The Adventures and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes -
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1892 - George Newnes, London - First Editions
A finely bound set of first editions of the first two short story collections, up to the Reichenbach Falls episode of The Final Problem.
Magnificently illustrated throughout from wood engravings by Sidney Paget.
The Adventures containing twelve stories including A Scandal in Bohemia, introducing Irene Adler and The Speckled Band.
The Memoirs containing eleven stories including The Final Problem, and “Silver Blaze”.
These legendary Sherlock Holmes stories all initially appeared in The Strand Magazine, the year before.
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Price HK$ 45,000
1892 - George Newnes, London - First Editions
A finely bound set of first editions of the first two short story collections, up to the Reichenbach Falls episode of The Final Problem. Magnificently illustrated throughout from wood engravings by Sidney Paget.
The Adventures containing twelve stories including A Scandal in Bohemia, introducing Irene Adler and The Speckled Band.
The Memoirs containing eleven stories including The Final Problem, and “Silver Blaze”.
These legendary Sherlock Holmes stories all initially appeared in The Strand Magazine, the year before.
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Price HK$ 45,000
Five Children And It -
E. Nesbit
1902 - T. Fisher Unwin, London - First Edition
A fine first edition of this brilliant story exquisitely bound by Bayntun-Riviere of Bath, wonderfully enhanced with forty-six black and white illustrations by H. R. Millar.
Cyril, Athena, Robert, Jane, and baby brother, Lamb, are exploring the land around the house their parents have rented for the summer when they find the sandpit. They decide to dig a hole straight through to Australia. Their plan is interrupted when Athena discovers a magical creature hiding in the sand. It is a Psammead, and it can grant wishes.
‘The children stood around the hole looking at the creature they had found. It was worth looking at. Its eyes were on long horns like a snail's eyes, and it could move them in and out like telescopes; it had ears like a bat's ears, and its tubby body was shaped like a spider's and covered with thick soft fur; its legs and arms were furry too, and it had hands and feet like a monkey's.’
Psammead: I am a Sand Fairy!
Jane: A Sand Fairy? I thought fairies had little ballet dresses and wings and wands.
Psammead: What on earth have you been reading?
Jane: I'll call you Sandy.
Psammead: Why?
Jane: Because we found you in the sand.
Psammead: You're so funny. Have your parents tried boiling you?
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Price HK$ 12,500
1902 - T. Fisher Unwin, London - First Edition
A fine first edition of this brilliant story exquisitely bound by Bayntun-Riviere of Bath, wonderfully enhanced with forty-six black and white illustrations by H. R. Millar.Cyril, Athena, Robert, Jane, and baby brother, Lamb, are exploring the land around the house their parents have rented for the summer when they find the sandpit. They decide to dig a hole straight through to Australia. Their plan is interrupted when Athena discovers a magical creature hiding in the sand. It is a Psammead, and it can grant wishes.
‘The children stood around the hole looking at the creature they had found. It was worth looking at. Its eyes were on long horns like a snail's eyes, and it could move them in and out like telescopes; it had ears like a bat's ears, and its tubby body was shaped like a spider's and covered with thick soft fur; its legs and arms were furry too, and it had hands and feet like a monkey's.’
Psammead: I am a Sand Fairy!
Jane: A Sand Fairy? I thought fairies had little ballet dresses and wings and wands.
Psammead: What on earth have you been reading?
Jane: I'll call you Sandy.
Psammead: Why?
Jane: Because we found you in the sand.
Psammead: You're so funny. Have your parents tried boiling you?
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Price HK$ 12,500
The Iliad of Homer with The Odyssey of Homer -
Alexander Pope
1805 - Printed for F. J. Du Roveray, London
‘Like the generations of leaves, the lives of mortal men. Now the wind scatters the old leaves across the earth, now the living timber bursts with the new buds and spring comes round again. And so with men: as one generation comes to life, another dies away.’
Homer’s two epics of the ancient world, among the oldest extant works of Western literature, from Alexander Pope's translations of 1715 and 1725.
Twelve volumes finely bound into six by Riviere & Son. Du Roveray’s beautiful edition with the series of fifty full page plates engraved by Stow, Schiavonetti, Neagle, Bromley, Stow and others from illustrations by Burney, Fuseli, Westall, Singleton, Smirke, Howard and others.
With the preface by Pope, Parnell’s ‘Essay on the Life, Writings, and Learning, of Homer’, ‘A General View of The Epic Poem and of The Iliad and Odyssey’ extracted from Bossu, and selected notes throughout. the many marvels and challenges he encounters during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the end of the Trojan War.
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Price HK$ 10,000
1805 - Printed for F. J. Du Roveray, London
‘Like the generations of leaves, the lives of mortal men. Now the wind scatters the old leaves across the earth, now the living timber bursts with the new buds and spring comes round again. And so with men: as one generation comes to life, another dies away.’Homer’s two epics of the ancient world, among the oldest extant works of Western literature, from Alexander Pope's translations of 1715 and 1725.
Twelve volumes finely bound into six by Riviere & Son. Du Roveray’s beautiful edition with the series of fifty full page plates engraved by Stow, Schiavonetti, Neagle, Bromley, Stow and others from illustrations by Burney, Fuseli, Westall, Singleton, Smirke, Howard and others.
With the preface by Pope, Parnell’s ‘Essay on the Life, Writings, and Learning, of Homer’, ‘A General View of The Epic Poem and of The Iliad and Odyssey’ extracted from Bossu, and selected notes throughout. the many marvels and challenges he encounters during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the end of the Trojan War.
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Price HK$ 10,000
Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character - Inscribed -
Edward B. Ramsay
1871 - Edmonston and Douglas, Edinburgh - Twentieth Edition
A fine inscribed edition, magnificently bound by Bayntun-Rivière of Bath.
First published in 1857, and extended throughout Ramsay’s life, it consists of his personal recollections, anecdotes and opinions. In addition to the entertaining preface, chapters cover Scottish Religious Feelings, Old Scottish Conviviality, The Old Scottish Domestic Servant, Humour Proceeding from Scottish Expressions Including Scottish Proverbs, and Scottish Stories of Wit and Humour.
An important association copy, inscribed by Ramsay to Doctor Robert Carruthers of Inverness, with Ramsay’s hand written note going on to say that this ‘is the 20th edition and I suppose to be my last - the concluding part from page 316, on the subject of a “closer union amongst Christians is entirely new in the Edition’. Dr. Carruthers is also thanked by Ramsay in the introduction (see page X). This work actually went through a further two editions before Ramsay’s death in 1872
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Price HK$ 5,000
1871 - Edmonston and Douglas, Edinburgh - Twentieth Edition
A fine inscribed edition, magnificently bound by Bayntun-Rivière of Bath.First published in 1857, and extended throughout Ramsay’s life, it consists of his personal recollections, anecdotes and opinions. In addition to the entertaining preface, chapters cover Scottish Religious Feelings, Old Scottish Conviviality, The Old Scottish Domestic Servant, Humour Proceeding from Scottish Expressions Including Scottish Proverbs, and Scottish Stories of Wit and Humour.
An important association copy, inscribed by Ramsay to Doctor Robert Carruthers of Inverness, with Ramsay’s hand written note going on to say that this ‘is the 20th edition and I suppose to be my last - the concluding part from page 316, on the subject of a “closer union amongst Christians is entirely new in the Edition’. Dr. Carruthers is also thanked by Ramsay in the introduction (see page X). This work actually went through a further two editions before Ramsay’s death in 1872
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Price HK$ 5,000
The Comedies; Tragedies; Histories and Poems -
William Shakespeare, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Edward Dowden, W. J. Craig
1967 - Oxford University Press, London
A fine three volume set of Shakespeare in elegant bindings by Bayntun of Bath, housed together in a matching felt-lined slipcase.
The text prepared by W. J. Craig; with a General Introduction by Algernon Charles Swinburne; Introductory Studies of the several Plays and Poems by Edward Dowden, and full Glossaries.
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Price HK$ 10,000
1967 - Oxford University Press, London
A fine three volume set of Shakespeare in elegant bindings by Bayntun of Bath, housed together in a matching felt-lined slipcase.The text prepared by W. J. Craig; with a General Introduction by Algernon Charles Swinburne; Introductory Studies of the several Plays and Poems by Edward Dowden, and full Glossaries.
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Price HK$ 10,000
The Complete Angler -
Izaak Walton, Charles Cotton, Edward Jesse (editor)
1861 - Henry G. Bohn, London - The Second Jesse Edition
A finely bound copy of one of the most profusely illustrated editions, the second to be edited by Edward Jesse. According to Oliver, ‘this edition has been criticized as having been somewhat too fully annotated and illustrated, but the illustrations, in our opinion, add as much to the charm of the book, as the notes do to its interest’.
‘Indeed, my good scholar, we may say of angling, as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries,
" Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did ";
and so, if I might be judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.’
The most enduring distinction of the Complete Angler is the one cast off by its subtitle The Contemplative Man's Recreation with its graceful evocations of a life free from hurly-burly in the company of friends intent on physical and moral sustenance. The range of perspectives that Walton brings to bear on his rural descriptions embrace literature, poetry, music and anecdote.
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Price HK$ 9,500
1861 - Henry G. Bohn, London - The Second Jesse Edition
A finely bound copy of one of the most profusely illustrated editions, the second to be edited by Edward Jesse. According to Oliver, ‘this edition has been criticized as having been somewhat too fully annotated and illustrated, but the illustrations, in our opinion, add as much to the charm of the book, as the notes do to its interest’.‘Indeed, my good scholar, we may say of angling, as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries,
" Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did ";
and so, if I might be judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.’
The most enduring distinction of the Complete Angler is the one cast off by its subtitle The Contemplative Man's Recreation with its graceful evocations of a life free from hurly-burly in the company of friends intent on physical and moral sustenance. The range of perspectives that Walton brings to bear on his rural descriptions embrace literature, poetry, music and anecdote.
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Price HK$ 9,500