History·Travel
Aviation
Maritime
Military
Polar
Voyages
Africa
Britain
Europe
Latin America
North America
Middle East
Scotland
Churchill
Wayward Women
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.
More details
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.
More details
Price HK$ 900
The Yangtze Valley and Beyond -
Mrs J. F. (Isabella L. Bird) Bishop
1900 - G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York - First American Edition (First English Edition 1889)
A lovely set of the two volume American first edition, describing the remarkable journey through China in 1896-1897 by that intrepid lady traveller Isabella Bird, first female member of the Royal Geographical Society and doyenne of all women travel writers. A a far handsomer edition than the single volume published a year earlier in the London, with 116 illustrations and a folding colour map.
‘Many of the areas she explored and carefully described were almost unknown to European visitors and had not been mentioned in any earlier English publications. Based on journal letters and the diary written during her journey, and it is generously illustrated with photographs and Chinese drawings. Bishop's work was warmly received in England and praised especially for the information included on agriculture and industry. The Geographical Journal heralded the work as 'undoubtedly one of the most important contributions to English literature on that country'. It remains a key source for late nineteenth-century British perceptions of China.’ -– Cambridge University Press.
More details
Price HK$ 8,000
1900 - G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York - First American Edition (First English Edition 1889)
A lovely set of the two volume American first edition, describing the remarkable journey through China in 1896-1897 by that intrepid lady traveller Isabella Bird, first female member of the Royal Geographical Society and doyenne of all women travel writers. A a far handsomer edition than the single volume published a year earlier in the London, with 116 illustrations and a folding colour map. ‘Many of the areas she explored and carefully described were almost unknown to European visitors and had not been mentioned in any earlier English publications. Based on journal letters and the diary written during her journey, and it is generously illustrated with photographs and Chinese drawings. Bishop's work was warmly received in England and praised especially for the information included on agriculture and industry. The Geographical Journal heralded the work as 'undoubtedly one of the most important contributions to English literature on that country'. It remains a key source for late nineteenth-century British perceptions of China.’ -– Cambridge University Press.
More details
Price HK$ 8,000
Ladies in the Rough - Signed -
Glenna Collett, James M. Neville
1928 - Alfred A. Knopf, New York - First Edition
Signed in 1929 by Glenna Collett when she was in Pinehurst, North Carolina, to win her fifth Women's North & South Amateur Championship in eight years. She won again the following year for the sixth and final time.
A fine autobiography by the dominant American female golfer of the first half of the 20th century, nicknamed the female Bobby Jones, as much for her composure and sportsmanship as for her astonishing achievements. Full of lively anecdotes and opinions, numerous photographs on 27 plates. With a foreword by Bobby Jones.
‘To make oneself a successful match player, there are certain qualities to be sought after, certain ideas must be kept in mind and certain phases of one's attitude towards the game that come in for special notice. The three I have taken are these: love of combat, serenity of mind and fearlessness’
‘Glenna Collett Vare (1903-1989) won six U.S., two Canadian, and one French Women's Amateur Championships. In her day there was no professional women's tour. The LPGA’s Vare trophy, given to the player with the lowest scoring average, is awarded in her honour.’ - World Golf Hall of Fame.
‘Glenna was the first woman to attack the hole rather than just to play to the green’ - Former USGA president Richard Tufts.
More details
Price HK$ 9,500
1928 - Alfred A. Knopf, New York - First Edition
Signed in 1929 by Glenna Collett when she was in Pinehurst, North Carolina, to win her fifth Women's North & South Amateur Championship in eight years. She won again the following year for the sixth and final time. A fine autobiography by the dominant American female golfer of the first half of the 20th century, nicknamed the female Bobby Jones, as much for her composure and sportsmanship as for her astonishing achievements. Full of lively anecdotes and opinions, numerous photographs on 27 plates. With a foreword by Bobby Jones.
‘To make oneself a successful match player, there are certain qualities to be sought after, certain ideas must be kept in mind and certain phases of one's attitude towards the game that come in for special notice. The three I have taken are these: love of combat, serenity of mind and fearlessness’
‘Glenna Collett Vare (1903-1989) won six U.S., two Canadian, and one French Women's Amateur Championships. In her day there was no professional women's tour. The LPGA’s Vare trophy, given to the player with the lowest scoring average, is awarded in her honour.’ - World Golf Hall of Fame.
‘Glenna was the first woman to attack the hole rather than just to play to the green’ - Former USGA president Richard Tufts.
More details
Price HK$ 9,500
A Summer Amongst the Bocages and the Vines -
Louisa Stuart Costello
1840 - Richard Bentley, London - First Edition
‘Normandy is allowed to be one of the most beautiful and moist cultivated parts of France; a fact which no one can feel any inclination to dispute, who, leaving the clean and lively port of Southampton, takes his passage in summer weather to Havre, and lands at that bustling town, amidst the screaming of innumerable parrots and the noise and clamour of French commissionaires.
Costello’s charming narrative of her ‘continental summer tour’ in France, featuring four full-page lithographs, including frontispieces, and numerous in text wood engravings. Beginning in Havre, Costello’s journey takes her through Normandy, Brittany, Nantes, the Loire, Paris and Rouen.
‘Well informed, easy to read, and cheerfully inviting, her books did the early days of tourism a great service by recommending simple itineraries with plenty of historical and topographical interest. It wasn’t long before Mr. Cook’s clients were bustling all over France and beyond, armed with Miss Costello’s good advice’ - Jane Robinson, Wayward Women.
More details
Price HK$ 2,900
1840 - Richard Bentley, London - First Edition
‘Normandy is allowed to be one of the most beautiful and moist cultivated parts of France; a fact which no one can feel any inclination to dispute, who, leaving the clean and lively port of Southampton, takes his passage in summer weather to Havre, and lands at that bustling town, amidst the screaming of innumerable parrots and the noise and clamour of French commissionaires.Costello’s charming narrative of her ‘continental summer tour’ in France, featuring four full-page lithographs, including frontispieces, and numerous in text wood engravings. Beginning in Havre, Costello’s journey takes her through Normandy, Brittany, Nantes, the Loire, Paris and Rouen.
‘Well informed, easy to read, and cheerfully inviting, her books did the early days of tourism a great service by recommending simple itineraries with plenty of historical and topographical interest. It wasn’t long before Mr. Cook’s clients were bustling all over France and beyond, armed with Miss Costello’s good advice’ - Jane Robinson, Wayward Women.
More details
Price HK$ 2,900
SOLD - Madame Curie -
Eve Curie, Vincent Sheean (translator)
1939 - Doubleday, New York - No. 22 of a special signed edition
The incredible biography of Madame Curie written and signed by her daughter Eve Curie on an inserted leaf at front, which notes that ‘This special edition was signed by the author on the occasion of the dinner given for her by the New York City Cancer Committee for the American Society for the Control of Cancer on April 18, 1939, at the Cosmopolitan Club, where she was awarded the Clement Cleveland Medal in recognition of the educational merit of this story of her mother’s life.’
Translated by Vincent Sheehan, and illustrated throughout with photographs. The basis for the 1943 film starring Greer Garson as Madame Curie.
Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867-1934) was the first woman scientist to win world-wide acclaim and one of the great scientists of the twentieth century. Written by Curie's daughter, the renowned international activist Eve Curie, this biography chronicles Curie's legendary achievements in science, including her pioneering efforts in the study of radioactivity and her two Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry. It also spotlights her remarkable life, from her childhood in Poland, to her storybook Parisian marriage to fellow scientist Pierre Curie, to her tragic death from the radium poisoning.
More details
Price HK$ 0
1939 - Doubleday, New York - No. 22 of a special signed edition
The incredible biography of Madame Curie written and signed by her daughter Eve Curie on an inserted leaf at front, which notes that ‘This special edition was signed by the author on the occasion of the dinner given for her by the New York City Cancer Committee for the American Society for the Control of Cancer on April 18, 1939, at the Cosmopolitan Club, where she was awarded the Clement Cleveland Medal in recognition of the educational merit of this story of her mother’s life.’Translated by Vincent Sheehan, and illustrated throughout with photographs. The basis for the 1943 film starring Greer Garson as Madame Curie.
Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867-1934) was the first woman scientist to win world-wide acclaim and one of the great scientists of the twentieth century. Written by Curie's daughter, the renowned international activist Eve Curie, this biography chronicles Curie's legendary achievements in science, including her pioneering efforts in the study of radioactivity and her two Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry. It also spotlights her remarkable life, from her childhood in Poland, to her storybook Parisian marriage to fellow scientist Pierre Curie, to her tragic death from the radium poisoning.
More details
Price HK$ 0
Out of Africa -
Isak Dinesen
1938 - Random House, New York - First American Edition
‘I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills….’
A stunning copy of what Truman Capote called ‘one of the most beautiful books of the 20th century’.
Karen Blixen’s poignant account of her life on a coffee plantation in Kenya, and the basis for the memorable film, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford.
More details
Price HK$ 8,000
1938 - Random House, New York - First American Edition
‘I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills….’A stunning copy of what Truman Capote called ‘one of the most beautiful books of the 20th century’.
Karen Blixen’s poignant account of her life on a coffee plantation in Kenya, and the basis for the memorable film, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford.
More details
Price HK$ 8,000
The Trouble I’ve Seen -
Martha Gellhorn, H. G. Wells (preface)
1936 - Putnam, London - First Edition
‘The only way I can pay back for what fate and society have handed me is to try, in minor totally useless ways, to make an angry sound against injustice.’
An attractive copy of Martha Gellhorn’s first work of fiction, with a preface by H. G. Wells. This brilliant collection reveals four tender, yet unflinching, portraits of men and women whose lives are devastated through poverty, forced migration, and war. Enraged by the inequality and ruin she witnessed throughout her career as a foreign correspondent, Gellhorn fought to bring these issues into the spotlight, and her work in both fiction and journalism was met with critical acclaim. Although it has been over eighty years since ‘The Trouble I’ve Seen’ was first published, the messages and themes within it remain as prevalent today as they were in the 1930’s.
More details
Price HK$ 3,500
1936 - Putnam, London - First Edition
‘The only way I can pay back for what fate and society have handed me is to try, in minor totally useless ways, to make an angry sound against injustice.’An attractive copy of Martha Gellhorn’s first work of fiction, with a preface by H. G. Wells. This brilliant collection reveals four tender, yet unflinching, portraits of men and women whose lives are devastated through poverty, forced migration, and war. Enraged by the inequality and ruin she witnessed throughout her career as a foreign correspondent, Gellhorn fought to bring these issues into the spotlight, and her work in both fiction and journalism was met with critical acclaim. Although it has been over eighty years since ‘The Trouble I’ve Seen’ was first published, the messages and themes within it remain as prevalent today as they were in the 1930’s.
More details
Price HK$ 3,500
The Way to a Man's Heart. “The Settlement Cook Book” -
Mrs. Simon Kander. Mrs. Henry Schoenfeld
1903 - Under the Auspices of “The Settlement”, Milwaukee - Second Edition
One of the most influential and successful American cook books of the twentieth century. ‘The first classic collection of immigrant recipes’.
Extremely rare in any of the first three editions, it is believed that only one complete copy exists of the first 1,000 copies published in 1901, which was followed by this enlarged 1903 edition of 1,500 copies. It can be reasonably assumed that they were purchased to be used in the kitchen, making it extraordinary that any of the first two printings in their delicate white-coated art nouveau illustrated covers exist at all (the only complete surviving original example of the 1901 edition is housed in the Milwaukee Public Library, Lizzie Black Kander’s own copy (incomplete) with notes and amendments for the second edition resides in the Milwaukee Co. Historical Society Research Library). A third and further enlarged edition was published in 1907.
The Settlement Cook Book began its life as a fundraiser for the Jewish Settlement House in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, however the recipes were not kosher and included lobster and shellfish. There are also many dishes of German origin, reflecting the German Jewish community in Milwaukee. The chapter on Kuchen includes those called Coffee or Sugar, Tarts, Good, Bundt, Apple, Poppy Seed, Berliner Pfann, Cheese and Blueberry as well as Filled Walnut Kipfel and Schnecken. Among the Jewish dishes were Matzos Pancakes, Matzos Balls, Filled Fish, Kugel, Matzos Pudding. Many of the recipes present an amalgam of German, Eastern European and Jewish cooking.
By 1991 over two million copies of The Settlement Cook Book had been sold, in more than 40 editions.
More details
Price HK$ 15,000
1903 - Under the Auspices of “The Settlement”, Milwaukee - Second Edition
One of the most influential and successful American cook books of the twentieth century. ‘The first classic collection of immigrant recipes’. Extremely rare in any of the first three editions, it is believed that only one complete copy exists of the first 1,000 copies published in 1901, which was followed by this enlarged 1903 edition of 1,500 copies. It can be reasonably assumed that they were purchased to be used in the kitchen, making it extraordinary that any of the first two printings in their delicate white-coated art nouveau illustrated covers exist at all (the only complete surviving original example of the 1901 edition is housed in the Milwaukee Public Library, Lizzie Black Kander’s own copy (incomplete) with notes and amendments for the second edition resides in the Milwaukee Co. Historical Society Research Library). A third and further enlarged edition was published in 1907.
The Settlement Cook Book began its life as a fundraiser for the Jewish Settlement House in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, however the recipes were not kosher and included lobster and shellfish. There are also many dishes of German origin, reflecting the German Jewish community in Milwaukee. The chapter on Kuchen includes those called Coffee or Sugar, Tarts, Good, Bundt, Apple, Poppy Seed, Berliner Pfann, Cheese and Blueberry as well as Filled Walnut Kipfel and Schnecken. Among the Jewish dishes were Matzos Pancakes, Matzos Balls, Filled Fish, Kugel, Matzos Pudding. Many of the recipes present an amalgam of German, Eastern European and Jewish cooking.
By 1991 over two million copies of The Settlement Cook Book had been sold, in more than 40 editions.
More details
Price HK$ 15,000