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Mappin & Webb Trade Catalogue -
1931 - Mappin &, London - First Edition
A fine copy of this magnificent, opulent Mappin & Web catalogue, together with the original loose catalogues for Mappin & Webb’s Exclusive Designs in Inexpensive Jewellery and Garrard English Clocks.
A fabulous treasure trove of art-deco design and 1930’s luxury, with 200 illustrated pages, several full colour plates, from cocktail shakers and cigar cutters to art-deco clocks, and jewellery.
Mappin & Webb, whose first London showroom opened in 1849, had by the 1900’s grown into a worldwide group selling simple but elegant jewellery, classic table silverware and high end watch brands. Their relationship with the monarchy began in the late 19th Century and was formalised when HM Queen Victoria granted a royal warrant to Mappin & Webb their first as silversmiths, in 1897, the year of The Queen’s diamond jubilee. Mappin & Webb has held a royal warrant as silversmiths to each of the five subsequent sovereigns and today holds a Royal Warrant as Silversmiths to HM The Queen and to HRH The Prince of Wales. In 2012, a craftsman at Mappin & Webb, Martin Swift was also appointed The Crown Jeweller [from The History of Mappin & Webb]
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Price HK$ 4,000
1931 - Mappin &, London - First Edition
A fine copy of this magnificent, opulent Mappin & Web catalogue, together with the original loose catalogues for Mappin & Webb’s Exclusive Designs in Inexpensive Jewellery and Garrard English Clocks. A fabulous treasure trove of art-deco design and 1930’s luxury, with 200 illustrated pages, several full colour plates, from cocktail shakers and cigar cutters to art-deco clocks, and jewellery.
Mappin & Webb, whose first London showroom opened in 1849, had by the 1900’s grown into a worldwide group selling simple but elegant jewellery, classic table silverware and high end watch brands. Their relationship with the monarchy began in the late 19th Century and was formalised when HM Queen Victoria granted a royal warrant to Mappin & Webb their first as silversmiths, in 1897, the year of The Queen’s diamond jubilee. Mappin & Webb has held a royal warrant as silversmiths to each of the five subsequent sovereigns and today holds a Royal Warrant as Silversmiths to HM The Queen and to HRH The Prince of Wales. In 2012, a craftsman at Mappin & Webb, Martin Swift was also appointed The Crown Jeweller [from The History of Mappin & Webb]
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Price HK$ 4,000
The Fashionable Savages - Inscribed -
John Fairchild
1965 - Doubleday &, New York - First Edition
“Fashion is temptation and thousands of busy minds and busy hands are at work”
First edition, inscribed: "Thank you for enjoying the chapter on Chanel, John Fairchild !"
‘John Fairchild, the pugnacious, eagle-eyed Princeton grad and newspaper scion who died today, transformed fashion reporting by refusing to treat designers with deference, and by turning the spotlight on the beautiful society people who wore it. He leaves an enormous legacy, two pieces of which are the books he published in 1965 and 1989 respectively: The Fashionable Savages and Chic Savages, which contain profiles of designers and their acolytes, as well as many pithy bon mots.’ – Vogue February 27, 2015.
“Clothes don’t change each season. Designers just work on the cut and change the technique. No designer can escape the three shapes.”
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Price HK$ 3,500
1965 - Doubleday &, New York - First Edition
“Fashion is temptation and thousands of busy minds and busy hands are at work”First edition, inscribed: "Thank you for enjoying the chapter on Chanel, John Fairchild !"
‘John Fairchild, the pugnacious, eagle-eyed Princeton grad and newspaper scion who died today, transformed fashion reporting by refusing to treat designers with deference, and by turning the spotlight on the beautiful society people who wore it. He leaves an enormous legacy, two pieces of which are the books he published in 1965 and 1989 respectively: The Fashionable Savages and Chic Savages, which contain profiles of designers and their acolytes, as well as many pithy bon mots.’ – Vogue February 27, 2015.
“Clothes don’t change each season. Designers just work on the cut and change the technique. No designer can escape the three shapes.”
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Price HK$ 3,500
Fancy Dresses Described; Or, What to Wear at Fancy Balls -
Arden Holt
1882 - Debenham &, London - Third and Greatly Enlarged Edition
‘But, what are we to wear?’
A charming, comprehensive guide to late 19th century fancy dress, with detailed descriptions of countless costume ideas, from the abstract, such as ‘Air’, ‘Sleep’, and ‘Five O’clock Tea’ to the more specific like ‘Marie Antoinette’, ‘Gipsy’ and ‘Joan of Arc’, and featuring sixteen wonderful colour plates as well as numerous in-text illustrations.
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Price HK$ 1,200
1882 - Debenham &, London - Third and Greatly Enlarged Edition
‘But, what are we to wear?’A charming, comprehensive guide to late 19th century fancy dress, with detailed descriptions of countless costume ideas, from the abstract, such as ‘Air’, ‘Sleep’, and ‘Five O’clock Tea’ to the more specific like ‘Marie Antoinette’, ‘Gipsy’ and ‘Joan of Arc’, and featuring sixteen wonderful colour plates as well as numerous in-text illustrations.
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Price HK$ 1,200
What Shall I Wear? The What, Where, When and How Much of Fashion -
Claire McCardell, Annabrita (illustrator)
1956 - Simon and Schuster, New York - First Edition, Second Printing
A lovely copy with wonderfully 1950’s illustrations and line-drawings throughout by Annabrita, and a fold-out glossary of “McCardellisms”.
“Don’t try to live up to Fashion. First of all, stay firmly you. And if Fashion seems to be saying something that isn’t right for you, ignore it.”
The revolutionary fashion designer credited with originating "The American Look," Claire McCardell designed for the emerging active lifestyle of women in the 1940s and '50s. She was the originator of mix-and-match separates, open-backed sundresses, and feminine denim fashion; she started the trend for ballet flats as a wartime leather-rationing measure. Spaghetti straps, brass hooks and eyes as fasteners, rivets, menswear details and fabrics: they were all started by McCardell. Her Monastic and Pop-over dresses achieved cult status, and her fashions were taken up by working women, the suburban set, and high society alike.
‘What Shall I Wear?’ is a distillation of McCardell's democratic fashion philosophy and a chattily vivacious guide to looking effortlessly stylish. Mostly eschewing Paris, although she studied there and was influenced by Vionnet and Madame Gres, McCardell preferred an unadorned aesthetic; modern and minimalist, elegant and relaxed, even for evening, with wool jersey and tweed among her favorite fabrics. [From a later edition].
“Fashion does not demand a submissive spirit—in fact it asks for a certain independence…The more of yourself in your clothes the better. Your imagination, your thought, your time, your energy.”
Claire McCardell (1905-58) pioneered a style of clothing both casual and chic. In 1990, Life magazine named her one of the 100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century. She attended Parsons, learning to construct clothing by taking apart Vionnet samples. As head designer of Townley Frocks, she was one of the first American designers to have name recognition, as the company began to sell its fashions branded as “Claire McCardell Clothes by Townley.” Her work is in museums across the country and has been the subject of retrospectives at the Smithsonian and the Fashion Institute of Technology.
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Price HK$ 1,400
1956 - Simon and Schuster, New York - First Edition, Second Printing
A lovely copy with wonderfully 1950’s illustrations and line-drawings throughout by Annabrita, and a fold-out glossary of “McCardellisms”.“Don’t try to live up to Fashion. First of all, stay firmly you. And if Fashion seems to be saying something that isn’t right for you, ignore it.”
The revolutionary fashion designer credited with originating "The American Look," Claire McCardell designed for the emerging active lifestyle of women in the 1940s and '50s. She was the originator of mix-and-match separates, open-backed sundresses, and feminine denim fashion; she started the trend for ballet flats as a wartime leather-rationing measure. Spaghetti straps, brass hooks and eyes as fasteners, rivets, menswear details and fabrics: they were all started by McCardell. Her Monastic and Pop-over dresses achieved cult status, and her fashions were taken up by working women, the suburban set, and high society alike.
‘What Shall I Wear?’ is a distillation of McCardell's democratic fashion philosophy and a chattily vivacious guide to looking effortlessly stylish. Mostly eschewing Paris, although she studied there and was influenced by Vionnet and Madame Gres, McCardell preferred an unadorned aesthetic; modern and minimalist, elegant and relaxed, even for evening, with wool jersey and tweed among her favorite fabrics. [From a later edition].
“Fashion does not demand a submissive spirit—in fact it asks for a certain independence…The more of yourself in your clothes the better. Your imagination, your thought, your time, your energy.”
Claire McCardell (1905-58) pioneered a style of clothing both casual and chic. In 1990, Life magazine named her one of the 100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century. She attended Parsons, learning to construct clothing by taking apart Vionnet samples. As head designer of Townley Frocks, she was one of the first American designers to have name recognition, as the company began to sell its fashions branded as “Claire McCardell Clothes by Townley.” Her work is in museums across the country and has been the subject of retrospectives at the Smithsonian and the Fashion Institute of Technology.
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Price HK$ 1,400
The Art of Social Climbing. How to win invitations and influence newspaper columnists -
Jerome Zerbe
1965 - Doubleday &, New York - First Edition
First edition, scarce in a dust jacket of this condition. Jerome Zerbe was both a chronicler and photographer of international society, a pioneer of the style of photography now commonly used by the modern paparazzi. The society editor for Town & Country, and the photographer for the El Morocco, gives advice on how to rise in society. With hommages to Elsa Maxwell, Evita Peron, Mrs Astor, Mrs Vanderbilt, and Laura Corrigan.
‘A do-it yourself kit for breaking into society–by a sophisticated, amused, and socially acceptable society editor’.
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Price HK$ 2,000
1965 - Doubleday &, New York - First Edition
First edition, scarce in a dust jacket of this condition. Jerome Zerbe was both a chronicler and photographer of international society, a pioneer of the style of photography now commonly used by the modern paparazzi. The society editor for Town & Country, and the photographer for the El Morocco, gives advice on how to rise in society. With hommages to Elsa Maxwell, Evita Peron, Mrs Astor, Mrs Vanderbilt, and Laura Corrigan.‘A do-it yourself kit for breaking into society–by a sophisticated, amused, and socially acceptable society editor’.
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Price HK$ 2,000