Food·Wine·Art
Cocktails
Food
Wine Whisky
Art & Architecture
Ceramics Jade
Fashion
Film Theatre
Music
Photography
A Practical Treatise on Brewing, Distilling, and Rectification -
Robert Shannon
1805 - Robert Scholey, London - First and Only Edition
Rare first edition of this comprehensive and landmark work on wines, spirits, and beers, that ‘may be considered the first modern book in English treating the subject’ of distillation’ [Buxton & Hughes] and the second book in English to discuss ‘modern wines’. [Gabler]
A finely bound large thick quarto volume of over 900 pages split into four parts: Book I: Brewing for Malt Liquors (beer); Book II: Brewing for Distilling (spirits e.g. Gin, whisky, rum, brandy); Book III: Made Wines, Vinegar, Cider, and Perry; Appendix: Wines, Brandies, and Vinegars (mostly descriptions of foreign wines from Spain, France, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, and South Africa).
Illustrated with eight engraved plates and six tables.
According to Buxton and Hughes, ‘Shannon is credited with taking a recognisably systematic approach to the subject aiming, as he says to ‘shew the distiller how he may proceed on rational principles’. ’Curiously for such a comprehensive work there appears to only ever have been one edition’.
More details
Price HK$ 45,000
1805 - Robert Scholey, London - First and Only Edition
Rare first edition of this comprehensive and landmark work on wines, spirits, and beers, that ‘may be considered the first modern book in English treating the subject’ of distillation’ [Buxton & Hughes] and the second book in English to discuss ‘modern wines’. [Gabler]A finely bound large thick quarto volume of over 900 pages split into four parts: Book I: Brewing for Malt Liquors (beer); Book II: Brewing for Distilling (spirits e.g. Gin, whisky, rum, brandy); Book III: Made Wines, Vinegar, Cider, and Perry; Appendix: Wines, Brandies, and Vinegars (mostly descriptions of foreign wines from Spain, France, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, and South Africa).
Illustrated with eight engraved plates and six tables.
According to Buxton and Hughes, ‘Shannon is credited with taking a recognisably systematic approach to the subject aiming, as he says to ‘shew the distiller how he may proceed on rational principles’. ’Curiously for such a comprehensive work there appears to only ever have been one edition’.
More details
Price HK$ 45,000
A Treatise on Cyder-Making -
Hugh Stafford, Anonymous
1753 - Printed for E. Cave, London - First Edition
Legendary and rare first edition of this anonymous work, all of which is generally but erroneously attributed to Hugh Stafford who contributed the sixteen page ‘Dissertation on Cyder and Cyder-Fruit’ at the beginning.
Covering the entire process from identifying and growing the best cider apples, collection, pressing, fermentation, racking, preserving and remedial action for a variety of issues ‘which are incident to Cyder’. With fold-out engraving of cider press (opp. p.32), in-text wood-cut diagrams to pages 43 and 68 (‘One side of the framed Press...’.) and wood-cut decorations to pages v, 47, and 61.
‘As Cyder therefore is generally allowed to be an wholesome drink, and as it is the natural product of our own country, he will surely be thought to contribute something towards the good of the public, who gives infallible directions for making it universally agreeable by varrying it so as to suit every palate, and by improving the flavour and the quality, both of the rough and the smooth, divesting it of its tendency to produce cholics, and giving it the sparkle of Champaign, without an eager and windy fermentation, and rendering it more spirituous than a small wine tho' less inflaming’. [Preface]
An influential work, Benjamin Franklin, who was partial to a drop himself, ordered three copies to be reprinted as pamphlets and distributed amongst the New England farmers after failing with their vineyards. It was plagiarised into various publications including encyclopaedias, cookbooks and later reference works related to cider.
More details
Price HK$ 42,000
1753 - Printed for E. Cave, London - First Edition
Legendary and rare first edition of this anonymous work, all of which is generally but erroneously attributed to Hugh Stafford who contributed the sixteen page ‘Dissertation on Cyder and Cyder-Fruit’ at the beginning.Covering the entire process from identifying and growing the best cider apples, collection, pressing, fermentation, racking, preserving and remedial action for a variety of issues ‘which are incident to Cyder’. With fold-out engraving of cider press (opp. p.32), in-text wood-cut diagrams to pages 43 and 68 (‘One side of the framed Press...’.) and wood-cut decorations to pages v, 47, and 61.
‘As Cyder therefore is generally allowed to be an wholesome drink, and as it is the natural product of our own country, he will surely be thought to contribute something towards the good of the public, who gives infallible directions for making it universally agreeable by varrying it so as to suit every palate, and by improving the flavour and the quality, both of the rough and the smooth, divesting it of its tendency to produce cholics, and giving it the sparkle of Champaign, without an eager and windy fermentation, and rendering it more spirituous than a small wine tho' less inflaming’. [Preface]
An influential work, Benjamin Franklin, who was partial to a drop himself, ordered three copies to be reprinted as pamphlets and distributed amongst the New England farmers after failing with their vineyards. It was plagiarised into various publications including encyclopaedias, cookbooks and later reference works related to cider.
More details
Price HK$ 42,000
Scar-Strangled Banger -
Ralph Steadman
1988 - Salem House Publishers, Massachusetts - First American Edition
Scar Strangled Banger is one of two large books (the other one being America) giving Steadman's view of America in retrospect-sharply satirizing all aspects of 1970’s and 1980’s life in American society, peppered with his sharp, powerful and incredible full-page and double-spread, colour and black & white drawings.
‘In Scar-Strangled Banger, Ralph Steadman turns his satirical attentions to America, the Land of the Free, where even God can be acquired with a credit card. In this land of seemingly limitless opportunities, of All-Nite Liquor stores, aerobic work-outs, silicone lifts and Saturday Night Specials, a country where lettuce is served with everything, he finds that the quality of life is dependent mainly on personal wealth and air conditioning.
This extraordinary collection of paintings and drawings, in colour and black and white, gleefully satirizes all aspects of life in modern America. Whether it be people, places or politics, nothing is safe from Ralph Steadman’s razor sharp pen and even sharper wit. Nixon is “a satirists dream”, Texas is where “ the oil wells are so deep they have lease land rights from the Australian government before they drill” and political conventions are “campaigns in the ass”. His portraits of the Nixon years, Vietnam and Watergate, the Reagan years, Pearlygate and the 1988 Presidential Election are powerful, disturbing and above all savagely funny. It will leave you asking has anything really changed.’
More details
Price HK$ 1,000
1988 - Salem House Publishers, Massachusetts - First American Edition
Scar Strangled Banger is one of two large books (the other one being America) giving Steadman's view of America in retrospect-sharply satirizing all aspects of 1970’s and 1980’s life in American society, peppered with his sharp, powerful and incredible full-page and double-spread, colour and black & white drawings.‘In Scar-Strangled Banger, Ralph Steadman turns his satirical attentions to America, the Land of the Free, where even God can be acquired with a credit card. In this land of seemingly limitless opportunities, of All-Nite Liquor stores, aerobic work-outs, silicone lifts and Saturday Night Specials, a country where lettuce is served with everything, he finds that the quality of life is dependent mainly on personal wealth and air conditioning.
This extraordinary collection of paintings and drawings, in colour and black and white, gleefully satirizes all aspects of life in modern America. Whether it be people, places or politics, nothing is safe from Ralph Steadman’s razor sharp pen and even sharper wit. Nixon is “a satirists dream”, Texas is where “ the oil wells are so deep they have lease land rights from the Australian government before they drill” and political conventions are “campaigns in the ass”. His portraits of the Nixon years, Vietnam and Watergate, the Reagan years, Pearlygate and the 1988 Presidential Election are powerful, disturbing and above all savagely funny. It will leave you asking has anything really changed.’
More details
Price HK$ 1,000
The Honours of the Table -
John Trusler, John Bewick (illustrator)
1791 - for the author, London - Second Edition
Of all the graceful accomplishments, and of every branch of polite education, it has long been admitted, that a gentleman and a lady never shew themselves to more advantage, than in acquitting themselves well in the honours of their table; that is to say, in serving their guests and treating their friends agreeable to their rank and situation in life.
A scarce copy of this wonderful little work, first published in 1788, in the original marbled paper boards and illustrated with twenty-seven woodcuts by John Bewick, including wood-engraved Trusler coat-of-arms. Bound with the complete 12 page ‘List of Books by the Rev. Dr, Trusler, At the Literary-Press, No. 62, Wardour Street, Soho. 1792’’.
Reverend Trusler was a prolific author whose eclectic output included everything from tips on gardening to commentaries on Hogarth engravings.
More details
Price HK$ 10,000
1791 - for the author, London - Second Edition
Of all the graceful accomplishments, and of every branch of polite education, it has long been admitted, that a gentleman and a lady never shew themselves to more advantage, than in acquitting themselves well in the honours of their table; that is to say, in serving their guests and treating their friends agreeable to their rank and situation in life.A scarce copy of this wonderful little work, first published in 1788, in the original marbled paper boards and illustrated with twenty-seven woodcuts by John Bewick, including wood-engraved Trusler coat-of-arms. Bound with the complete 12 page ‘List of Books by the Rev. Dr, Trusler, At the Literary-Press, No. 62, Wardour Street, Soho. 1792’’.
Reverend Trusler was a prolific author whose eclectic output included everything from tips on gardening to commentaries on Hogarth engravings.
More details
Price HK$ 10,000
Le Bon-Bock - 321 Letterpress Invitations in two Folio Albums -
Various
1886-1936 - Printed for Le Bon-Bock, Paris
An incredibly rare collection of 321 original illustrated letterpress dinner invitations from Le Bon-Bock society (each approximately 33x23cm), whose soirees on the second Tuesday of each month near Montmartre were frequented by Paris’ most flamboyant and original writers and artists of La Belle Époque and Les Années Folles.
The artists competed to have their work used for the next invitation, and together with their work each invitation provides an account of the previous dinners activities, beginning with opening speeches, notices and announcements, and then other activities, which usually include poems, prose, texts, songs, instrumental pieces.
The invitations are dated from April 1886 to April 1936, with the first thirty or so addressed to Monsieur Régnier, one of the founders of the association. Individually rare, a collection of this size and association provides one of the most important associations of these periods in Paris.
Inspired by Edouard Manet’s painting Le Bon Bock (The Good Pint), and the democratic, nationalistic ideals that it symbolised, Emile Bellot (the printmaker and model for Manet’s beer drinker) established the Bon-Bock Society in 1875. Consisting mainly of artists, writers and performers, the society sought to re-define France’s national spirit by delving into the country’s cultural past. The inseparable ideals of freedom and humour within their community created opportunities for artistic experimentation; the Bon Bockers and their carefree attitude would go on to inspire generations of Montmartre natives for years to come.
More details
Price HK$ 90,000
1886-1936 - Printed for Le Bon-Bock, Paris
An incredibly rare collection of 321 original illustrated letterpress dinner invitations from Le Bon-Bock society (each approximately 33x23cm), whose soirees on the second Tuesday of each month near Montmartre were frequented by Paris’ most flamboyant and original writers and artists of La Belle Époque and Les Années Folles. The artists competed to have their work used for the next invitation, and together with their work each invitation provides an account of the previous dinners activities, beginning with opening speeches, notices and announcements, and then other activities, which usually include poems, prose, texts, songs, instrumental pieces.
The invitations are dated from April 1886 to April 1936, with the first thirty or so addressed to Monsieur Régnier, one of the founders of the association. Individually rare, a collection of this size and association provides one of the most important associations of these periods in Paris.
Inspired by Edouard Manet’s painting Le Bon Bock (The Good Pint), and the democratic, nationalistic ideals that it symbolised, Emile Bellot (the printmaker and model for Manet’s beer drinker) established the Bon-Bock Society in 1875. Consisting mainly of artists, writers and performers, the society sought to re-define France’s national spirit by delving into the country’s cultural past. The inseparable ideals of freedom and humour within their community created opportunities for artistic experimentation; the Bon Bockers and their carefree attitude would go on to inspire generations of Montmartre natives for years to come.
More details
Price HK$ 90,000
A History of Champagne -
Henry Vizetelly
1882 - Vizetelly &, London - First Edition
A superb example of the finest work ever presented on Champagne. Tracing the history of champagne and it’s wine over 1,800 years. Strikingly illustrated with 350 engravings, including numerous illustrations from ancient manuscripts and 200 original sketches made under the author's supervision. With folding coloured lithograph map showing the vineyards of Champagne. In the publishers elegant gilt pictorial binding.
The first part of the book is historical, champagne from its origins, its progress in the 14th century, the 17th, 18th, the conflict between Burgundy and Champagne, champagne in England. The second part describes the various vineyards, viticulture, manufacturing, large establishments of Reims, d'Epernay, Pierry, Ay, Mareuil, Avize and Rilly. Part three talks about the other sparkling wines of France: Saumur, Vouvray, Sauterne, Bourgogne, Jura, Rhone, concluding with Facts and Notes Respecting Sparkling Wine. To the rear are advertisements from producers such as Moët et Chandon, Deutz & Geldermann, and Vizetelly's catalogue of other published works.
More details
Price HK$ 20,000
1882 - Vizetelly &, London - First Edition
A superb example of the finest work ever presented on Champagne. Tracing the history of champagne and it’s wine over 1,800 years. Strikingly illustrated with 350 engravings, including numerous illustrations from ancient manuscripts and 200 original sketches made under the author's supervision. With folding coloured lithograph map showing the vineyards of Champagne. In the publishers elegant gilt pictorial binding.The first part of the book is historical, champagne from its origins, its progress in the 14th century, the 17th, 18th, the conflict between Burgundy and Champagne, champagne in England. The second part describes the various vineyards, viticulture, manufacturing, large establishments of Reims, d'Epernay, Pierry, Ay, Mareuil, Avize and Rilly. Part three talks about the other sparkling wines of France: Saumur, Vouvray, Sauterne, Bourgogne, Jura, Rhone, concluding with Facts and Notes Respecting Sparkling Wine. To the rear are advertisements from producers such as Moët et Chandon, Deutz & Geldermann, and Vizetelly's catalogue of other published works.
More details
Price HK$ 20,000
Facts About Champagne collected during numerous visits to the Champagne District - Inscribed -
Henry Vizetelly
1890 - Vizetelly &, London - Second and Revised Edition
Scarce edition of this wonderful work on Champagne inscribed by the great Henry Vizetelly to George Augustus Sala, a celebrated Victorian author, gastronome and a colleague at the Illustrated London News, dated ‘Covent Garden, 14 Augt. 1901’, two years after Vizetelly was released from prison for translating and publishing the works of Émile Zola in unexpurgated form.
Profusely illustrated with 32 full page engraved plates and 68 in text engravings drawn by Jules Pelcoq, W. Prater, Bertali, etc. from original sketches, as well as 38 small engravings of the Champagne brand marks to the rear.
Chapters cover:- The Origin of Champagne; The Vintage in the Champagne; The Vineyards of the River; The Vineyards of the Mountain; The Vines of the Champagne and the System of Cultivation; Preparation of Champagne; Champagne Establishments of Reims, Epernay, Ay, Mareuil, and Avize; and Concluding Facts and Hints.
More details
Price HK$ 9,000
1890 - Vizetelly &, London - Second and Revised Edition
Scarce edition of this wonderful work on Champagne inscribed by the great Henry Vizetelly to George Augustus Sala, a celebrated Victorian author, gastronome and a colleague at the Illustrated London News, dated ‘Covent Garden, 14 Augt. 1901’, two years after Vizetelly was released from prison for translating and publishing the works of Émile Zola in unexpurgated form.Profusely illustrated with 32 full page engraved plates and 68 in text engravings drawn by Jules Pelcoq, W. Prater, Bertali, etc. from original sketches, as well as 38 small engravings of the Champagne brand marks to the rear.
Chapters cover:- The Origin of Champagne; The Vintage in the Champagne; The Vineyards of the River; The Vineyards of the Mountain; The Vines of the Champagne and the System of Cultivation; Preparation of Champagne; Champagne Establishments of Reims, Epernay, Ay, Mareuil, and Avize; and Concluding Facts and Hints.
More details
Price HK$ 9,000
Gazette du Bon Ton. Arts Modes & Frivolites. 1912-1913 Tome I and II; 1914 - Tome I -
Lucien Vogel (directeur)
1912-13 - Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, Paris - First Editions
A beautiful and rare set of the first 18 legendary illustrated luxury fashion magazines to be issued by ‘Gazette du Bon Ton’. Finely bound in contemporary vellum. Text in French.
Art Nouveau at its finest, featuring the best designers and artists of the day. Stunningly illustrated with 181 pochoir plates (14 of which are double page), 33 additional full page colour plates, and hundreds of colour vignettes, and sketches throughout.
Belts, Shawls, Hats, Swimming Costumes, Theatre, Shoes, Handbags, Travel Bags and Trunks, Bouquets, Motoring, Sport, Hunting, Gloves, Jewellery, Riding, Make-up, Riviera, Hairstyle, Nightgowns, Capes, Umbrellas... to name but a few of the essential topics challenging the lifestyles of the fashion elite.
More details
Price HK$ 140,000
1912-13 - Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, Paris - First Editions
A beautiful and rare set of the first 18 legendary illustrated luxury fashion magazines to be issued by ‘Gazette du Bon Ton’. Finely bound in contemporary vellum. Text in French.Art Nouveau at its finest, featuring the best designers and artists of the day. Stunningly illustrated with 181 pochoir plates (14 of which are double page), 33 additional full page colour plates, and hundreds of colour vignettes, and sketches throughout.
Belts, Shawls, Hats, Swimming Costumes, Theatre, Shoes, Handbags, Travel Bags and Trunks, Bouquets, Motoring, Sport, Hunting, Gloves, Jewellery, Riding, Make-up, Riviera, Hairstyle, Nightgowns, Capes, Umbrellas... to name but a few of the essential topics challenging the lifestyles of the fashion elite.
More details
Price HK$ 140,000