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Bal du Moulin Rouge, Paris -
Circa 1960s - Moulin Rouge, Paris
‘Le Moulin Rouge présente sa Super Revue...’
A fabulous vintage program, in French, from eponymous Paris cabaret, The Moulin Rouge, noting performances from French crooner Guy Severyns, world famous juggler Rudy Horn, and ‘Les Doriss Dancers’, the dance troupe founded by German choreographer Doris Haug in 1957.
Wonderfully illustrated with numerous pages of black and white photographs of the various performers and of the dancers in their elaborate and often provocative costumes.
Founded during la belle époque in fashionable Montmarte,The Moulin Rouge was the birthplace of the modern can-can and a popular entertainment destination for artists of fin de siécle Paris.
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Price HK$ 1,500
Circa 1960s - Moulin Rouge, Paris
‘Le Moulin Rouge présente sa Super Revue...’A fabulous vintage program, in French, from eponymous Paris cabaret, The Moulin Rouge, noting performances from French crooner Guy Severyns, world famous juggler Rudy Horn, and ‘Les Doriss Dancers’, the dance troupe founded by German choreographer Doris Haug in 1957.
Wonderfully illustrated with numerous pages of black and white photographs of the various performers and of the dancers in their elaborate and often provocative costumes.
Founded during la belle époque in fashionable Montmarte,The Moulin Rouge was the birthplace of the modern can-can and a popular entertainment destination for artists of fin de siécle Paris.
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Price HK$ 1,500
Present Indicative -
Noël Coward
1937 - Doubleday, Garden City - First Edition
First edition of the first of Noël Coward’s autobiographies, sumptuously bound by Zaehnsdorf for Asprey’s of London, which he would have approved wholeheartedly.
Illustrated with numerous black and white photographs - ‘I was photographed naked on a cushion very early in life, an insane, toothless smile slitting my face and pleats of fat overlapping me like an ill-fitting overcoat. Later, at the age of two, I was photographed again. This time in a lace dress, leaning against a garden roller and laughing hysterically. If these photographs can be found they will adorn this book.’
‘Thus begins the life story of one of the most celebrated characters in British theatrical history. Displaying an early dedication to the theatre, Present Indicative hints at the success that would come to Coward as actor, playwright, novelist and performer. Each line is punctuated with his trademark effervescent wit, making this book a comic tour de force in it's own right.’ [Methuen]
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Price HK$ 4,000
1937 - Doubleday, Garden City - First Edition
First edition of the first of Noël Coward’s autobiographies, sumptuously bound by Zaehnsdorf for Asprey’s of London, which he would have approved wholeheartedly.Illustrated with numerous black and white photographs - ‘I was photographed naked on a cushion very early in life, an insane, toothless smile slitting my face and pleats of fat overlapping me like an ill-fitting overcoat. Later, at the age of two, I was photographed again. This time in a lace dress, leaning against a garden roller and laughing hysterically. If these photographs can be found they will adorn this book.’
‘Thus begins the life story of one of the most celebrated characters in British theatrical history. Displaying an early dedication to the theatre, Present Indicative hints at the success that would come to Coward as actor, playwright, novelist and performer. Each line is punctuated with his trademark effervescent wit, making this book a comic tour de force in it's own right.’ [Methuen]
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Price HK$ 4,000
Night Clubs -
Jimmy Durante, Jack Kofoed
1931 - Alfred A. Knopf, New York - First Edition
Inscribed by Jimmy Durante ‘To Anne – a pleasure to know you – Jimmy Durante, Mar 30-42’.
This is not a ‘guide’, it contains anecdotes, characters, deals, entertainers and speakeasy challenges that only someone deeply connected with the scene could piece together, and if anyone knew the night clubs of New York it was the great entertainer Jimmy ‘Schnozzola’ Durante. Performing from 17 in Coney Island dives, Manhattan slums and gangster hangouts in Harlem, moving from a Mafia club ‘The Alamo’ to open his own small establishment ‘The Durant’ (the signmaker forgot to paint the ‘e’), but this was prohibition and soon after they were raided. Durante with his by now well known partners Eddie Jackson and Lou Clayton, moved on from there to become one of the all-time great night club acts. All this before becoming a film star, radio star, and television star.....
Illustrated with 16 photographs, illustrated title page and endpapers. The fabulous and rather risqué dust jacket was illustrated by Herbert Roese.
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Price HK$ 9,000
1931 - Alfred A. Knopf, New York - First Edition
Inscribed by Jimmy Durante ‘To Anne – a pleasure to know you – Jimmy Durante, Mar 30-42’.This is not a ‘guide’, it contains anecdotes, characters, deals, entertainers and speakeasy challenges that only someone deeply connected with the scene could piece together, and if anyone knew the night clubs of New York it was the great entertainer Jimmy ‘Schnozzola’ Durante. Performing from 17 in Coney Island dives, Manhattan slums and gangster hangouts in Harlem, moving from a Mafia club ‘The Alamo’ to open his own small establishment ‘The Durant’ (the signmaker forgot to paint the ‘e’), but this was prohibition and soon after they were raided. Durante with his by now well known partners Eddie Jackson and Lou Clayton, moved on from there to become one of the all-time great night club acts. All this before becoming a film star, radio star, and television star.....
Illustrated with 16 photographs, illustrated title page and endpapers. The fabulous and rather risqué dust jacket was illustrated by Herbert Roese.
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Price HK$ 9,000
The Life of an Actor. Dedicated to Edmund Kean, Esq. The Poetical Descriptions by T. Greenwood. Embellished with Twenty-seven Characteristic Scenes, etched by Theodore Lane; Enriched also with Several Original Designs on Wood, executed by Mr. Thompson -
Pierce Egan, T. Greenwood, Theodore Lane (illustrator)
1825 - Printed for C.S. Arnold, London - First Edition
A finely bound example of Pierce Egan’s wonderful and amusing novel centred around Peregrine Proteus, and his various highs and lows attempting to pursue a career on the stage. Dedicated to Edmund Kean (1789-1833) the greatest of English tragic actors, a turbulent genius noted as much for his megalomania and ungovernable behaviour as for his portrayals of villains in Shakespearean plays.
Illustrated with twenty-seven hand-coloured aquatint plates by Theodore Lane and nine woodcut engravings by John Thompson (1785-1866).
Provenance: From the library of Major-General Sir Harold Augustus Wernher, 3rd Baronet (1893-1973) with his rather theatrical engraved armourial book plate.
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Price HK$ 15,000
1825 - Printed for C.S. Arnold, London - First Edition
A finely bound example of Pierce Egan’s wonderful and amusing novel centred around Peregrine Proteus, and his various highs and lows attempting to pursue a career on the stage. Dedicated to Edmund Kean (1789-1833) the greatest of English tragic actors, a turbulent genius noted as much for his megalomania and ungovernable behaviour as for his portrayals of villains in Shakespearean plays.Illustrated with twenty-seven hand-coloured aquatint plates by Theodore Lane and nine woodcut engravings by John Thompson (1785-1866).
Provenance: From the library of Major-General Sir Harold Augustus Wernher, 3rd Baronet (1893-1973) with his rather theatrical engraved armourial book plate.
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Price HK$ 15,000
A Sleep of Prisoners, A Play - with - The Dark Is Light Enough -
Christopher Fry, Ronald Searle (illustrator)
1951 - Geoffrey Cumberlege, London New York Toronto - First Editions
Dark and cold we may be, but this
Is no winter now. The frozen misery
Of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move;
The thunder is the thunder of the floes,
The thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring.
Thank God our time is now when wrong
Comes up to face us everywhere,
Never to leave us till we take
The longest stride of soul we ever took.
Affairs are now soul size.
The enterprise
Is exploration into God.
Where are you making for? It takes
So many thousand years to wake,
But will you wake for pity's sake!
A highly imaginative, poignant drama about four prisoners of war locked up in a church in enemy territory, together with Fry’s 1954 play The Dark is Light Enough, his ‘winter comedy’ set during the nineteenth century Hungarian Revolution, and companion play to his earlier works The Lady’s Not for Burning, and Venus Observed. Two volumes in dust jackets illustrated by Ronald Searle.
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Price HK$ 1,200
1951 - Geoffrey Cumberlege, London New York Toronto - First Editions
Dark and cold we may be, but thisIs no winter now. The frozen misery
Of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move;
The thunder is the thunder of the floes,
The thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring.
Thank God our time is now when wrong
Comes up to face us everywhere,
Never to leave us till we take
The longest stride of soul we ever took.
Affairs are now soul size.
The enterprise
Is exploration into God.
Where are you making for? It takes
So many thousand years to wake,
But will you wake for pity's sake!
A highly imaginative, poignant drama about four prisoners of war locked up in a church in enemy territory, together with Fry’s 1954 play The Dark is Light Enough, his ‘winter comedy’ set during the nineteenth century Hungarian Revolution, and companion play to his earlier works The Lady’s Not for Burning, and Venus Observed. Two volumes in dust jackets illustrated by Ronald Searle.
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Price HK$ 1,200
Johnson Over Jordan - The Play. And All About It (An Essay) -
J. B. Priestley
1939 - William Heinemann Ltd, London - First Edition
‘J.B. Priestley is one of our literary icons of the 20th Century. And it is time that we all became re-acquainted with his genius’ – Dame Judi Dench
A smartly bound copy of J.B. Priestley’s ‘adventure in theatre’, Johnson Over Jordan – the story of ‘everyman’ Robert Johnson who attempts to make sense of a life half lived – was the play he considered his finest and most ambitious achievement. Also features an essay by Priestly on the writing of the play and its origins, and the critical reception of the stage production.
Illustrated with 8 full page black and white photographic plates of the original 1939 stage production, which starred Ralph Richardson and featured a musical score by Benjamin Britten.
With a black and white photographic portrait of the playwright tipped in to front endpaper and the front panel of the original dust jacket laid in.
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Price HK$ 1,500
1939 - William Heinemann Ltd, London - First Edition
‘J.B. Priestley is one of our literary icons of the 20th Century. And it is time that we all became re-acquainted with his genius’ – Dame Judi DenchA smartly bound copy of J.B. Priestley’s ‘adventure in theatre’, Johnson Over Jordan – the story of ‘everyman’ Robert Johnson who attempts to make sense of a life half lived – was the play he considered his finest and most ambitious achievement. Also features an essay by Priestly on the writing of the play and its origins, and the critical reception of the stage production.
Illustrated with 8 full page black and white photographic plates of the original 1939 stage production, which starred Ralph Richardson and featured a musical score by Benjamin Britten.
With a black and white photographic portrait of the playwright tipped in to front endpaper and the front panel of the original dust jacket laid in.
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Price HK$ 1,500
The Art of Social Climbing. How to win invitations and influence newspaper columnists -
Jerome Zerbe
1965 - Doubleday & Company, New York - First Edition
First edition, scarce in a dust jacket of this condition. Jerome Zerbe was both a chronicler and photographer of international society, a pioneer of the style of photography now commonly used by the modern paparazzi. The society editor for Town & Country, and the photographer for the El Morocco, gives advice on how to rise in society. With hommages to Elsa Maxwell, Evita Peron, Mrs Astor, Mrs Vanderbilt, and Laura Corrigan.
‘A do-it yourself kit for breaking into society–by a sophisticated, amused, and socially acceptable society editor’.
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Price HK$ 2,000
1965 - Doubleday & Company, New York - First Edition
First edition, scarce in a dust jacket of this condition. Jerome Zerbe was both a chronicler and photographer of international society, a pioneer of the style of photography now commonly used by the modern paparazzi. The society editor for Town & Country, and the photographer for the El Morocco, gives advice on how to rise in society. With hommages to Elsa Maxwell, Evita Peron, Mrs Astor, Mrs Vanderbilt, and Laura Corrigan.‘A do-it yourself kit for breaking into society–by a sophisticated, amused, and socially acceptable society editor’.
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Price HK$ 2,000