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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.
More details
Price HK$ 5,000
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.
More details
Price HK$ 5,000
The Friends of Eddie Coyle -
George V. Higgins
1972 - Alfred A. Knopf, New York - First Edition
A fine copy of the highly acclaimed hard-boiled murder mystery and first novel by U.S. Attorney George ‘Fuzz’ Higgins. Housed in a custom chemise and slipcase, which also contains specially made pockets containing three contemporary reviews.
‘What I can’t get over is that so good a first novel was written by the “Fuzz”.’ – Norman Mailer.
Basis for the 1973 Peter Yates film starring Robert Mitchum as Eddie Coyle and Peter Boyle as Dillon.
New York Times – ‘I don’t know what kind of lawyer George Higgins is, but I know now that he’s a writer. With “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” he’s given us the most penetrating glimpse yet into what seems the real world of crime’.
Asked to name the top ten mysteries, Elmore Leonard said, ‘My all-time favorite, the one book that has made a lasting impression is The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins. That would be my list’.
Life magazine – Shove over, Raymond Chandler, if you don’t want an elbow in the eye, And somebody pull up a chair for George Higgins, the new boy in the back room. Hard-nosed George is an assistant U.S. attorney by trade. But that first cops-and-robbers novel tucked under his arm qualifies him for the corner table where all the best tellers of low tales sit, taking their Dashiell Hammett straight with a Hemingway chaser’.
Time magazine – ‘George Higgins’s pungent, ironic dialogue precisely registers the feints and formalities of a world in which unguarded speech can often be fatal He risks confusing us in order to make us sink or swim as his characters must learn to do. Alertness is richly rewarded’.
More details
Price HK$ 2,500
1972 - Alfred A. Knopf, New York - First Edition
A fine copy of the highly acclaimed hard-boiled murder mystery and first novel by U.S. Attorney George ‘Fuzz’ Higgins. Housed in a custom chemise and slipcase, which also contains specially made pockets containing three contemporary reviews.‘What I can’t get over is that so good a first novel was written by the “Fuzz”.’ – Norman Mailer.
Basis for the 1973 Peter Yates film starring Robert Mitchum as Eddie Coyle and Peter Boyle as Dillon.
New York Times – ‘I don’t know what kind of lawyer George Higgins is, but I know now that he’s a writer. With “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” he’s given us the most penetrating glimpse yet into what seems the real world of crime’.
Asked to name the top ten mysteries, Elmore Leonard said, ‘My all-time favorite, the one book that has made a lasting impression is The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins. That would be my list’.
Life magazine – Shove over, Raymond Chandler, if you don’t want an elbow in the eye, And somebody pull up a chair for George Higgins, the new boy in the back room. Hard-nosed George is an assistant U.S. attorney by trade. But that first cops-and-robbers novel tucked under his arm qualifies him for the corner table where all the best tellers of low tales sit, taking their Dashiell Hammett straight with a Hemingway chaser’.
Time magazine – ‘George Higgins’s pungent, ironic dialogue precisely registers the feints and formalities of a world in which unguarded speech can often be fatal He risks confusing us in order to make us sink or swim as his characters must learn to do. Alertness is richly rewarded’.
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Price HK$ 2,500
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$ 18,000
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$ 18,000
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 -
André 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 & Co., 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 & Co., 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
A Treatise on the Culture of the Apple & Pear, and on the Manufacture of Cider & Perry -
Thomas Andrew Knight
1802 - Printed and sold by H. Proctor, Ludlow - Second Edition, Enlarged
A rare clean two hundred year old example of this lovely and influential little work on Cider and Perry (from fermented pears) by Thomas Knight, one of the leading researchers in horticulture in the 18th and 19th century whose work was acknowledged by Darwin in ‘The Origin of the Species’.
Illustrated with woodcut ornament to title and woodcut tail-piece.
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Price HK$ 4,000
1802 - Printed and sold by H. Proctor, Ludlow - Second Edition, Enlarged
A rare clean two hundred year old example of this lovely and influential little work on Cider and Perry (from fermented pears) by Thomas Knight, one of the leading researchers in horticulture in the 18th and 19th century whose work was acknowledged by Darwin in ‘The Origin of the Species’.Illustrated with woodcut ornament to title and woodcut tail-piece.
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Price HK$ 4,000
Histoire et Statistique de la Vigne et des Grands Vins de la Côte-d'Or -
J. Lavallé
1855 - Dusacq, Paris - First Editions
An extremely scarce first edition of this legendary work on Burgundy together with the rare ‘Album’ which was published separately. The book contains six lithographs, showing views of Beaune, Chennai, Gevrey-Chambertin, Vougeot, Puligny, with the album adding a further nine superb lithographs on tinted backgrounds of Aloxe et Pernant, Morey, Vosne, Meursault, Chassagne et Puligny, Santenay et Chassagne, Nuits, Dijon, Brochon, Fixin et Fixey.
With fine provenance, formerly from the collection of Kilian Fritsch who possessed one of the greatest wine libraries ever assembled.
“It is very rare, nowadays, to find together : The Book, the Map and the Album” - Henri Poisot, Historique de la Cartographie des Grands Vignobles de Bourgogne, 2001.
Covering the entire history of wine in Côte-d'Or: Origins of wine, the winemaker and his salary, growing of the grapes, wine production, laws, taxes, barrels and coopers, tastings, gourmet or brokers, wine prices, famous harvests, wine proverbs, etc. The work then goes on to describe the vineyards in the nineteenth century, district by district, classification, varieties, climate, diseases etc.
‘Following on from Dr. Morelot’s Statistique de la Vigne dans le Départment de la Côte d’Or [1831], detailed cadastral maps were being drawn up, enabling Dr. Jules Lavallé [1820-80] to be far more thorough. His Histoire et Statistique de la Vigne et des Grands Vins de la Côte-d'Or gives a detailed classification of the vineyards of the main villages, ranking them as Première, Deuxième and Troisième Cuvées with some outstanding sites meriting Tête de Cuvée.’ – Jasper Morris, Inside Burgundy.
More details
Price HK$ 120,000
1855 - Dusacq, Paris - First Editions
An extremely scarce first edition of this legendary work on Burgundy together with the rare ‘Album’ which was published separately. The book contains six lithographs, showing views of Beaune, Chennai, Gevrey-Chambertin, Vougeot, Puligny, with the album adding a further nine superb lithographs on tinted backgrounds of Aloxe et Pernant, Morey, Vosne, Meursault, Chassagne et Puligny, Santenay et Chassagne, Nuits, Dijon, Brochon, Fixin et Fixey.With fine provenance, formerly from the collection of Kilian Fritsch who possessed one of the greatest wine libraries ever assembled.
“It is very rare, nowadays, to find together : The Book, the Map and the Album” - Henri Poisot, Historique de la Cartographie des Grands Vignobles de Bourgogne, 2001.
Covering the entire history of wine in Côte-d'Or: Origins of wine, the winemaker and his salary, growing of the grapes, wine production, laws, taxes, barrels and coopers, tastings, gourmet or brokers, wine prices, famous harvests, wine proverbs, etc. The work then goes on to describe the vineyards in the nineteenth century, district by district, classification, varieties, climate, diseases etc.
‘Following on from Dr. Morelot’s Statistique de la Vigne dans le Départment de la Côte d’Or [1831], detailed cadastral maps were being drawn up, enabling Dr. Jules Lavallé [1820-80] to be far more thorough. His Histoire et Statistique de la Vigne et des Grands Vins de la Côte-d'Or gives a detailed classification of the vineyards of the main villages, ranking them as Première, Deuxième and Troisième Cuvées with some outstanding sites meriting Tête de Cuvée.’ – Jasper Morris, Inside Burgundy.
More details
Price HK$ 120,000


