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Memoirs of Mrs. Fitzherbert -
Charles Langdale
1856 - Richard Bentley, London - First Edition
Extra-illustrated with an additional 37 plates, combined with the original 38 plates of which 10 are colour.
Maria Fitzherbert (1756–1837) was already twice widowed when the young Prince of Wales began his pursuit of her in 1784. Initially refusing his offer of marriage, she eventually accepted it and the couple were wed in secret the following year. Though legitimate in her eyes, the union was invalid under the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, and controversial because of her Catholicism.
A posthumous attack on her faith and morals, penned by Lord Holland in his Memoirs of the Whig Party, provoked her close friend Charles Langdale (1787–1868) into publishing this defence in 1856. A champion of Catholic emancipation, Langdale was one of the first Catholics elected to Parliament. These memoirs are based on Maria Fitzherbert's own recollections, recounted to Langdale's brother, Lord Stourton. They reveal the values and beliefs of an exceptional woman who occupied a unique and precarious position within British high society.
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Price HK$ 16,000
1856 - Richard Bentley, London - First Edition
Extra-illustrated with an additional 37 plates, combined with the original 38 plates of which 10 are colour.Maria Fitzherbert (1756–1837) was already twice widowed when the young Prince of Wales began his pursuit of her in 1784. Initially refusing his offer of marriage, she eventually accepted it and the couple were wed in secret the following year. Though legitimate in her eyes, the union was invalid under the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, and controversial because of her Catholicism.
A posthumous attack on her faith and morals, penned by Lord Holland in his Memoirs of the Whig Party, provoked her close friend Charles Langdale (1787–1868) into publishing this defence in 1856. A champion of Catholic emancipation, Langdale was one of the first Catholics elected to Parliament. These memoirs are based on Maria Fitzherbert's own recollections, recounted to Langdale's brother, Lord Stourton. They reveal the values and beliefs of an exceptional woman who occupied a unique and precarious position within British high society.
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Price HK$ 16,000
The Mint - A day-book of the R.A.F. by 352087 A/c Ross. -
T. E. Lawrence
1955 - Jonathan Cape, London - First and Limited Edition
Copy number 156 of this limited edition of 2,000 copies, leather bound and oversubscribed at 3 1/2 guineas, which contained all the Uxbridge Depot ‘gros mots’ (’foul talk’) that were removed from the shorter trade edition. This copy also includes two detailed and informative press reviews from February 1955.
‘It is hereby approved that Colonel T. E. Lawrence be permitted to join the Royal Air Force as an aircraft hand under the alias of John Hume Ross’ - Chief of Air Staff, Sir Hugh Trenchard.
Lawrence was sent away to get a reference from his last employer after his recruiting officer, Captain W. E. Johns, the author of the famous Biggles books, thought him suspicious and checked Lawrence’s face with photographs of wanted criminals issued by Scotland Yard. The result
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Price HK$ 1,200
1955 - Jonathan Cape, London - First and Limited Edition
Copy number 156 of this limited edition of 2,000 copies, leather bound and oversubscribed at 3 1/2 guineas, which contained all the Uxbridge Depot ‘gros mots’ (’foul talk’) that were removed from the shorter trade edition. This copy also includes two detailed and informative press reviews from February 1955.‘It is hereby approved that Colonel T. E. Lawrence be permitted to join the Royal Air Force as an aircraft hand under the alias of John Hume Ross’ - Chief of Air Staff, Sir Hugh Trenchard.
Lawrence was sent away to get a reference from his last employer after his recruiting officer, Captain W. E. Johns, the author of the famous Biggles books, thought him suspicious and checked Lawrence’s face with photographs of wanted criminals issued by Scotland Yard. The result
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Price HK$ 1,200
Voyage dans les Mers de l'Inde -
Guillaume Joseph Le Gentil de la Galaisière
1779 - Imprimerie Royale, Paris - First Editions
‘Two monumental volumes... crammed with details on astronomy, navigation, and natural history... His descriptions of life in Manila, Pondicherry, and Madagascar are invaluable’ (Dunmore).
A stunning set In contemporary bindings and illustrated with twenty seven folding copper engravings showing two world maps, maps charts and plans of Eastern and Western Philippines, Bay of Manila, Philippine Harbours, Manilla, Madagascar and it’s coastline, Isle de France (Mauritius), Isle de Bourbon (Réunion), Quartier S. Denis on Réunion, Eastern and Western Straits of Malacca, and Pondicherry. Together with engraved plates of animals and plant life, the ruins of Pondicherry, pagodas, Indian deities, and charts of comets and constellations.
‘In addition to the scientific details for which the voyage was undertaken, the first volume treats of the manners, customs, and religion or the people of the Malabar Coast and of the astronomy of the Brahmins. The second volume contains elaborate accounts of the Philippine Islands, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Bourbon and their inhabitants, including views and charts of the Philippines. Le Gentil gives details of the Islands, their climate, volcanoes, fertility, fruits, birds, animals, peoples, language, history, and description of Manila, the government, ecclesiastical and civil, commerce, &c.’ (Edwards).
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Price HK$ 37,000
1779 - Imprimerie Royale, Paris - First Editions
‘Two monumental volumes... crammed with details on astronomy, navigation, and natural history... His descriptions of life in Manila, Pondicherry, and Madagascar are invaluable’ (Dunmore). A stunning set In contemporary bindings and illustrated with twenty seven folding copper engravings showing two world maps, maps charts and plans of Eastern and Western Philippines, Bay of Manila, Philippine Harbours, Manilla, Madagascar and it’s coastline, Isle de France (Mauritius), Isle de Bourbon (Réunion), Quartier S. Denis on Réunion, Eastern and Western Straits of Malacca, and Pondicherry. Together with engraved plates of animals and plant life, the ruins of Pondicherry, pagodas, Indian deities, and charts of comets and constellations.
‘In addition to the scientific details for which the voyage was undertaken, the first volume treats of the manners, customs, and religion or the people of the Malabar Coast and of the astronomy of the Brahmins. The second volume contains elaborate accounts of the Philippine Islands, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Bourbon and their inhabitants, including views and charts of the Philippines. Le Gentil gives details of the Islands, their climate, volcanoes, fertility, fruits, birds, animals, peoples, language, history, and description of Manila, the government, ecclesiastical and civil, commerce, &c.’ (Edwards).
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Price HK$ 37,000
Golf -
Cecil Leitch
1922 - J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia & London - First American Edition issued same year as the First English Edition.
‘The golfing life and experiences of this very great English lady golfer’ - Joseph Murdoch, The Library of Golf.
Charlotte Cecilia Pitcairn Leitch (nicknamed Cecil) was the first superstar of women’s golf. In 1914 she won the first of her four British Ladies Amateurs, taking the title from Muriel Dodd. Her opportunity to possibly win several more was interrupted for five years during the First World War. She retired having won 12 national titles, five French Ladies Amateurs and one Canadian Women's Amateur.
With fifty illustrations, including photographic plate laid onto front covers, and full page black and white photographs.
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Price HK$ 1,800
1922 - J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia & London - First American Edition issued same year as the First English Edition.
‘The golfing life and experiences of this very great English lady golfer’ - Joseph Murdoch, The Library of Golf.Charlotte Cecilia Pitcairn Leitch (nicknamed Cecil) was the first superstar of women’s golf. In 1914 she won the first of her four British Ladies Amateurs, taking the title from Muriel Dodd. Her opportunity to possibly win several more was interrupted for five years during the First World War. She retired having won 12 national titles, five French Ladies Amateurs and one Canadian Women's Amateur.
With fifty illustrations, including photographic plate laid onto front covers, and full page black and white photographs.
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Price HK$ 1,800
Listen! The Wind -
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
1939 - Harcourt, New York - First Edition
A lovely copy – in its striking original dust jacket – of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s beautifully written account of her and her husband’s 1933 flight in their single-engine Lockheed ‘Sirius’ from Africa to South America, as they survey 30,000 miles of coastal aviation routes across the Atlantic Ocean.
With a foreword, and map drawings by Charles Lindbergh.
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Price HK$ 2,800
1939 - Harcourt, New York - First Edition
A lovely copy – in its striking original dust jacket – of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s beautifully written account of her and her husband’s 1933 flight in their single-engine Lockheed ‘Sirius’ from Africa to South America, as they survey 30,000 miles of coastal aviation routes across the Atlantic Ocean.With a foreword, and map drawings by Charles Lindbergh.
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Price HK$ 2,800
The Chronicles of Scotland. Published from Several Old Manuscripts -
Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, John Graham Dalyell (editor)
1814 - Printed by George Ramsay for Archibald Constable and Company, Edinburgh
An early and rare publication of Lindsay’s Historie and Chronicles of Scotland, the first history of Scotland to be composed in Scots rather than Latin, and first published in 1728. This edition was compiled by Dalyell from four different manuscripts, and even Dalyell says that ‘perhaps it is not inconsistent to admit, that [Lindsay] may have availed himself of the materials collected by his predecessors.’
The Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen gives Lindsay some credit, by stating that ‘the earnest and honest simplicity of the good old chronicler, however, is exceedingly amusing.’ But, they go on to say that ‘as to the Chronicles themselves, it is not perhaps very easy to determine in what language they should be spoken of. They present a strange compound of endless and aimless garrulity, simplicity, credulity, and graphic delineation; the latter, however, evidently the effect not of art or design, but of a total want of them. He describes events with all the circumstantiality of an eyewitness, and with all the prolixity of one who is determined to leave nothing untold, however trifling it may be. But his credulity, in particular, seems to have been boundless, and is remarkable even for the credulous age in which he lived. He appears to have believed, without question, every thing which was told him; and, believing it, has carefully recorded it.’
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Price HK$ 5,000
1814 - Printed by George Ramsay for Archibald Constable and Company, Edinburgh
An early and rare publication of Lindsay’s Historie and Chronicles of Scotland, the first history of Scotland to be composed in Scots rather than Latin, and first published in 1728. This edition was compiled by Dalyell from four different manuscripts, and even Dalyell says that ‘perhaps it is not inconsistent to admit, that [Lindsay] may have availed himself of the materials collected by his predecessors.’The Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen gives Lindsay some credit, by stating that ‘the earnest and honest simplicity of the good old chronicler, however, is exceedingly amusing.’ But, they go on to say that ‘as to the Chronicles themselves, it is not perhaps very easy to determine in what language they should be spoken of. They present a strange compound of endless and aimless garrulity, simplicity, credulity, and graphic delineation; the latter, however, evidently the effect not of art or design, but of a total want of them. He describes events with all the circumstantiality of an eyewitness, and with all the prolixity of one who is determined to leave nothing untold, however trifling it may be. But his credulity, in particular, seems to have been boundless, and is remarkable even for the credulous age in which he lived. He appears to have believed, without question, every thing which was told him; and, believing it, has carefully recorded it.’
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Price HK$ 5,000
The Scots Household in the Eighteenth Century -
Marion Lochhead
1948 - The Moray Press, Edinburgh - First Edition
A finely bound first edition of Lochhead’s comprehensive work which reflected her interests in social and domestic history.
Chapters cover, among other areas, Food, Religion, Servants, Games, Children, Social Life, the Library, the Scotswoman Abroad, and the Scots Merchant.
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Price HK$ 1,800
1948 - The Moray Press, Edinburgh - First Edition
A finely bound first edition of Lochhead’s comprehensive work which reflected her interests in social and domestic history.Chapters cover, among other areas, Food, Religion, Servants, Games, Children, Social Life, the Library, the Scotswoman Abroad, and the Scots Merchant.
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Price HK$ 1,800
Voodoo Fire in Haiti -
Richard A. Loederer
1935 - Jarrolds Publishers London Limited, London - First Edition in English
‘The drums took on a different rhythm, rattling out a sharp staccato message, accompanied by the heavy pounding of the bass. Faster and faster flew the feet of the dancers as they whirled round the fire. Their smooth muscles writhed and cramped as under the blows of an invisible whip.’
From his steamer voyage from Jazz Age New York to Cap Haitien to his punishing trek through the island's interior jungle to a rapt, yet fearful, attendance at an authentic voodoo ceremony, Loederer captures the sights, sounds, and sensations of this mysterious Caribbean republic.
A selection of the magnificent chapter headings tell all... Congo Bean Stew; Massacre River; Jungle Magic; Tropical Fever; Polychromata; Black Magic; Voodoo Fire.
Illustrated by fifty one of the author's own art deco-style woodcuts, and his wonderful piratical map of Haiti used for the endpapers, which only add to the exotic appeal.
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Price HK$ 3,000
1935 - Jarrolds Publishers London Limited, London - First Edition in English
‘The drums took on a different rhythm, rattling out a sharp staccato message, accompanied by the heavy pounding of the bass. Faster and faster flew the feet of the dancers as they whirled round the fire. Their smooth muscles writhed and cramped as under the blows of an invisible whip.’ From his steamer voyage from Jazz Age New York to Cap Haitien to his punishing trek through the island's interior jungle to a rapt, yet fearful, attendance at an authentic voodoo ceremony, Loederer captures the sights, sounds, and sensations of this mysterious Caribbean republic.
A selection of the magnificent chapter headings tell all... Congo Bean Stew; Massacre River; Jungle Magic; Tropical Fever; Polychromata; Black Magic; Voodoo Fire.
Illustrated by fifty one of the author's own art deco-style woodcuts, and his wonderful piratical map of Haiti used for the endpapers, which only add to the exotic appeal.
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Price HK$ 3,000