$ 16,000
Circa 1760-80 - Printed for Randal Taylor, London - First Thus
A rare later 18th century reprint of this work and the first to include the folding frontispiece engraving of Confucius (often missing). First published in 1691 and scarce in any early edition, more so this edition with the engraving. In contemporary binding, and with decorations to title page, six headpieces, and three tailpieces.Beginning with a ‘Preface’ introducing this translation and its sources, followed by ‘Part First’ titled ‘Of the Antiquity and Philosophy of the Chinese’, then ‘Part II’ which offers selected translations from the three books, and ends with 80 ‘Maxims’.
‘The great Chinese teacher Confucius (551 BC–479 BC) articulated a philosophy based on the concepts of ren (‘benevolence’ or ‘compassion’) and li (‘ritual’ or ‘propriety’). He hoped to create the ideal, superior man (junzi) and thereby facilitate a just society.
Confucius’s teachings were highly influential across China and large areas of east Asia for almost two millennia before this 1691 work offered English readers their first introduction to his philosophical approach. It provides an account of Confucius’s life and times, as well as 80 of his maxims.
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Price HK$ 16,000
Mating Marriage and the Status of Women -
James Corin
1910 - The Walter Scott Publishing Co. Ltd., London and Felling-on-Tyne - First Edition
‘The Object of the present treatise is to consider the development of the relations of the male and the female of the species.’ And onward Corin bravely goes. This rare treatise is still referenced today, and must of been of importance at the time, this copy was owned by the ‘Liberator League’ of Bradford.
Corin summarises his theories in the final chapter as follows:- ‘In the first period the human female rules. She dictates to the male in sexual affairs — this is free mating...
In the second period the male captures foreign females for his use, because his own are too chaste; these foreign females become his slave wives. He courts and mates with females of his own tribe at yearly festivals like Australian corroborees.
In the third period the institution of marriage has become the dominant form . . . so much so that mating unions become regularised as marriages or are condemned as illicit. Of females, wives are more honoured than free mates — in fact the latter become infamous except in a few cases of royal princesses...
In the fourth period the female recognises and revolts against her inferior position; restrictions on dissolution of marriage are relaxed, and by easy divorce, conditions nearly approaching those of free-mating are again evolved...
In the fifth period, social disruption occurs, conquest by a lower type takes place. The male seizes the opportunity to reinstate the fetters of matrimony and to rivet the links more tightly on the female. so that something of the third period is entered into again.’
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Price HK$ 1,900
1910 - The Walter Scott Publishing Co. Ltd., London and Felling-on-Tyne - First Edition
‘The Object of the present treatise is to consider the development of the relations of the male and the female of the species.’ And onward Corin bravely goes. This rare treatise is still referenced today, and must of been of importance at the time, this copy was owned by the ‘Liberator League’ of Bradford.Corin summarises his theories in the final chapter as follows:- ‘In the first period the human female rules. She dictates to the male in sexual affairs — this is free mating...
In the second period the male captures foreign females for his use, because his own are too chaste; these foreign females become his slave wives. He courts and mates with females of his own tribe at yearly festivals like Australian corroborees.
In the third period the institution of marriage has become the dominant form . . . so much so that mating unions become regularised as marriages or are condemned as illicit. Of females, wives are more honoured than free mates — in fact the latter become infamous except in a few cases of royal princesses...
In the fourth period the female recognises and revolts against her inferior position; restrictions on dissolution of marriage are relaxed, and by easy divorce, conditions nearly approaching those of free-mating are again evolved...
In the fifth period, social disruption occurs, conquest by a lower type takes place. The male seizes the opportunity to reinstate the fetters of matrimony and to rivet the links more tightly on the female. so that something of the third period is entered into again.’
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Price HK$ 1,900
The Selfish Gene - Signed -
Richard Dawkins
1976 - Oxford University Press, Oxford - First Edition
A fine and thus rare signed first edition of Dawkins’ fascinating and somewhat controversial masterwork.
‘Dawkins first book, The Selfish Gene, was a smash hit... Best of all, Dawkins laid out this biology-some of it truly subtle-in stunningly lucid prose. (It is, in my view, the best work of popular science ever written.)’ – New York Review of Books.
‘This important book could hardly be more exciting.’ – The Economist.
Dawkins used the term ‘selfish gene’ as a way of expressing the gene-centred view of evolution as opposed to the views focused on the organism and the group. The more two individuals are genetically related, the more sense (at the level of the genes) it makes for them to behave selflessly with each other. Therefore the concept is especially good at explaining many forms of altruism. This should not be confused with misuse of the term along the lines of a selfishness gene.
An organism is expected to evolve to maximise its inclusive fitness - the number of copies of its genes passed on globally (rather than by a particular individual). As a result, populations will tend towards an evolutionarily stable strategy. The book also coins the term meme for a unit of human cultural evolution analogous to the gene, suggesting that such ‘selfish’ replication may also model human culture, in a different sense. Memetics has become the subject of many studies since the publication of the book.
In the foreword to the book's 30th anniversary edition, Dawkins said he ‘can readily see that [the book's title] might give an inadequate impression of its contents’ and in retrospect thinks he should have taken Tom Maschler's advice and called the book The Immortal Gene.
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Price HK$ 23,000
1976 - Oxford University Press, Oxford - First Edition
A fine and thus rare signed first edition of Dawkins’ fascinating and somewhat controversial masterwork.‘Dawkins first book, The Selfish Gene, was a smash hit... Best of all, Dawkins laid out this biology-some of it truly subtle-in stunningly lucid prose. (It is, in my view, the best work of popular science ever written.)’ – New York Review of Books.
‘This important book could hardly be more exciting.’ – The Economist.
Dawkins used the term ‘selfish gene’ as a way of expressing the gene-centred view of evolution as opposed to the views focused on the organism and the group. The more two individuals are genetically related, the more sense (at the level of the genes) it makes for them to behave selflessly with each other. Therefore the concept is especially good at explaining many forms of altruism. This should not be confused with misuse of the term along the lines of a selfishness gene.
An organism is expected to evolve to maximise its inclusive fitness - the number of copies of its genes passed on globally (rather than by a particular individual). As a result, populations will tend towards an evolutionarily stable strategy. The book also coins the term meme for a unit of human cultural evolution analogous to the gene, suggesting that such ‘selfish’ replication may also model human culture, in a different sense. Memetics has become the subject of many studies since the publication of the book.
In the foreword to the book's 30th anniversary edition, Dawkins said he ‘can readily see that [the book's title] might give an inadequate impression of its contents’ and in retrospect thinks he should have taken Tom Maschler's advice and called the book The Immortal Gene.
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Price HK$ 23,000
Lex Parliamentaria: or, a treatise of the law and custom of parliaments. Shewing their antiquity, names, kinds, and qualities. Of the three Estates; and of the Dignity and Excellency of Parliaments, their Power and Authority. Of the Election of Members of the House of Commons in general, their Privilege, Qualifications, and Duties. Of the Electors; and their Rights, Duties; and Manner of Elections. Of the Returns to Parliament; the Sheriff's and other Officers Duty therein. Of the Manner of Election of the Speaker; and of his Business and Duty. Of the Manner of passing Bills, and the Orders to be observed in the House of Commons. Of Sessions of Parliament; as also of Prorogations and Adjournments: Together with the proper Laws and Customs of Parliaments. With an appendix of a case in Parliament between Sir Francis Goodwyn and Sir John Fortescue, for the Knights Place for the County of Bucks, 1 Jac. I. -
Philips George
Circa 1701 - Printed for J. Stagg, London - The Second Edition, with large additions
A very rare printing of the second and enlarged edition, first published in 1690.
Lex Parliamentaria is a comprehensive treatise on the history of the rules, customs and practices of the English Parliamentary system at about the time of the Bill of Rights which had established, inter alia, that subjects had a right to petition the King, that elections of Members of Parliament should be free, and that Parliament should sit frequently.
Philips considers the development of Parliamentary powers, the election of Members, the rights and duties of electors, elections, the passing of Bills and the management of Parliamentary business. William and Andrew Bradford published an American edition in New York in 1716.’ [John Edwards]
This has until recently usually been attributed to George Petyt. The new attribution to the Irishman George Philips (1599?-1696) seems now to be widely accepted, however, an attribution originally claimed by both Sir James Ware (History of Irish writers, 1736) and Walter Harris, the History's editor.
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Price HK$ 12,000
Circa 1701 - Printed for J. Stagg, London - The Second Edition, with large additions
A very rare printing of the second and enlarged edition, first published in 1690.Lex Parliamentaria is a comprehensive treatise on the history of the rules, customs and practices of the English Parliamentary system at about the time of the Bill of Rights which had established, inter alia, that subjects had a right to petition the King, that elections of Members of Parliament should be free, and that Parliament should sit frequently.
Philips considers the development of Parliamentary powers, the election of Members, the rights and duties of electors, elections, the passing of Bills and the management of Parliamentary business. William and Andrew Bradford published an American edition in New York in 1716.’ [John Edwards]
This has until recently usually been attributed to George Petyt. The new attribution to the Irishman George Philips (1599?-1696) seems now to be widely accepted, however, an attribution originally claimed by both Sir James Ware (History of Irish writers, 1736) and Walter Harris, the History's editor.
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Price HK$ 12,000