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California from 1769 to 1909: An Illustrated History Issued in Commemoration of the Portola Festival -
Benjamin Shannon Allen (editor)
1910 - Privately Printed - Benjamin Shannon Allen - editor., San Francisco
Elegantly produced tribute to the Golden State, in two large format volumes, the first volume consisting of historical sketches, the second of biographies of leading Californians. Each page is separated by a glassine guard, with vignette sketch of a miner in the margins throughout.
Profusely illustrated from photographs. Includes 11½x16" colour silk American flag with 48 stars (approximately 100 years old), folded and laid in.
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Price HK$ 6,800
1910 - Privately Printed - Benjamin Shannon Allen - editor., San Francisco
Elegantly produced tribute to the Golden State, in two large format volumes, the first volume consisting of historical sketches, the second of biographies of leading Californians. Each page is separated by a glassine guard, with vignette sketch of a miner in the margins throughout. Profusely illustrated from photographs. Includes 11½x16" colour silk American flag with 48 stars (approximately 100 years old), folded and laid in.
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Price HK$ 6,800
The Okavango River -
Charles John Andersson
1861 - Hurst and Blackett, London - First Edition
With engraved frontispiece, engraved extra title page, and fifteen further engraved plates.
A scarce example in original publisher’s cloth, of Swedish explorer, hunter, trader and naturalist Charles John Andersson’s second book, describing his hunting expeditions through Namaqualand and Damaraland (Namibia). Andersson intended to explore these countries right up to Cunene or Nourse River but the difficulties of the expedition, though encountered with indomitable courage, proved to be insuperable, and he had to turn back. He obtained, however, much valuable information and his success as a hunter and collector was unique in this part of the continent. The coast-line of South-West Africa is carefully described and there is an interesting account of the once-famed guano island, Ichaboe.’ – Mendelssohn.
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Price HK$ 18,000
1861 - Hurst and Blackett, London - First Edition
With engraved frontispiece, engraved extra title page, and fifteen further engraved plates.A scarce example in original publisher’s cloth, of Swedish explorer, hunter, trader and naturalist Charles John Andersson’s second book, describing his hunting expeditions through Namaqualand and Damaraland (Namibia). Andersson intended to explore these countries right up to Cunene or Nourse River but the difficulties of the expedition, though encountered with indomitable courage, proved to be insuperable, and he had to turn back. He obtained, however, much valuable information and his success as a hunter and collector was unique in this part of the continent. The coast-line of South-West Africa is carefully described and there is an interesting account of the once-famed guano island, Ichaboe.’ – Mendelssohn.
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Price HK$ 18,000
The Wanderer: or, Surprizing Escape. -
Anon.
1752Glasgow - First Glasgow Edition (first published London 1747)
One of a number of novellas published not long after the Rebellion of 1745, purporting to describe the adventures of the Young Pretender. The anonymous author professes himself an anti-Jacobite, but his account of the prince's terrifying flight after the Battle of Culloden is essentially sympathetic. The text includes an attack on John Burton's Ascanius (1746), as a vilification of the Young Chevalier.
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Price HK$ 2,000
1752Glasgow - First Glasgow Edition (first published London 1747)
One of a number of novellas published not long after the Rebellion of 1745, purporting to describe the adventures of the Young Pretender. The anonymous author professes himself an anti-Jacobite, but his account of the prince's terrifying flight after the Battle of Culloden is essentially sympathetic. The text includes an attack on John Burton's Ascanius (1746), as a vilification of the Young Chevalier.
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Price HK$ 2,000
Round the Coast -
Anonymous
1895 - George Newnes Limited, London - First Edition
‘We love our haunts by the sea; the poorest among us regards his favourite resort pretty much as the rich man does his country seat – as a place of relaxation from the hurly-burly of life, and yet a home withal.’
A handsome and large (35.5 x 27.5 cm) folio album of photographs of sea side places around the coast of England and Ireland, including Dover, Brighton, Guernsey, Plymouth, and Scarborough, among many others, profusely illustrated throughout with 284 photographs, descriptive passages accompanying each one.
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Price HK$ 3,000
1895 - George Newnes Limited, London - First Edition
‘We love our haunts by the sea; the poorest among us regards his favourite resort pretty much as the rich man does his country seat – as a place of relaxation from the hurly-burly of life, and yet a home withal.’A handsome and large (35.5 x 27.5 cm) folio album of photographs of sea side places around the coast of England and Ireland, including Dover, Brighton, Guernsey, Plymouth, and Scarborough, among many others, profusely illustrated throughout with 284 photographs, descriptive passages accompanying each one.
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Price HK$ 3,000
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 the 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 the 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 out of 900 men, 600 perished. As usual scurvy took an appalling toll.
The Spanish fleet sent out to oppose the British ran into storms; provisions ran out and many ships were wrecked. Thus the primary object of the expedition was not attained, however Anson 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
1748 - Printed for the Author, London - First Edition
A finely bound ‘Royal Paper’ copy of the 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 the 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 out of 900 men, 600 perished. As usual scurvy took an appalling toll.
The Spanish fleet sent out to oppose the British ran into storms; provisions ran out and many ships were wrecked. Thus the primary object of the expedition was not attained, however Anson 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
Cadet to Commodore -
Albert B. Armitage
1925 - Cassell and Company, London - First Edition
‘This fine personal record shows us the spirit of the British Merchant Service in peace and war, and repeats the unchanging call of the sea. Late Commodore of the P. & 0. Co.'s fleet, Captain Armitage (1864-1943) was not too late, in his early days, to learn the hard discipline of sails, " to shoot the sun," and take a trick at the wheel. Going " into steam," he rose rapidly in rank and took part in two Polar expeditions, with Scott on the Discovery Expedition as second in command, and on the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition to meet up with Nansen.
Here are amusing experiences of passengers, royal or otherwise. We like the alluring advertisement of a small steamship company—" A Surgeon, a Stewardess and an Experienced Cow." The cow, -presumably, knew all about the crying needs of infants-in-arms.’ - from The Spectator review of October 1925.
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Price HK$ 1,400
1925 - Cassell and Company, London - First Edition
‘This fine personal record shows us the spirit of the British Merchant Service in peace and war, and repeats the unchanging call of the sea. Late Commodore of the P. & 0. Co.'s fleet, Captain Armitage (1864-1943) was not too late, in his early days, to learn the hard discipline of sails, " to shoot the sun," and take a trick at the wheel. Going " into steam," he rose rapidly in rank and took part in two Polar expeditions, with Scott on the Discovery Expedition as second in command, and on the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition to meet up with Nansen.Here are amusing experiences of passengers, royal or otherwise. We like the alluring advertisement of a small steamship company—" A Surgeon, a Stewardess and an Experienced Cow." The cow, -presumably, knew all about the crying needs of infants-in-arms.’ - from The Spectator review of October 1925.
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Price HK$ 1,400
Jinglebob -
Philip Ashton, Rollins, N. C. Wyeth (Illustrator)
1930 - Charles Scribner's Sons, New York - First Edition
‘America has two types of cowboy, the synthetic and the real.’
A fine copy of a scarce N.C. Wyeth title, Rollins’ adventurous portrait of the real cowboys of the American west, it features Wyeth’s colour cover insert, illustrated endpapers, and four full-page colour plates.
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Price HK$ 3,000
1930 - Charles Scribner's Sons, New York - First Edition
‘America has two types of cowboy, the synthetic and the real.’A fine copy of a scarce N.C. Wyeth title, Rollins’ adventurous portrait of the real cowboys of the American west, it features Wyeth’s colour cover insert, illustrated endpapers, and four full-page colour plates.
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Price HK$ 3,000
Days and Nights of Shikar -
Mrs. W. W. Baillie
1921 - John Lane, London and New York - First Edition
‘Mrs Baillie seems to have been an incurable big-game hunter. She was married to a clergyman stationed in the Deccan; from there (rarely accompanied by the gentle padre) she made expeditions as far afield as Chamba in the Himalaya and Dharwar towards the south, in search of trophies to bring home to England.
‘This book is less bloodthirsty, than many; the worst moments in it are no concerned with the poor animals’ appointment with death, but with the author's own, which she managed to postpone twice at the very last minute.
‘The first time was on a night shoot from Bilaspur, near Simla. She had placed a goat’s carcass as a decoy under the hammock; unfortunately, just as an obliging tiger was approaching, the hammock string snapped and bowled Mrs Baillie into the mess below. Meanwhile the tiger fled away.
‘A closer shave involved a black bear, who caught our heroine as she fell from a rock, first chewing her leg and then making off with her head–for which it luckily mistook her sola topi, The leg healed after five weeks in hospital, and nothing daunted, Mrs Baillie lived to shoot another day.’ – Jane Robinson, Wayward Women.
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Price HK$ 900
1921 - John Lane, London and New York - First Edition
‘Mrs Baillie seems to have been an incurable big-game hunter. She was married to a clergyman stationed in the Deccan; from there (rarely accompanied by the gentle padre) she made expeditions as far afield as Chamba in the Himalaya and Dharwar towards the south, in search of trophies to bring home to England.‘This book is less bloodthirsty, than many; the worst moments in it are no concerned with the poor animals’ appointment with death, but with the author's own, which she managed to postpone twice at the very last minute.
‘The first time was on a night shoot from Bilaspur, near Simla. She had placed a goat’s carcass as a decoy under the hammock; unfortunately, just as an obliging tiger was approaching, the hammock string snapped and bowled Mrs Baillie into the mess below. Meanwhile the tiger fled away.
‘A closer shave involved a black bear, who caught our heroine as she fell from a rock, first chewing her leg and then making off with her head–for which it luckily mistook her sola topi, The leg healed after five weeks in hospital, and nothing daunted, Mrs Baillie lived to shoot another day.’ – Jane Robinson, Wayward Women.
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Price HK$ 900