Bindings
Bayntun Riviere
Birdsall
Chelsea Bindery
Chivers
Morrell
Root & Son
Sangorski & Sutcliffe
Zaehnsdorf
Verses Written in India -
Sir Alfred Lyall
1889 - Kegan Paul, London - First Edition
‘Here, in this mystical India, the deities hover and swarm,
Like the wild bees heard in the tree-tops, or the gusts of a gathering storm...’
A collection of twenty-four sentimental verses by Sir Alfred Lyall, and signed from him on the front free endpaper, elegantly bound by Rivière & Son.
Sir Alfred Lyall (1796-1865) was a British civil servant, philosopher, editor, clergyman and traveller. He first arrived in Calcutta in 1856, and served a long career in the Indian Civil Service.
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Price HK$ 3,000
1889 - Kegan Paul, London - First Edition
‘Here, in this mystical India, the deities hover and swarm,Like the wild bees heard in the tree-tops, or the gusts of a gathering storm...’
A collection of twenty-four sentimental verses by Sir Alfred Lyall, and signed from him on the front free endpaper, elegantly bound by Rivière & Son.
Sir Alfred Lyall (1796-1865) was a British civil servant, philosopher, editor, clergyman and traveller. He first arrived in Calcutta in 1856, and served a long career in the Indian Civil Service.
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Price HK$ 3,000
A Literary History of Scotland -
John Hepburn Millar
1903 - T. Fisher Unwin, London - Number 6 of 25 copies.
A finely bound limited edition of this detailed work. Over 700 pages with chapters covering Scottish poetry, prose, reviews, histories and novels.
‘Miller’s scholarly A Literary History of Scotland was for many years the standard work on Scottish Literature and remains a useful work of reference. In it he maintained his attack on the then fashionable Kailyard writers (late 19th-century movement in Scottish fiction characterised by a sentimental idealisation of humble village life), whom he had first criticised in the April 1895 issue of The New Review.’ - Famous Scots
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Price HK$ 3,000
1903 - T. Fisher Unwin, London - Number 6 of 25 copies.
A finely bound limited edition of this detailed work. Over 700 pages with chapters covering Scottish poetry, prose, reviews, histories and novels.‘Miller’s scholarly A Literary History of Scotland was for many years the standard work on Scottish Literature and remains a useful work of reference. In it he maintained his attack on the then fashionable Kailyard writers (late 19th-century movement in Scottish fiction characterised by a sentimental idealisation of humble village life), whom he had first criticised in the April 1895 issue of The New Review.’ - Famous Scots
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Price HK$ 3,000
Voyage of His Majesty’s Ship Alceste along the Coast of Corea to The Island of Lew Chew (Okinawa) with an account of her subsequent shipwreck. -
John M’Leod (McLeod)
1818 - John Murray, London - Second Edition (First published in 1817)
The voyage was undertaken while Lord Amherst’s embassy, which the naval expedition had brought out, was in China on its abortive mission to the imperial court at Beijing. Includes descriptions of the Ryukus (then a Chinese protectorate) and Canton (Guangzhou). McLeod, the ship’s surgeon, wrote his Narrative during his return voyage in 1817 aboard the hired ship Caesar [Lowendahl], after the Alceste struck a submerged reef off the coast of Sumatra.
The second edition, with five hand-coloured aquatint plates (as opposed to the four aquatint plates of the first edition). The illustrations include an engraved portrait of Capt. Murray Maxwell by T. Wageman and five hand-coloured aquatint plates by J. Clarke after Lieut. Dwarris and McLeod depicting Islanders of Sir James Hall's Group, a Corean Chief and Attendants, a Lewchewan Chief and Attendants, the Garden of the Temple at Lewchew and Fort Maxwell (not in the first edition).
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Price HK$ 5,500
1818 - John Murray, London - Second Edition (First published in 1817)
The voyage was undertaken while Lord Amherst’s embassy, which the naval expedition had brought out, was in China on its abortive mission to the imperial court at Beijing. Includes descriptions of the Ryukus (then a Chinese protectorate) and Canton (Guangzhou). McLeod, the ship’s surgeon, wrote his Narrative during his return voyage in 1817 aboard the hired ship Caesar [Lowendahl], after the Alceste struck a submerged reef off the coast of Sumatra.The second edition, with five hand-coloured aquatint plates (as opposed to the four aquatint plates of the first edition). The illustrations include an engraved portrait of Capt. Murray Maxwell by T. Wageman and five hand-coloured aquatint plates by J. Clarke after Lieut. Dwarris and McLeod depicting Islanders of Sir James Hall's Group, a Corean Chief and Attendants, a Lewchewan Chief and Attendants, the Garden of the Temple at Lewchew and Fort Maxwell (not in the first edition).
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Price HK$ 5,500
Five Children And It -
E. Nesbit
1902 - T. Fisher Unwin, London - First Edition
A fine first edition of this magical tale bound by Bayntun Riviére of Bath, illustrated by H. R. Millar with forty-six black and white plates – Cyril, Athena, Robert, Jane, and baby brother, Lamb, are exploring the land around the house their parents have rented for the summer when they find the sandpit. They decide to dig a hole straight through to Australia. Their plan is interrupted when Athena discovers a magical creature hiding in the sand. It is a Psammead, and it can grant wishes.
‘The children stood around the hole looking at the creature they had found. It was worth looking at. Its eyes were on long horns like a snail's eyes, and it could move them in and out like telescopes; it had ears like a bat's ears, and its tubby body was shaped like a spider's and covered with thick soft fur; its legs and arms were furry too, and it had hands and feet like a monkey's.’
Psammead: I am a Sand Fairy!
Jane: A Sand Fairy? I thought fairies had little ballet dresses and wings and wands.
Psammead: What on earth have you been reading?
Jane: I'll call you Sandy.
Psammead: Why?
Jane: Because we found you in the sand.
Psammead: You're so funny. Have your parents tried boiling you?
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Price HK$ 12,500
1902 - T. Fisher Unwin, London - First Edition
A fine first edition of this magical tale bound by Bayntun Riviére of Bath, illustrated by H. R. Millar with forty-six black and white plates – Cyril, Athena, Robert, Jane, and baby brother, Lamb, are exploring the land around the house their parents have rented for the summer when they find the sandpit. They decide to dig a hole straight through to Australia. Their plan is interrupted when Athena discovers a magical creature hiding in the sand. It is a Psammead, and it can grant wishes.‘The children stood around the hole looking at the creature they had found. It was worth looking at. Its eyes were on long horns like a snail's eyes, and it could move them in and out like telescopes; it had ears like a bat's ears, and its tubby body was shaped like a spider's and covered with thick soft fur; its legs and arms were furry too, and it had hands and feet like a monkey's.’
Psammead: I am a Sand Fairy!
Jane: A Sand Fairy? I thought fairies had little ballet dresses and wings and wands.
Psammead: What on earth have you been reading?
Jane: I'll call you Sandy.
Psammead: Why?
Jane: Because we found you in the sand.
Psammead: You're so funny. Have your parents tried boiling you?
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Price HK$ 12,500
The Course of Time: A Poem, in Ten Books -
Robert Pollok
1833 - William Blackwood, Edinburgh - Twelfth Edition
‘Sweet tears! the awful language, eloquent
Of infinite affection, far too big
For words’
A beautifully bound copy of Scottish poet Robert Pollok’s much admired epic poem, first published to great acclaim in 1827. Often compared to Milton’s Paradise Lost, the poem explores grand themes, such as biblical ideas of the apocalypse to Scottish Romantic philosophy. Pollok’s work was an immediate success, and subsequently twenty-five editions were printed over the course of fifty years, with more than 60,000 copies sold.
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Price HK$ 3,500
1833 - William Blackwood, Edinburgh - Twelfth Edition
‘Sweet tears! the awful language, eloquentOf infinite affection, far too big
For words’
A beautifully bound copy of Scottish poet Robert Pollok’s much admired epic poem, first published to great acclaim in 1827. Often compared to Milton’s Paradise Lost, the poem explores grand themes, such as biblical ideas of the apocalypse to Scottish Romantic philosophy. Pollok’s work was an immediate success, and subsequently twenty-five editions were printed over the course of fifty years, with more than 60,000 copies sold.
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Price HK$ 3,500
Scottish and Irish Diaries: From the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century -
Baron Arthur Ponsonby
1927 - Methuen & Co. Ltd., London - First Edition
A finely bound work. In addition to notes and extracts for the major diarists, Ponsonby provides a detailed introduction, and notes on minor Scottish and Irish Diarists, chronological lists of both. Those he considers major diarists include Sir Walter Scott, Lord Cockburn, Jane Welsh Carlyle, Richard Boyle, John Wilson Crocker, Swift, Wolfe Tone, Daniel O'Connell, Tom Moore, and John Mitchel, among others.
Arthur Ponsonby, first Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede (1871-1946), was an English politician, writer and peace campaigner. He was born in Windsor Castle, the youngest son of Queen Victoria's private secretary. - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
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Price HK$ 1,000
1927 - Methuen & Co. Ltd., London - First Edition
A finely bound work. In addition to notes and extracts for the major diarists, Ponsonby provides a detailed introduction, and notes on minor Scottish and Irish Diarists, chronological lists of both. Those he considers major diarists include Sir Walter Scott, Lord Cockburn, Jane Welsh Carlyle, Richard Boyle, John Wilson Crocker, Swift, Wolfe Tone, Daniel O'Connell, Tom Moore, and John Mitchel, among others.Arthur Ponsonby, first Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede (1871-1946), was an English politician, writer and peace campaigner. He was born in Windsor Castle, the youngest son of Queen Victoria's private secretary. - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
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Price HK$ 1,000
The Works of Alexander Pope - with a Memoir of the Author, Notes, and Critical Notices on each Poem, by the Rev, G. Croly, LL.D. -
Alexander Pope
1835 - A.J. Valpy, London - First Edition
In four small finely bound volumes, with engraved frontispiece and engraved title to each volume.
English essayist, critic, satirist, and one of the greatest poets of Enlightenment, also known for his translation of Homer. Alexander Pope [1688-1744] wrote his first verses at the age of 12. His breakthrough work, An Essay on Criticism appeared when he was twenty-three. It included the famous line ‘a little learning is a dangerous thing’. Pope's physical defects made him an easy target for heartless mockery, but he was also considered a leading literary critic and the epitome of English Neoclassicism. His translation of Homer is still considered
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Price HK$ 8,000
1835 - A.J. Valpy, London - First Edition
In four small finely bound volumes, with engraved frontispiece and engraved title to each volume.English essayist, critic, satirist, and one of the greatest poets of Enlightenment, also known for his translation of Homer. Alexander Pope [1688-1744] wrote his first verses at the age of 12. His breakthrough work, An Essay on Criticism appeared when he was twenty-three. It included the famous line ‘a little learning is a dangerous thing’. Pope's physical defects made him an easy target for heartless mockery, but he was also considered a leading literary critic and the epitome of English Neoclassicism. His translation of Homer is still considered
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Price HK$ 8,000
Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character -
Edward B. Ramsay
1871 - Edmonston and Douglas, Edinburgh - Twentieth Edition
A fine and magnificently bound edition. Important association copy, inscribed by Ramsay to Doctor Robert Carruthers of Inverness, with Ramsay’s hand written note going on to say that this ‘is the 20th edition and I suppose to be my last - the concluding part from page 316, on the subject of a “closer union amongst Christians is entirely new in the Edition’. Dr. Carruthers is also thanked by Ramsay in the introduction (see page X). This work actually went through a further two editions before Ramsay’s death in 1872.
First published in 1857, and extended throughout Ramsay’s life, it consists of his personal recollections, anecdotes and opinions. In addition to the entertaining preface, chapters cover Scottish Religious Feelings, Old Scottish Conviviality, The Old Scottish Domestic Servant, Humour Proceeding from Scottish Expressions Including Scottish Proverbs, and Scottish Stories of Wit and Humour.
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Price HK$ 5,500
1871 - Edmonston and Douglas, Edinburgh - Twentieth Edition
A fine and magnificently bound edition. Important association copy, inscribed by Ramsay to Doctor Robert Carruthers of Inverness, with Ramsay’s hand written note going on to say that this ‘is the 20th edition and I suppose to be my last - the concluding part from page 316, on the subject of a “closer union amongst Christians is entirely new in the Edition’. Dr. Carruthers is also thanked by Ramsay in the introduction (see page X). This work actually went through a further two editions before Ramsay’s death in 1872.First published in 1857, and extended throughout Ramsay’s life, it consists of his personal recollections, anecdotes and opinions. In addition to the entertaining preface, chapters cover Scottish Religious Feelings, Old Scottish Conviviality, The Old Scottish Domestic Servant, Humour Proceeding from Scottish Expressions Including Scottish Proverbs, and Scottish Stories of Wit and Humour.
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Price HK$ 5,500