Results 1 - 8 of 56 results

Shanghae Races, Spring Meeting, 1865, Second Day, Thursday, 27th April, 1865 -

1865 - Printed by A. H. De Carvalho, Shanghai - Only edition
Large and rare lavender China silk programme for one of the earliest Shanghai Races, the 1865 Spring Meeting (47.5 x 23.5 cm). Finely presented in gold wood frame (64 x 38.5 cm), on acid free backing card, and with 99% UV protection ‘tru-vue’ museum grade glass.

Listing seven races, all are with names of stables or owners, names of horses, weight or height, jockey silks colours, the horses include Arabs, English, China and Japan Ponies

The races are -
Maloo Plate, for China ponies only; Arab Challenge Cup, for all Arabs; Chaasee Cup, for China and Japan ponies; Challenge Cup, for all horses [Arabs, Stud Bred, Colonials, and English]; Chu-Ka-Za Cup, for all Arabs; The Selling Stakes, for Colonial and Arab horses; and the Hack Stakes, for all horses not otherwise entered at this Meeting. 
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Price HK$ 25,000



Port Arthur. A Descriptive and Historical Sketch. -

1915 - Japan Tourism Board, Dairen Branch - First Edition
With a colour folding map of Port Arthur to the rear (46x49cm).

A rare booklet, forty two pages, illustrated throughout, with a strong war-related tourism focus on the historic Russo-Japanese conflicts of 1894 and 1904, and the heroic efforts of the Japanese Army in this far northern Chinese port located near to Dalian, Liaoning Province.

Published by the Japan Tourist Bureau, the predecessor of the Japan Travel Bureau (JTB).
 
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Price HK$ 2,000



The Shanghai Dollar Directory 1940 (July Edition) -

1940 - J.H. Howard, Shanghai - Only Edition
A very nice example of this rare Shanghai directory.

Over 800 pages, with the main tabulated sections comprising:-
Alphabetical List of Firms (with alphabetical tabs), giving business address, type of business, members of staff etc. Also with all the clubs listed together under ‘Clubs’ and Schools and Colleges listed under ‘Colleges’.
Agents Directory - Alphabetical list of brands and the Shanghai agents who represent them.
Street Directory - Alphabetic al list of streets, showing the District, the name in Chinese and the occupants.
Residential Directory - Alphabetical list of persons followed by their private address.
Who’s Who - Alphabetical list of persons followed by the firms name.
Preceded by Weights and Measures; Jewish Calendar; Postal Rates; and dates of the Shanghai Race Club Meetings.

Numerous advertisements throughout the ‘List of Firms’ as well as to the covers and endpapers.
 
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Price HK$ 15,000



A Voyage Round the World, In the Years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV. - George Anson, Richard Walter

1748 - Printed for the Author, London - First Edition
A finely bound ‘Royal Paper’ copy of this beautifully illustrated work which ‘has long occupied a distinguished position as a masterpiece of descriptive travel’ (Hill), and ‘a model of what such literature should be’ (Cox).

Containing forty-two copper-engraved maps, charts, views, and coastal profiles, all but one folding, including views of Brazilian harbours and cities, Acapulco, Tenian, Port St. Julian, Magellan’s Straits, the Bay of Manila, Saipan, Lama, Lantau, Chinese junks, and others, and large folding maps of South America, the Philippines, and the Pacific Ocean, as well as a twelve-page subscriber list, and the two-page instructions to the binder.

England, at war with Spain in 1739, equipped eight ships under the command of George Anson to harass the Spaniards on the western coast of South America for the purpose of cutting off Spanish supplies of wealth from the Pacific area. Seven ships were lost and of 900 men 600 perished. As usual, scurvy took an appalling toll.

The Spanish fleet sent to oppose the British ran into storms; provisions ran out and many ships were wrecked. Thus the primary objective of the expedition was not attained. Anson, however, continued taking prizes off the Pacific coast during 1741-42, and in June 1743, near the Philippines, he captured the Spanish galleon
Nostra Seigniora de Cabadonga and its treasure of £400,000 sterling, which allowed Anson and the surviving members of his crew to reach England much the richer. 
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Price HK$ 59,000



Hundred Altars - Juliet Bredon

1936 - Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai - Special Far Eastern Edition.
Unusually for Bredon’s works this was first published in London 1934, and later presented here as the Special Far Eastern Edition. published in Shanghai, and with the scarce dust and delicate Kelly and Walsh dust jacket. Normally the first editions of Bredon were published by Kelly and Walsh.

Hundred Altars is the name of a village in Northern China, an impressive first novel by Juliet Bredon, long term expatriate and author of several detailed historical and descriptive works on China. Penetrates the soul of that vast country, revealing its people, its customs, its struggles as they have seldom if ever been revealed before. The soul of a nation lies in the hearts of its peasantry, and it is of the peasantry that this novel so unforgettably deals. We see them here in the strange humility, with those traits of character so curious in our eyes, these men and women and children of the village of Hundred Altars; they live before us so vividly that the story becomes one of intense personal importance to the reader.’ - publishers description. 
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Price HK$ 4,000



The Chinese Novel. Nobel Lecture Delivered Before the Swedish Academy at Stockholm, December 12, 1938. - Signed - Pearl S. Buck

1939 - The John Day Company, New York - First Edition
Signed by Pearl S. Buck on front free endpaper, a fine copy in a superior example of the delicate black and gilt foil dust jacket.

This lecture, presented on receipt of the 1938 Nobel Prize for Literature, detailed Buck's thoughts on the history, evolution, and impact of the Chinese novel, as well as her perception of its effects on her writing style.
 
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Price HK$ 5,000



A Day in Canton - Inscribed - Seddie L. Burkholder

1907 - By the AuthorFirst Edition
Inscribed with a large flourish from the author to a Mrs Wright.

Rare first and only edition of this little travelogue, self published by Burkholder who was a long time Asia resident, later spending at least 22 years in Manila (see ‘A Day In Manila’). Illustrated with a diagram of the ‘Cycle of Cathay’, three full page and eleven in-text black and white illustrations from photographs.
 
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Price HK$ 4,000



La Montre Chinois. Relations de l Horologie Suisse avec la China - Alfred Chapuis, Gustave Loup

1919 - Attinger Freres, Neuchatel - First Edition
A superb and fine copy, text in French, illustrated with 33 colour and black & white plates, and 245 half-tone illustrations. Included is an introduction on ‘L’Horométrie et le Système cosmologique des Chinois’ by Léopold de Saussure.

A survey of European cosmological instruments and mechanical amusements introduced to the Chinese Imperial Court from the 14th century, and the elaborate Swiss timepieces made for that market in Europe and in China, the first seeming to be by Francois-Louis Stadlin, a Swiss Jesuit in China from 1707-1740. The whole is referenced with texts from the contemporary writings of ambassadors, merchant traders and churchmen; preceded by de Saussure’s essay on ancient Chinese cosmology.

Prominent Swiss makers included Charles de Constant in the 18th century and the Bovet family in the 19th century, and many examples of their timekeepers could be found in the imperial palaces.

Formerly owned by Le Comte Alain de Suzannet.
 
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Price HK$ 8,000



 
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