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The Life of the Bee -
Maurice Maeterlinck, Edward J. Detmold (illustrator), Alfred Sutro (translator)
1912 - George Allen & Co. Ltd., London - Early Illustrated Edition
A large and beautifully illustrated volume. With thirteen mounted coloured plates by Edward Julius Detmold, whose love of natural history and talent (exhibiting works at the Royal Academy when he was 13 years old), have combined perfectly with Maeterlinck’s exuberantly poetic work, in which he expresses his philosophy of the human condition.
The renowned Belgian poet and dramatist offers brilliant proof in this, his most popular work, that ‘no living creature, not even man, has achieved in the centre of his sphere, what the bee has achieved.’ From their amazingly intricate feats of architecture to their intrinsic sense of self-sacrifice, Maeterlinck takes a ‘bee's-eye view’ of the most orderly society on Earth.
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Price HK$ 6,000
1912 - George Allen & Co. Ltd., London - Early Illustrated Edition
A large and beautifully illustrated volume. With thirteen mounted coloured plates by Edward Julius Detmold, whose love of natural history and talent (exhibiting works at the Royal Academy when he was 13 years old), have combined perfectly with Maeterlinck’s exuberantly poetic work, in which he expresses his philosophy of the human condition.The renowned Belgian poet and dramatist offers brilliant proof in this, his most popular work, that ‘no living creature, not even man, has achieved in the centre of his sphere, what the bee has achieved.’ From their amazingly intricate feats of architecture to their intrinsic sense of self-sacrifice, Maeterlinck takes a ‘bee's-eye view’ of the most orderly society on Earth.
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Price HK$ 6,000
Grasses and Pastures of South Africa -
D. Meredith (editor)
1955 - Central News Agency, Johannesburg - First Edition
A large and comprehensive work in two parts - ‘A Guide to the Identification of Grasses in South Africa’ by Lucy Chippindall, and ‘Pasture Management in South Africa’ by J. D. Scott, J. J. Theron, D. Meredith and others.
In a unique and elegant binding, initially ‘J.K. 97’, with what appear to be handmade paper end leaves incorporating wild grasses. Housed in matching bespoke marbled slipcase.
Illustrated throughout with full page colour plates and in-text black and white photographs, folding colour maps bound in at the rear.
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Price HK$ 6,000
1955 - Central News Agency, Johannesburg - First Edition
A large and comprehensive work in two parts - ‘A Guide to the Identification of Grasses in South Africa’ by Lucy Chippindall, and ‘Pasture Management in South Africa’ by J. D. Scott, J. J. Theron, D. Meredith and others.In a unique and elegant binding, initially ‘J.K. 97’, with what appear to be handmade paper end leaves incorporating wild grasses. Housed in matching bespoke marbled slipcase.
Illustrated throughout with full page colour plates and in-text black and white photographs, folding colour maps bound in at the rear.
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Price HK$ 6,000
A History of British Birds -
Rev. F. O. Morris
1870 - George Bell and Sons, London - Second Edition
An exceptional six volume set of this milestone in ornithological illustration containing 365 fine full page hand coloured plates, each one supported by a detailed description. The artwork is by A.F. and C. Lydon, plates engraved and printed by Benjamin Fawcett, arguably the most accomplished of nineteenth century woodblock colour printers.
The preferred second edition with the plates no longer featuring the background colour, in the original gilt pictorial bindings which are particularly bright.
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Price HK$ 12,000
1870 - George Bell and Sons, London - Second Edition
An exceptional six volume set of this milestone in ornithological illustration containing 365 fine full page hand coloured plates, each one supported by a detailed description. The artwork is by A.F. and C. Lydon, plates engraved and printed by Benjamin Fawcett, arguably the most accomplished of nineteenth century woodblock colour printers.The preferred second edition with the plates no longer featuring the background colour, in the original gilt pictorial bindings which are particularly bright.
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Price HK$ 12,000
Healths Improvement: or, Rules Comprising and Discovering The Mature, Method, and Manner of Preparing all sorts of Food Used in this Nation. -
Thomas Muffett (Moffett), Christopher Bennet
1655 - Printed by Tho: Newcomb for Samuel Thornton, at the sign of the white Horse in Pauls Churchyard - First Edition
‘Written by that ever Famous Thomas Muffett, Doctor in Physick: Corrected and Enlarged by Christopher Bennet, Doctor in Physick, and Fellow of the Colledg of Physitians in London.’
Scarce first edition of this posthumous work, which André Simon said was “probably compiled about 1595. Some chapter headings will give an idea of the scope of this work, which is composed throughout in a gossipy and very readable style. ‘What Diet is’. ‘How it is to be chosen’. ‘Of Meats’. ‘Of the flesh of tame beasts’. ‘Of the flesh of wild fowl’ . . .”
From the collection of noted bibliophile and perfectionist, Brent Gration-Maxfield, with his neat pencil annotation to the front.
See page 154, where Muffett describes the flying fish he was shown by his friend Sir Francis Drake.
The work includes the important observation, made for the first time, that eating liver is beneficial to certain eye diseases. It also contains the first list of British wildfowl, and recognition of their migratory habits.
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Price HK$ 35,000
1655 - Printed by Tho: Newcomb for Samuel Thornton, at the sign of the white Horse in Pauls Churchyard - First Edition
‘Written by that ever Famous Thomas Muffett, Doctor in Physick: Corrected and Enlarged by Christopher Bennet, Doctor in Physick, and Fellow of the Colledg of Physitians in London.’Scarce first edition of this posthumous work, which André Simon said was “probably compiled about 1595. Some chapter headings will give an idea of the scope of this work, which is composed throughout in a gossipy and very readable style. ‘What Diet is’. ‘How it is to be chosen’. ‘Of Meats’. ‘Of the flesh of tame beasts’. ‘Of the flesh of wild fowl’ . . .”
From the collection of noted bibliophile and perfectionist, Brent Gration-Maxfield, with his neat pencil annotation to the front.
See page 154, where Muffett describes the flying fish he was shown by his friend Sir Francis Drake.
The work includes the important observation, made for the first time, that eating liver is beneficial to certain eye diseases. It also contains the first list of British wildfowl, and recognition of their migratory habits.
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Price HK$ 35,000
The True Prophecies or Prognostications - A Work Full of Curiosity and Learning -
Michael Nostradamus, Translated and Commented by Theophilus de Garencieres, Doctor in Physick Colleg. London
1672 - Printed by Thomas Ratcliffe and Nathaniel Thompson, London - First Edition in English
A nice clean copy of the first English translation of Nostradamus, with the engraved frontispiece. With the original French quatrains, followed by the English translations and commentary. Prefacing this is ‘The Life of Michael Nostradamus’.
Michel de Nostredame ‘began his prophetic writings in the early 1540s with a series of short yearly almanacs in which he made predictions in verse. The new art of printing gratified a popular demand for supernaturally acquired 'certainty,' and such almanacs were a common literary production of the day. It was with Les Prophéties (1555), however, that Nostradamus became an author of contemporary reputation and a figure who has had an impact on later history… [His more than 1000 rhyming quatrains, arranged in ‘centuries’ of 100] constitute the largest body of prophetic verse prepared to that day, perhaps in all literature’. (Clute & Grant).
Theophilus de Garencières, a French apothecary and occultist living in England, provided the first English translation of the famous prophecies of Nostradamus, along with explanations for each, (with a few exceptions for those entries either too obvious to require it or too obscure to interpret). However, Garencières unknowingly used a fake edition of Nostradamus’s work, printed in 1649, which contained two quatrains, known as the Mazarin Quatrains, that were forged by an unknown author in order to discredit and foretell the downfall of Cardinal Jules Mazarin, prime minister of France.
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Price HK$ 95,000
1672 - Printed by Thomas Ratcliffe and Nathaniel Thompson, London - First Edition in English
A nice clean copy of the first English translation of Nostradamus, with the engraved frontispiece. With the original French quatrains, followed by the English translations and commentary. Prefacing this is ‘The Life of Michael Nostradamus’.Michel de Nostredame ‘began his prophetic writings in the early 1540s with a series of short yearly almanacs in which he made predictions in verse. The new art of printing gratified a popular demand for supernaturally acquired 'certainty,' and such almanacs were a common literary production of the day. It was with Les Prophéties (1555), however, that Nostradamus became an author of contemporary reputation and a figure who has had an impact on later history… [His more than 1000 rhyming quatrains, arranged in ‘centuries’ of 100] constitute the largest body of prophetic verse prepared to that day, perhaps in all literature’. (Clute & Grant).
Theophilus de Garencières, a French apothecary and occultist living in England, provided the first English translation of the famous prophecies of Nostradamus, along with explanations for each, (with a few exceptions for those entries either too obvious to require it or too obscure to interpret). However, Garencières unknowingly used a fake edition of Nostradamus’s work, printed in 1649, which contained two quatrains, known as the Mazarin Quatrains, that were forged by an unknown author in order to discredit and foretell the downfall of Cardinal Jules Mazarin, prime minister of France.
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Price HK$ 95,000
Racing to Win. “The Book of the Gurnays” -
Fred Shaw, S. W. E. Bishop
1952 - Teddington All-British Racing Publishing Co., Middlesex - Second Edition
A nice clean copy of a scarce title on the world's greatest strain of racing pigeons, first published in 1949 and then expanded with added introductions shortly after Shaw’s death. Illustrated throughout with 31 full page black and white photographs.
‘His genius as a pigeon racer is equalled only by his genius as a writer, as this book will testify and as his contributions to the world’s leading pigeon journal, Pigeon Racing News and Gazette, have confirmed on numerous occasions. Here, between the covers of this literary masterpiece, reside both the story and the wisdom of one of the greatest pigeon fanciers the world has known, the incomparable Fred Shaw, of Lancashire.’ - S. W. E. Bishop.
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Price HK$ 2,500
1952 - Teddington All-British Racing Publishing Co., Middlesex - Second Edition
A nice clean copy of a scarce title on the world's greatest strain of racing pigeons, first published in 1949 and then expanded with added introductions shortly after Shaw’s death. Illustrated throughout with 31 full page black and white photographs.‘His genius as a pigeon racer is equalled only by his genius as a writer, as this book will testify and as his contributions to the world’s leading pigeon journal, Pigeon Racing News and Gazette, have confirmed on numerous occasions. Here, between the covers of this literary masterpiece, reside both the story and the wisdom of one of the greatest pigeon fanciers the world has known, the incomparable Fred Shaw, of Lancashire.’ - S. W. E. Bishop.
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Price HK$ 2,500
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.
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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.
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Price HK$ 42,000
The Gentleman's Stable Directory or Modern System of Farriery -
William Taplin
1791 - G. G. J. and J. Robinsons, London - The Tenth Edition, Considerably Enlarged and Carefully Corrected.
Two volumes in fine contemporary bindings, volume I with an engraved portrait of Taplin. The second volume contains "Experimental Remarks upon Breeding, Breaking, Shoeing, Stabling, Exercise, and Rowelling. To which are added, particular Instructions for the General Management of Hunters and Road Horses; with Concluding Observations upon the present State of the Turf".
During the latter part of the eighteenth century there appears to have been a considerable demand for veterinary knowledge, and William Taplin (d.1807), part of a group of British surgeons who switched to become veterinarians, sailed on this tide into a fortune by selling medicine for horses by agencies all over the kingdom and advertising them by means of his books.
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Price HK$ 7,500
1791 - G. G. J. and J. Robinsons, London - The Tenth Edition, Considerably Enlarged and Carefully Corrected.
Two volumes in fine contemporary bindings, volume I with an engraved portrait of Taplin. The second volume contains "Experimental Remarks upon Breeding, Breaking, Shoeing, Stabling, Exercise, and Rowelling. To which are added, particular Instructions for the General Management of Hunters and Road Horses; with Concluding Observations upon the present State of the Turf".During the latter part of the eighteenth century there appears to have been a considerable demand for veterinary knowledge, and William Taplin (d.1807), part of a group of British surgeons who switched to become veterinarians, sailed on this tide into a fortune by selling medicine for horses by agencies all over the kingdom and advertising them by means of his books.
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Price HK$ 7,500