The Complete Plays of Bernard Shaw -
George Bernard Shaw
1931 - Constable and Co Ltd, London - First Edition
A finely bound first edition of the complete collection of George Bernard Shaw’s plays,
Containing: Widowers' Houses: The Philanderer: Mrs. Warren's Profession: Arms and the Man: Candida: The Man of Destiny: You Never Can Tell: The Devil's Disciple: Cæsar and Cleopatra: Captain Brassbound's Conversion: Man and Superman: John Bull's Other Island: How He Lied to Her Husband: Major Barbara: The Doctor's Dilemma: Getting Married: The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet: Misalliance: The Dark Lady of the Sonnets: Fanny's First Play: Androcles and the Lion : Over- Ruled: Pygmalion: Heartbreak House: Great Catherine: O'Flaherty V.C.: The Inca of Perusalem: Augustus Does His Bit: Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress: Back to Methuselah: Saint Joan: The Apple Cart: Jitta's Atonement: the Admirable Bashville; or, Constancy Unrewarded: Press Cuttings: The Glimpse of Reality: Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction; or, The Fatal Gazo-Gene: The Fascinating Foundling: The Music-Cure.
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Price HK$ 6,500
1931 - Constable and Co Ltd, London - First Edition
A finely bound first edition of the complete collection of George Bernard Shaw’s plays, Containing: Widowers' Houses: The Philanderer: Mrs. Warren's Profession: Arms and the Man: Candida: The Man of Destiny: You Never Can Tell: The Devil's Disciple: Cæsar and Cleopatra: Captain Brassbound's Conversion: Man and Superman: John Bull's Other Island: How He Lied to Her Husband: Major Barbara: The Doctor's Dilemma: Getting Married: The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet: Misalliance: The Dark Lady of the Sonnets: Fanny's First Play: Androcles and the Lion : Over- Ruled: Pygmalion: Heartbreak House: Great Catherine: O'Flaherty V.C.: The Inca of Perusalem: Augustus Does His Bit: Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress: Back to Methuselah: Saint Joan: The Apple Cart: Jitta's Atonement: the Admirable Bashville; or, Constancy Unrewarded: Press Cuttings: The Glimpse of Reality: Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction; or, The Fatal Gazo-Gene: The Fascinating Foundling: The Music-Cure.
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Price HK$ 6,500
The Ring of the Niblung -
Richard Wagner, Arthur Rackham (illustrator), Margaret Armour (translator)
1910 - William Heinemann, London - Edition de luxes, each one limited to 1, 150 copies signed by Rackham
A magnificent set of Rackham's dramatic interpretation of Wagner's libretti, in the large deluxe vellum bindings, each one numbered and signed by Rackham.
Wagner’s ‘Trilogy, with a Prelude’, his libretti for The Ring of Niblung cycle, stunningly illustrated by Arthur Rackham, featuring sixty-four beautiful tipped-in colour plates each with descriptive tissue guards, and twenty-three black and white drawings across two volumes.
Translated from the German into English by Margaret Armour.
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Price HK$ 48,000
1910 - William Heinemann, London - Edition de luxes, each one limited to 1, 150 copies signed by Rackham
A magnificent set of Rackham's dramatic interpretation of Wagner's libretti, in the large deluxe vellum bindings, each one numbered and signed by Rackham.Wagner’s ‘Trilogy, with a Prelude’, his libretti for The Ring of Niblung cycle, stunningly illustrated by Arthur Rackham, featuring sixty-four beautiful tipped-in colour plates each with descriptive tissue guards, and twenty-three black and white drawings across two volumes.
Translated from the German into English by Margaret Armour.
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Price HK$ 48,000
The Ring of the Niblung -
Richard Wagner, Arthur Rackham (illustrator), Margaret Armour (translator)
1914 - William Heinemann, London
‘What is it, sleek ones,
That yonder gleams and shines?’
An elegantly bound set of Rackham's dramatic interpretation of Wagner's libretti..
Wagner’s ‘Trilogy, with a Prelude’, his libretti for The Ring of Niblung cycle, stunningly illustrated by Arthur Rackham, featuring sixty-four beautiful tipped-in colour plates each with descriptive tissue guards, and twenty-three black and white drawings across two volumes.
Translated from the German into English by Margaret Armour.
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Price HK$ 12,000
1914 - William Heinemann, London
‘What is it, sleek ones,That yonder gleams and shines?’
An elegantly bound set of Rackham's dramatic interpretation of Wagner's libretti..
Wagner’s ‘Trilogy, with a Prelude’, his libretti for The Ring of Niblung cycle, stunningly illustrated by Arthur Rackham, featuring sixty-four beautiful tipped-in colour plates each with descriptive tissue guards, and twenty-three black and white drawings across two volumes.
Translated from the German into English by Margaret Armour.
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Price HK$ 12,000
The Complete Angler -
Izaak Walton, Charles Cotton, Edward Jesse (editor)
1861 - Henry G. Bohn, London - The Second Jesse Edition
A finely bound copy of one of the most profusely illustrated editions, the second to be edited by Edward Jesse. According to Oliver, ‘this edition has been criticized as having been somewhat too fully annotated and illustrated, but the illustrations, in our opinion, add as much to the charm of the book, as the notes do to its interest’.
‘Indeed, my good scholar, we may say of angling, as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries,
" Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did ";
and so, if I might be judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.’
The most enduring distinction of the Complete Angler is the one cast off by its subtitle The Contemplative Man's Recreation with its graceful evocations of a life free from hurly-burly in the company of friends intent on physical and moral sustenance. The range of perspectives that Walton brings to bear on his rural descriptions embrace literature, poetry, music and anecdote.
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Price HK$ 9,500
1861 - Henry G. Bohn, London - The Second Jesse Edition
A finely bound copy of one of the most profusely illustrated editions, the second to be edited by Edward Jesse. According to Oliver, ‘this edition has been criticized as having been somewhat too fully annotated and illustrated, but the illustrations, in our opinion, add as much to the charm of the book, as the notes do to its interest’.‘Indeed, my good scholar, we may say of angling, as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries,
" Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did ";
and so, if I might be judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.’
The most enduring distinction of the Complete Angler is the one cast off by its subtitle The Contemplative Man's Recreation with its graceful evocations of a life free from hurly-burly in the company of friends intent on physical and moral sustenance. The range of perspectives that Walton brings to bear on his rural descriptions embrace literature, poetry, music and anecdote.
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Price HK$ 9,500
Ten Thousand A-Year -
Samuel Warren
1889 - Little, Boston - Number 69 of a limited 200 copies
One of the most popular novels of the era and some consider the first to feature a lawyer as the main character.
Featuring a firm of attorneys who discover that Tittlebat Titmouse, a poor draper's clerk, may have a claim to the large estate of Yatton. The attorneys commence an action which results in Titmouse displacing the unbelievably pious John Aubrey as the owner of the estate, and its annual income of £10,000. Titmouse revels in his new found wealth, until a new round of litigation is commenced which returns Aubrey to his place as squire of Yatton. Titmouse is disgraced, and ends his life in a lunatic asylum.
The author, Samuel Warren (1807-77), was an English barrister, Member of Parliament, and his narrator repeatedly tells the reader that the English legal system is close to perfection, but the actual workings of the law in ‘Ten Thousand a-Year’ paint a more negative picture. Dickens seems to have read Warren's fiction and non-fiction, and to have borrowed images and ideas. [ODNB].
In addition to Warren’s knowledge of the law, he was well versed on asylum and the welfare of the mentally ill, occupying the position of ‘Master in Lunacy’ from 1859 to 1877.
A fine and finely bound three volume set, the upper covers blocked in gilt with the crest, coat of arms and motto of ‘Tittlebat Titmouse Esq M.P. according to the description of Sir Gorgeous Tintack, Garter King at Arms.’ Volume I with sepia toned portrait frontispiece on vellum.
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Price HK$ 6,000
1889 - Little, Boston - Number 69 of a limited 200 copies
One of the most popular novels of the era and some consider the first to feature a lawyer as the main character.Featuring a firm of attorneys who discover that Tittlebat Titmouse, a poor draper's clerk, may have a claim to the large estate of Yatton. The attorneys commence an action which results in Titmouse displacing the unbelievably pious John Aubrey as the owner of the estate, and its annual income of £10,000. Titmouse revels in his new found wealth, until a new round of litigation is commenced which returns Aubrey to his place as squire of Yatton. Titmouse is disgraced, and ends his life in a lunatic asylum.
The author, Samuel Warren (1807-77), was an English barrister, Member of Parliament, and his narrator repeatedly tells the reader that the English legal system is close to perfection, but the actual workings of the law in ‘Ten Thousand a-Year’ paint a more negative picture. Dickens seems to have read Warren's fiction and non-fiction, and to have borrowed images and ideas. [ODNB].
In addition to Warren’s knowledge of the law, he was well versed on asylum and the welfare of the mentally ill, occupying the position of ‘Master in Lunacy’ from 1859 to 1877.
A fine and finely bound three volume set, the upper covers blocked in gilt with the crest, coat of arms and motto of ‘Tittlebat Titmouse Esq M.P. according to the description of Sir Gorgeous Tintack, Garter King at Arms.’ Volume I with sepia toned portrait frontispiece on vellum.
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Price HK$ 6,000