Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect - Facsimile (From Photogravure Blocks) of the Kilmarnock edition 1786 -
Robert Burns
1909 - D Brown & Co. [Printer], Kilmarnock - Facsimile of the 1786 edition
An exquisite and fine presentation of Burns’ ‘Poems’, bound in light brown crushed morocco with brown and tan morocco onlays depicting a harvest mouse in a wheat field (the ‘tim'rous beastie' of ‘To a Mouse’) and housed in matching light tan morocco clamshell case, lined in tartan. Bound by Falkirk Fraser Wilson while working for Tom Valentine (a noted Falkirk binder).
The binding houses the 1909 facsimile of the rare and celebrated "Kilmarnock Burns" of 1786, which was printed from photogravure blocks under the supervision of D. McNaught, Esq. J.P., editor of The Burns Chronicle, the proofs being revised from an uncut copy in his possession.
In 1786 at the age of 27, although he had never published anything before, Burns (1759-96) decided to publish a volume of his poems. 612 copies were printed for him by John Wilson of Kilmarnock. They sold out within a month. There are estimated to be less than 70 complete ‘Kilmarnock’ copies in existence today. For this reason D. McNaught used his own uncut copy to produce this facsimile in 1909.
Burns, encouraged by this success, and by a letter from an Edinburgh minister, Dr. Blacklock, moved to Edinburgh instead of emigrating to Jamaica. He became a celebrity and in 1787 a new edition of 1500 copies, to be sold by subscription, was agreed upon with an additional 17 poems and five new songs. There was far greater demand than estimated, so the book was reset, and approximately 3,250 copies printed.
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Price HK$ 30,000
1909 - D Brown & Co. [Printer], Kilmarnock - Facsimile of the 1786 edition
An exquisite and fine presentation of Burns’ ‘Poems’, bound in light brown crushed morocco with brown and tan morocco onlays depicting a harvest mouse in a wheat field (the ‘tim'rous beastie' of ‘To a Mouse’) and housed in matching light tan morocco clamshell case, lined in tartan. Bound by Falkirk Fraser Wilson while working for Tom Valentine (a noted Falkirk binder).The binding houses the 1909 facsimile of the rare and celebrated "Kilmarnock Burns" of 1786, which was printed from photogravure blocks under the supervision of D. McNaught, Esq. J.P., editor of The Burns Chronicle, the proofs being revised from an uncut copy in his possession.
In 1786 at the age of 27, although he had never published anything before, Burns (1759-96) decided to publish a volume of his poems. 612 copies were printed for him by John Wilson of Kilmarnock. They sold out within a month. There are estimated to be less than 70 complete ‘Kilmarnock’ copies in existence today. For this reason D. McNaught used his own uncut copy to produce this facsimile in 1909.
Burns, encouraged by this success, and by a letter from an Edinburgh minister, Dr. Blacklock, moved to Edinburgh instead of emigrating to Jamaica. He became a celebrity and in 1787 a new edition of 1500 copies, to be sold by subscription, was agreed upon with an additional 17 poems and five new songs. There was far greater demand than estimated, so the book was reset, and approximately 3,250 copies printed.
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Price HK$ 30,000
The Worst Journey in the World. Antarctic 1910-1913 -
Apsley Cherry-Garrard
1922 - Constable and Company Limited, London Bombay Sydney - First Edition
In 1910, a small British expedition sailed south aboard the Terra Nova, bound for the last great blank space on the map... Antarctica. They would endure temperatures below -70°F. Some would not return. A decade later, the youngest member of the expedition, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, published what many still consider the greatest account of polar exploration, and definitely one of the most engagingly written.
First edition in the original boards, and with an autographed thank you letter enclosed from Apsley Cherry-Garrard to Dr. Horace Steinbach, dated December 6th 1923.
‘Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised. It is the only form of adventure in which you put on your clothes at Michaelmas and keep them on until Christmas, and, save for a layer of the natural grease of the body, find them as clean as though they were new. It is more lonely than London, more secluded than any monastery, and the post comes but once a year. As men will compare the hardships of France, Palestine, or Mesopotamia, so it would be interesting to contrast the rival claims of the Antarctic as a medium of discomfort. A member of Campbell's party tells me that the trenches at Ypres were a comparative picnic. But until somebody can evolve a standard of endurance I am unable to see how it can be done. Take it all in all, I do not believe anybody on earth has a worse time than an Emperor penguin’ - A.C-G.
A nice set of the scarce first edition, first issue half white linen over pale ‘polar’ blue-grey paper-covered boards. Illustrated with five maps (three folding), six coloured plates, 13 folding panoramas (eleven of which were not included in later editions), and 56 photographs and sketches, ‘by the late Doctor Edward A. Wilson and other members of the expedition’.
‘The Worst Journey in the World is to travel writing what War and Peace is to the novel... a masterpiece.’ – The New York Review of Books.
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Price HK$ 42,000
1922 - Constable and Company Limited, London Bombay Sydney - First Edition
In 1910, a small British expedition sailed south aboard the Terra Nova, bound for the last great blank space on the map... Antarctica. They would endure temperatures below -70°F. Some would not return. A decade later, the youngest member of the expedition, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, published what many still consider the greatest account of polar exploration, and definitely one of the most engagingly written.First edition in the original boards, and with an autographed thank you letter enclosed from Apsley Cherry-Garrard to Dr. Horace Steinbach, dated December 6th 1923.
‘Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised. It is the only form of adventure in which you put on your clothes at Michaelmas and keep them on until Christmas, and, save for a layer of the natural grease of the body, find them as clean as though they were new. It is more lonely than London, more secluded than any monastery, and the post comes but once a year. As men will compare the hardships of France, Palestine, or Mesopotamia, so it would be interesting to contrast the rival claims of the Antarctic as a medium of discomfort. A member of Campbell's party tells me that the trenches at Ypres were a comparative picnic. But until somebody can evolve a standard of endurance I am unable to see how it can be done. Take it all in all, I do not believe anybody on earth has a worse time than an Emperor penguin’ - A.C-G.
A nice set of the scarce first edition, first issue half white linen over pale ‘polar’ blue-grey paper-covered boards. Illustrated with five maps (three folding), six coloured plates, 13 folding panoramas (eleven of which were not included in later editions), and 56 photographs and sketches, ‘by the late Doctor Edward A. Wilson and other members of the expedition’.
‘The Worst Journey in the World is to travel writing what War and Peace is to the novel... a masterpiece.’ – The New York Review of Books.
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Price HK$ 42,000
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd -
Agatha Christie
1926 - W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., London - First Edition
An exquisitely bound first edition of this landmark of detective fiction, a scarce and desirable Hercule Poirot mystery, widely regarded as one of the most influential crime novels ever written, which many feel is Christie's masterpiece.
Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew that the woman he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband. He suspected also that someone had been blackmailing her. Now, tragically, came the news that she had taken her own life with a drug overdose. But the evening post brought Roger one last fatal scrap of information. Unfortunately, before he could finish the letter, he was stabbed to death!
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Price HK$ 30,000
1926 - W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., London - First Edition
An exquisitely bound first edition of this landmark of detective fiction, a scarce and desirable Hercule Poirot mystery, widely regarded as one of the most influential crime novels ever written, which many feel is Christie's masterpiece.Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew that the woman he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband. He suspected also that someone had been blackmailing her. Now, tragically, came the news that she had taken her own life with a drug overdose. But the evening post brought Roger one last fatal scrap of information. Unfortunately, before he could finish the letter, he was stabbed to death!
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Price HK$ 30,000
The Seven Dials Mystery -
Agatha Christie
1929 - W. Collins Sons & Co Ltd, London - First Edition
Exquisitely bound first edition of this country-house mystery, being a sequel to ‘The Secret of Chimneys’.
This was the second of five novels featuring Police Superintendent Battle, an ally of detectives Hercule Poirot and Colonel Johnny Race.
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Price HK$ 17,000
1929 - W. Collins Sons & Co Ltd, London - First Edition
Exquisitely bound first edition of this country-house mystery, being a sequel to ‘The Secret of Chimneys’.This was the second of five novels featuring Police Superintendent Battle, an ally of detectives Hercule Poirot and Colonel Johnny Race.
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Price HK$ 17,000
The Second World War -
Sir Winston Spencer Churchill
1948 to 1954 - Cassell and Co. Ltd., London - First Editions
‘I will leave judgements on this matter to history – but I will be one of the historians.’ - Winston Churchill.
A finely bound first edition set of Churchill’s complete six volume classic history on World War II - The Gathering Storm, Their Finest Hour, The Grant Alliance, The Hinge of Fate, Closing the Ring and Triumph and Tragedy. With numerous maps and plans, some folding.
Not since Julius Caesar and his Gallic Wars has there been a case of a great leader in war also being an able writer.
Churchill's most famous work continuing on from his earlier history of the First World War, 'The World Crisis'. The two together form, in Churchill's opinion, a comprehensive history of a second Thirty Years War.
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Price HK$ 22,000
1948 to 1954 - Cassell and Co. Ltd., London - First Editions
‘I will leave judgements on this matter to history – but I will be one of the historians.’ - Winston Churchill. A finely bound first edition set of Churchill’s complete six volume classic history on World War II - The Gathering Storm, Their Finest Hour, The Grant Alliance, The Hinge of Fate, Closing the Ring and Triumph and Tragedy. With numerous maps and plans, some folding.
Not since Julius Caesar and his Gallic Wars has there been a case of a great leader in war also being an able writer.
Churchill's most famous work continuing on from his earlier history of the First World War, 'The World Crisis'. The two together form, in Churchill's opinion, a comprehensive history of a second Thirty Years War.
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Price HK$ 22,000
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples -
Sir Winston Spencer Churchill
1956 - Cassell and Company Ltd, London - First Editions
A handsomely bound four volume set of fine first editions published shortly after Sir Winston Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. This is the author's last great work, only available some twenty years after he wrote the first draft, which then lay dormant whilst he attended to National and Parliamentary matters.
‘The flash and dash of Churchill's zest will render these four volumes readable, humane, exhilarating, memorable and exemplary, few historians, moreover, have been gifted with a style of equal subtlety and vigour, a style at once classical and romantic, precise and imaginative, tolerant yet gently ironical, deeply sensitive to the tragedy of human failure and scornful only of those who are faithless to the virtue within them. These four volumes leave us with enhanced admiration for human character, and an added compassion for human fallibility. They are the legacy of a man of superhuman energy, great intellectual powers and utmost simplicity of soul.’ – Harold Nicolson, New York Times Book Review, 1958.
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Price HK$ 15,000
1956 - Cassell and Company Ltd, London - First Editions
A handsomely bound four volume set of fine first editions published shortly after Sir Winston Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. This is the author's last great work, only available some twenty years after he wrote the first draft, which then lay dormant whilst he attended to National and Parliamentary matters.‘The flash and dash of Churchill's zest will render these four volumes readable, humane, exhilarating, memorable and exemplary, few historians, moreover, have been gifted with a style of equal subtlety and vigour, a style at once classical and romantic, precise and imaginative, tolerant yet gently ironical, deeply sensitive to the tragedy of human failure and scornful only of those who are faithless to the virtue within them. These four volumes leave us with enhanced admiration for human character, and an added compassion for human fallibility. They are the legacy of a man of superhuman energy, great intellectual powers and utmost simplicity of soul.’ – Harold Nicolson, New York Times Book Review, 1958.
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Price HK$ 15,000
Painting as a Pastime -
Sir Winston Spencer Churchill
1948 - Odhams Press Limited, London - First Edition
Although Churchill may be best remembered for his politics, painting and art was also an important part of his life. In this book, Churchill explains why he paints and the importance of art as both a method of relaxation and way to distract himself from the demands of leadership.
A finely bound first edition, with 18 colour plates showing Churchill’s paintings and a wonderful black and white frontispiece of Churchill at the easel.
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Price HK$ 4,000
1948 - Odhams Press Limited, London - First Edition
Although Churchill may be best remembered for his politics, painting and art was also an important part of his life. In this book, Churchill explains why he paints and the importance of art as both a method of relaxation and way to distract himself from the demands of leadership.A finely bound first edition, with 18 colour plates showing Churchill’s paintings and a wonderful black and white frontispiece of Churchill at the easel.
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Price HK$ 4,000
The War Speeches of The Rt Hon Winston S. Churchill. Compiled by Charles Eade -
Sir Winston Spencer Churchill, Charles Eade (editor)
1951 - Cassell & Company Ltd, London - First Collected Editions
A finely bound three volume set of the definitive edition of the War Speeches, compiled by Churchill's literary assistant Charles Eade, (1903-1964), editor of the Daily Sketch and the Sunday Dispatch, and editor of Churchill's wartime speeches, speaking notes and the collected volume 'Churchill by His Contemporaries'.
Includes occasional facsimile manuscripts, typescripts and documents. Eade's Papers, diaries and biographical material on Sir Winston were gifted to the Churchill Archives Centre in 1998, and are owned by Churchill College, Cambridge. Together with four additional speeches that were not included in the original seven volume set published during the war.
Housed in a custom blue felt-lined slipcase with silk pull.
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Price HK$ 15,000
1951 - Cassell & Company Ltd, London - First Collected Editions
A finely bound three volume set of the definitive edition of the War Speeches, compiled by Churchill's literary assistant Charles Eade, (1903-1964), editor of the Daily Sketch and the Sunday Dispatch, and editor of Churchill's wartime speeches, speaking notes and the collected volume 'Churchill by His Contemporaries'.Includes occasional facsimile manuscripts, typescripts and documents. Eade's Papers, diaries and biographical material on Sir Winston were gifted to the Churchill Archives Centre in 1998, and are owned by Churchill College, Cambridge. Together with four additional speeches that were not included in the original seven volume set published during the war.
Housed in a custom blue felt-lined slipcase with silk pull.
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Price HK$ 15,000