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The Hoods -
Harry Grey (Pseud. Herschel Goldberg)
1952 - Crown Publishers, New York - First Edition
A rare first edition in unfaded dust jacket. The first novel by Harry Grey (Herschel Goldberg) later to become Sergio Leone’s epic ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ (1984) starring Robert DeNiro loosely playing Harry's life as David ‘Noodles’ Aaronson.
A partly autobiographical account of Goldberg, a Ukrainian born Jewish gangster in New York's Lower East Side between 1910 and 1933, legend has it that this was written whilst incarcerated in the notorious Sing-Sing prison, using the pseudonym Harry Grey to protect his family.
Housed in a bespoke black clamshell case with red morocco spine label lettered in gilt.
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Price HK$ 17,000
1952 - Crown Publishers, New York - First Edition
A rare first edition in unfaded dust jacket. The first novel by Harry Grey (Herschel Goldberg) later to become Sergio Leone’s epic ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ (1984) starring Robert DeNiro loosely playing Harry's life as David ‘Noodles’ Aaronson.A partly autobiographical account of Goldberg, a Ukrainian born Jewish gangster in New York's Lower East Side between 1910 and 1933, legend has it that this was written whilst incarcerated in the notorious Sing-Sing prison, using the pseudonym Harry Grey to protect his family.
Housed in a bespoke black clamshell case with red morocco spine label lettered in gilt.
More details
Price HK$ 17,000
The House-Keeper s Pocket-Book, and Compleat Family Cook. -
Sarah Harrison
1777 - for J. Rivington and Sons, London - Ninth Edition revised and corrected
A prettily bound example of this scarce early work, the title (which is transcribed in full below) gives full details of that contained therein.
With twenty pages of tables showing the rate of farthings to l.s.d.f., six pages of ‘Tables of Interest’ showing the cost of borrowing at 3, 3.5, 4, and 5 percent, over periods ranging from one day to 12 months. Index incorrectly bound before tables.
The full title is as follows:- ‘The House-Keeper’s Pocket-Book, and Compleat Family Cook: Containing Above Twelve Hundred Curious and Uncommon Receipts in Cookery, Pastry, Preserving, Pickling, Candying, Collaring, &c. with Plain and easy Instructions for Preparing and Dressing every Thing Suitable for an Elegant Entertainment, from Two Dishes to Five or Ten, &c.
Also a copious and useful Bill of Fare, of all Manner of Provision in Season, for every Month in the Year.
Together with Directions for making all Sorts of Wine, Mead, Cyder, Shrub, Distilling Strong-Waters, &c. For Brewing Ale and Small Beer in a cleanly, frugal Manner: And for Managing and Breeding Poultry to Advantage.
Likewise several useful Family Receipts for taking out Stains, preserving Furniture, cleaning Plate, taken Iron-moulds out of Linen, &c.
As also easy Tables, of Sums ready cast up, from one Farthing to one Pound, for the Use of those not conversant in Arithmetic: And Tables shewing the Interest of Money from 3, 3 1/2, 4 and 5 per Cent. from one Day to a Year.
The Whole is so contrived as to contain mor than any Book of double the Price; and the Excellency of the Receipts renders it the most useful Book of the Kind.
The Ninth Edition, revised and corrected. To which are now added several modern Receipts, by very good Judges.
Also, Every one their own Physician: A Collection of the most approved Receipts for the Cure of the Disorders incident to Human Bodies’
Provenance: From the world renowned culinary library of Alan Davidson, the man who spent 20 years compiling the ‘Oxford Companion to Food’. With his bookplate.
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Price HK$ 7,000
1777 - for J. Rivington and Sons, London - Ninth Edition revised and corrected
A prettily bound example of this scarce early work, the title (which is transcribed in full below) gives full details of that contained therein.With twenty pages of tables showing the rate of farthings to l.s.d.f., six pages of ‘Tables of Interest’ showing the cost of borrowing at 3, 3.5, 4, and 5 percent, over periods ranging from one day to 12 months. Index incorrectly bound before tables.
The full title is as follows:- ‘The House-Keeper’s Pocket-Book, and Compleat Family Cook: Containing Above Twelve Hundred Curious and Uncommon Receipts in Cookery, Pastry, Preserving, Pickling, Candying, Collaring, &c. with Plain and easy Instructions for Preparing and Dressing every Thing Suitable for an Elegant Entertainment, from Two Dishes to Five or Ten, &c.
Also a copious and useful Bill of Fare, of all Manner of Provision in Season, for every Month in the Year.
Together with Directions for making all Sorts of Wine, Mead, Cyder, Shrub, Distilling Strong-Waters, &c. For Brewing Ale and Small Beer in a cleanly, frugal Manner: And for Managing and Breeding Poultry to Advantage.
Likewise several useful Family Receipts for taking out Stains, preserving Furniture, cleaning Plate, taken Iron-moulds out of Linen, &c.
As also easy Tables, of Sums ready cast up, from one Farthing to one Pound, for the Use of those not conversant in Arithmetic: And Tables shewing the Interest of Money from 3, 3 1/2, 4 and 5 per Cent. from one Day to a Year.
The Whole is so contrived as to contain mor than any Book of double the Price; and the Excellency of the Receipts renders it the most useful Book of the Kind.
The Ninth Edition, revised and corrected. To which are now added several modern Receipts, by very good Judges.
Also, Every one their own Physician: A Collection of the most approved Receipts for the Cure of the Disorders incident to Human Bodies’
Provenance: From the world renowned culinary library of Alan Davidson, the man who spent 20 years compiling the ‘Oxford Companion to Food’. With his bookplate.
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Price HK$ 7,000
Antonio Stradivari. His Life and Work (1644-1737). With an introductory note by Lady Higgins -
W. Henry Hill, Arthur F. Hill & Alfred E. Hill
1902 - William E. Hill &, London - Number 62 of 100 limited copies
The most important work on Stradivari, not only in relation to the instruments themselves, but because it provides depth and biographical detail about the Stradivari family. Prepared by W. E. Hill and Sons, legendary violin makers and dealers, whose legacy, for example, has been documented in Samuel Pepy’s diary entries from 1660. In 1940 the firm donated the "The Messiah" Stradivari and other instruments to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and they continue in that tradition today.
Large and finely bound, one of only 100 copies.
Magnificently illustrated with twenty-one colour plates of the violins, seven two-tone plates of documents, labels, tools etc., one two-tone ‘Supposed Portrait of Stradivari’, and a genealogical tree of the Stradivari family. Together with over 50 in-text illustrations.
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Price HK$ 15,000
1902 - William E. Hill &, London - Number 62 of 100 limited copies
The most important work on Stradivari, not only in relation to the instruments themselves, but because it provides depth and biographical detail about the Stradivari family. Prepared by W. E. Hill and Sons, legendary violin makers and dealers, whose legacy, for example, has been documented in Samuel Pepy’s diary entries from 1660. In 1940 the firm donated the "The Messiah" Stradivari and other instruments to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and they continue in that tradition today.Large and finely bound, one of only 100 copies.
Magnificently illustrated with twenty-one colour plates of the violins, seven two-tone plates of documents, labels, tools etc., one two-tone ‘Supposed Portrait of Stradivari’, and a genealogical tree of the Stradivari family. Together with over 50 in-text illustrations.
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Price HK$ 15,000
The Later Ceramic Wares of China -
Robert Lockhart Hobson
1925 - Ernest Benn, London - First Edition. Deluxe Issue. Number 28 of 250 signed copies
A fine copy of the limited edition which was signed by Hobson and contains five additional colour plates (plates A to E), in the publisher’s deluxe full glazed pigskin binding.
Hobson’s exhaustive and scholarly work, is a natural sequel to Wares of the Ming Dynasty, carrying on the history of Chinese pottery and porcelain and completing the trilogy that began with Early Ceramic Wares of China. Chapters include general history, detailed studies of various periods, European influences on Chinese porcelain, as well as explanations of shapes, designs, and marks.
Profusely illustrated with twenty four full page colour plates, eight folding colour plates, and fifty full page monochrome plates. There are also a small number of in-text emblems, symbols, and the final chapter on potter’s marks provides five pages of examples.
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Price HK$ 23,000
1925 - Ernest Benn, London - First Edition. Deluxe Issue. Number 28 of 250 signed copies
A fine copy of the limited edition which was signed by Hobson and contains five additional colour plates (plates A to E), in the publisher’s deluxe full glazed pigskin binding.Hobson’s exhaustive and scholarly work, is a natural sequel to Wares of the Ming Dynasty, carrying on the history of Chinese pottery and porcelain and completing the trilogy that began with Early Ceramic Wares of China. Chapters include general history, detailed studies of various periods, European influences on Chinese porcelain, as well as explanations of shapes, designs, and marks.
Profusely illustrated with twenty four full page colour plates, eight folding colour plates, and fifty full page monochrome plates. There are also a small number of in-text emblems, symbols, and the final chapter on potter’s marks provides five pages of examples.
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Price HK$ 23,000
Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, Executed from Designs -
Thomas Hope
1807 - T. Bensley for Longman, London - First Edition
A large folio first edition of the “most important English furniture design book of the early nineteenth century” [Musgrave]. The first to document Regency style, it contains what is considered the earliest use of the term “interior decoration” introduced into the English language.
Illustrated throughout with sixty copper engraved plates from drawings by Hope, and an additional engraved title page, this work contributed to the fashion for mixing styles (Greek, Roman, Turkish, Chinese, etc.) eclectically by depicting the furnishings, made to his own designs, in his Duchess Street house.
Dedicated to the classical ideal, Hope (1769-1831) used his considerable fortune to influence taste, specifically to influence modern design according to classical standards. The publication of ‘Household Furniture’ successfully served his didactic aims, and influenced subsequent generations of designers up to the modern day.
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Price HK$ 18,000
1807 - T. Bensley for Longman, London - First Edition
A large folio first edition of the “most important English furniture design book of the early nineteenth century” [Musgrave]. The first to document Regency style, it contains what is considered the earliest use of the term “interior decoration” introduced into the English language.Illustrated throughout with sixty copper engraved plates from drawings by Hope, and an additional engraved title page, this work contributed to the fashion for mixing styles (Greek, Roman, Turkish, Chinese, etc.) eclectically by depicting the furnishings, made to his own designs, in his Duchess Street house.
Dedicated to the classical ideal, Hope (1769-1831) used his considerable fortune to influence taste, specifically to influence modern design according to classical standards. The publication of ‘Household Furniture’ successfully served his didactic aims, and influenced subsequent generations of designers up to the modern day.
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Price HK$ 18,000
Topographie de Tous les Vignobles Connus -
Andre Jullien, Charles Edouard Jullien
1866 - Mme Ve. Bouchard-Huzard, Paris - Cinquieme Edition, Revue, Corrigee et Augmentee [Fifth Edition, Revised, Corrected and Enlarged]
A finely bound edition of Jullien’s important and encyclopaedic work, with text in French. Half of this work is on foreign wines, and considered by Andé Simon as one ‘of the highest interest because most of the information it contains is absolutely original’.
Set in two parts, the second, covering the rest of the world, deals, amongst others, with the vineyards of Portugal, Africa, the Rhine and Moselle, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Switzerland, Austria, Russia, America, Africa, Chile, Syria, Hungary, and China.
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Price HK$ 5,000
1866 - Mme Ve. Bouchard-Huzard, Paris - Cinquieme Edition, Revue, Corrigee et Augmentee [Fifth Edition, Revised, Corrected and Enlarged]
A finely bound edition of Jullien’s important and encyclopaedic work, with text in French. Half of this work is on foreign wines, and considered by Andé Simon as one ‘of the highest interest because most of the information it contains is absolutely original’. Set in two parts, the second, covering the rest of the world, deals, amongst others, with the vineyards of Portugal, Africa, the Rhine and Moselle, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Switzerland, Austria, Russia, America, Africa, Chile, Syria, Hungary, and China.
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Price HK$ 5,000
Culinary Jottings: A Treatise in Thirty Chapters on Reformed Cookery for Anglo-Indian Exiles -
Colonel Kenney-Herbert Wyvern
1885 - Higginbotham &, Madras - Fifth Edition
A scarce example of this popular cook book by ‘Wyvern’, expanded and revised from the first edition (’Culinary Jottings for Madras) published seven years earlier. All early editions are scarce because being a working cook book it is prone to all the usual issues that modern cookbooks are also in danger of, combined with the original cheap paper and glues used for its production in Madras.
With numerous chapters including two on ‘Our Curries’ and ‘Curries and Mulligatunny’, as well as ‘Camp Cookery’, ending with a fascinating essay about the British kitchens of India.
Recipes include helpful hints and advice, for example ‘Potted Prawns ought to be oftener seen at Madras than they are’ and suggestions on where to purchase the best potted meats, anecdotes (see ‘Mulligatunny’), a complete chapter titled ‘Notes on Curing of Meat’.
Published by legendary Indian book sellers Higginbotham’s, this work and other titles by ‘Wyvern’ ‘swept Higginbotham’s from being just a book establishment into becoming a part of India’s print and publishing history’ [Bangalore Mirror]
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Price HK$ 3,000
1885 - Higginbotham &, Madras - Fifth Edition
A scarce example of this popular cook book by ‘Wyvern’, expanded and revised from the first edition (’Culinary Jottings for Madras) published seven years earlier. All early editions are scarce because being a working cook book it is prone to all the usual issues that modern cookbooks are also in danger of, combined with the original cheap paper and glues used for its production in Madras.With numerous chapters including two on ‘Our Curries’ and ‘Curries and Mulligatunny’, as well as ‘Camp Cookery’, ending with a fascinating essay about the British kitchens of India.
Recipes include helpful hints and advice, for example ‘Potted Prawns ought to be oftener seen at Madras than they are’ and suggestions on where to purchase the best potted meats, anecdotes (see ‘Mulligatunny’), a complete chapter titled ‘Notes on Curing of Meat’.
Published by legendary Indian book sellers Higginbotham’s, this work and other titles by ‘Wyvern’ ‘swept Higginbotham’s from being just a book establishment into becoming a part of India’s print and publishing history’ [Bangalore Mirror]
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Price HK$ 3,000
Embroidered Wishes -
Alfred Koehn
1943 - At the Lotus Court, Peking - First Edition
First edition of this lavishly illustrated work by Alfred Koehn, with tipped-in white paper cut of a Dragon and a Phoenix on red paper as a frontispiece, and 46 tipped-in red woodblock prints on handmade paper.
Providing descriptions for the symbols and designs used in Chinese arts and crafts, and what they represent. Housed in a traditional Chiens style binding, with silk tie, paper boards, and handmade paper dust jacket.
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Price HK$ 11,000
1943 - At the Lotus Court, Peking - First Edition
First edition of this lavishly illustrated work by Alfred Koehn, with tipped-in white paper cut of a Dragon and a Phoenix on red paper as a frontispiece, and 46 tipped-in red woodblock prints on handmade paper.Providing descriptions for the symbols and designs used in Chinese arts and crafts, and what they represent. Housed in a traditional Chiens style binding, with silk tie, paper boards, and handmade paper dust jacket.
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Price HK$ 11,000