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Shanghae Races, Spring Meeting, 1865, Second Day, Thursday, 27th April, 1865 -

1865 - Printed by A. H. De Carvalho, Shanghai - Only edition
Large and rare lavender China silk programme for one of the earliest Shanghai Races, the 1865 Spring Meeting (47.5 x 23.5 cm).

Listing seven races, all are with names of stables or owners, names of horses, weight or height, jockey silks colours, the horses include Arabs, English, China and Japan Ponies

The races are -
Maloo Plate, for China ponies only; Arab Challenge Cup, for all Arabs; Chaasee Cup, for China and Japan ponies; Challenge Cup, for all horses [Arabs, Stud Bred, Colonials, and English]; Chu-Ka-Za Cup, for all Arabs; The Selling Stakes, for Colonial and Arab horses; and the Hack Stakes, for all horses not otherwise entered at this Meeting.

Finely presented in gold wood frame (64 x 38.5 cm), on acid free backing card, and with 99% UV protection ‘tru-vue’ museum grade glass.
 
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Price HK$ 25,000



A Voyage Round the World, In the Years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV. - George Anson, Richard Walter

1748 - Printed for the Author, London - First Edition
A finely bound ‘Royal Paper’ copy of this beautifully illustrated work which ‘has long occupied a distinguished position as a masterpiece of descriptive travel’ (Hill), and ‘a model of what such literature should be’ (Cox).

Containing forty-two copper-engraved maps, charts, views, and coastal profiles, all but one folding, including views of Brazilian harbours and cities, Acapulco, Tenian, Port St. Julian, Magellan’s Straits, the Bay of Manila, Saipan, Lama, Lantau, Chinese junks, and others, and large folding maps of South America, the Philippines, and the Pacific Ocean, as well as a twelve-page subscriber list, and the two-page instructions to the binder.

England, at war with Spain in 1739, equipped eight ships under the command of George Anson to harass the Spaniards on the western coast of South America for the purpose of cutting off Spanish supplies of wealth from the Pacific area. Seven ships were lost and of 900 men 600 perished. As usual, scurvy took an appalling toll.

The Spanish fleet sent to oppose the British ran into storms; provisions ran out and many ships were wrecked. Thus the primary objective of the expedition was not attained. Anson, however, continued taking prizes off the Pacific coast during 1741-42, and in June 1743, near the Philippines, he captured the Spanish galleon
Nostra Seigniora de Cabadonga and its treasure of £400,000 sterling, which allowed Anson and the surviving members of his crew to reach England much the richer. 
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Price HK$ 59,000



Hundred Altars - Juliet Bredon

1936 - Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai - Special Far Eastern Edition.
Unusually for Bredon’s works this was first published in London 1934, and later presented here as the Special Far Eastern Edition. published in Shanghai, and with the scarce dust and delicate Kelly and Walsh dust jacket. Normally the first editions of Bredon were published by Kelly and Walsh.

Hundred Altars is the name of a village in Northern China, an impressive first novel by Juliet Bredon, long term expatriate and author of several detailed historical and descriptive works on China. Penetrates the soul of that vast country, revealing its people, its customs, its struggles as they have seldom if ever been revealed before. The soul of a nation lies in the hearts of its peasantry, and it is of the peasantry that this novel so unforgettably deals. We see them here in the strange humility, with those traits of character so curious in our eyes, these men and women and children of the village of Hundred Altars; they live before us so vividly that the story becomes one of intense personal importance to the reader.’ - publishers description. 
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Price HK$ 4,000



The Chinese Novel. Nobel Lecture Delivered Before the Swedish Academy at Stockholm, December 12, 1938. - Signed - Pearl S. Buck

1939 - The John Day Company, New York - First Edition
Signed by Pearl S. Buck on front free endpaper, a fine copy in a superior example of the delicate black and gilt foil dust jacket.

This lecture, presented on receipt of the 1938 Nobel Prize for Literature, detailed Buck's thoughts on the history, evolution, and impact of the Chinese novel, as well as her perception of its effects on her writing style.
 
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Price HK$ 5,000



A Day in Canton - Inscribed - Seddie L. Burkholder

1907 - By the AuthorFirst Edition
Inscribed with a large flourish from the author to a Mrs Wright.

Rare first and only edition of this little travelogue, self published by Burkholder who was a long time Asia resident, later spending at least 22 years in Manila (see ‘A Day In Manila’). Illustrated with a diagram of the ‘Cycle of Cathay’, three full page and eleven in-text black and white illustrations from photographs.
 
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Price HK$ 4,000



La Montre Chinois. Relations de l Horologie Suisse avec la China - Alfred Chapuis, Gustave Loup

1919 - Attinger Freres, Neuchatel - First Edition
A superb and fine copy, text in French, illustrated with 33 colour and black & white plates, and 245 half-tone illustrations. Included is an introduction on ‘L’Horométrie et le Système cosmologique des Chinois’ by Léopold de Saussure.

A survey of European cosmological instruments and mechanical amusements introduced to the Chinese Imperial Court from the 14th century, and the elaborate Swiss timepieces made for that market in Europe and in China, the first seeming to be by Francois-Louis Stadlin, a Swiss Jesuit in China from 1707-1740. The whole is referenced with texts from the contemporary writings of ambassadors, merchant traders and churchmen; preceded by de Saussure’s essay on ancient Chinese cosmology.

Prominent Swiss makers included Charles de Constant in the 18th century and the Bovet family in the 19th century, and many examples of their timekeepers could be found in the imperial palaces.

Formerly owned by Le Comte Alain de Suzannet.
 
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Price HK$ 8,000



The China Pilot - together with - Large Folio Atlas of 25 Admiralty Charts - Captain Richard Collinson, Robert Loney

1855 - Published by order of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, Printed for the Hydrographic Office - First Edition, Charts as Detailed
The China Pilot contains sailing directions for the East Coast of China from Hong Kong to Shanghai, including the Meiaco-sima, Loochoo, and the islands to the north-east of them. The work was originally drawn up by Captain Collinson, C.B. from surveys of that coast made by himself, Captain Kellett, C.B. and Lieutenants Bate and Gordon, R.N., between the years 1841-5, and the appendix from surveys of Captain F.W. Beechey, Captain Sir Edward Belcher, C.B., Rear Admiral Cecille, and the officers of the French Corvette La Sabine, and the United States Japanese Expedition, 1851-3.

Together with a large finely bound folio atlas containing 25 charts (ten are double page), published between 1840 and 1860. Of which 22 are British Admiralty charts including those of the First Survey of the China Coast by Collinson and Kellett. The remaining three are French Charts.
 
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Price HK$ 220,000



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$ 21,000



 
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