Search results

  1. DOLCE, Lodovico.

    Somma della filosofia d’Aristotele, e prima della dialettica.

    Venice, Giovanni Battista, & Marchio Sessa, & fratelli, [1565].

    First edition of this exposition of Aristotle’s dialectics, moral, and natural philosophy by one of the most significant poligrafi and artistic theorists of the cinquecento, intended for a non-specialist readership.

    £2500

  2. THOMPSON, J.

    Modern Practice of Farriery, or complete Horse Doctor, explaining the various Symptoms of the approaching Disorders...

    Philadelphia, Joseph Crukshank, 1807.

    First Philadelphia (second American) edition. Penned by a Yorkshire farrier from Clifton, the Complete Horse Doctor first assumed the title of the ‘Modern Practice of Farriery’ for the New York edition of 1793, despite having been in circulation in Britain since 1760.

    £250

  3. ALLIONI, Carlo.

    Flora Pedemontana sive enumeratio methodica stirpium indigenarum Pedemontii [– Florae Pedemontanae icones accedit...

    Turin, Giovanni Michele Briolo, 1785.

    First edition of the earliest Italian regional floras by the ‘Linnaeus of Piedmont’, here in the extremely rare hand-coloured state and extensively annotated by Giovanni Battista Balbis, the author’s pupil and successor at the Botanical Garden of the University of Turin.

    £30000

  4. [CANONS REGULAR OF THE LATERAN.]

    Regula et constitutiones Canonicorum Regularium congregationis S. Salvatoris, Ordinis Sancti...

    Rome, apud Paulum Bladum, 1592. 

    The most complete edition, rare, of the Rule and Constitutions of the Order of the Canons Regular of St Augustine of the Congregation of the Most Holy Saviour, printed on vellum, with two seemingly unrecorded cancels, from the library of a former Abbot General of the Order. 

    £18500

  5. [SWIFT, Jonathan.]

    Some Observations upon a Paper, call’d, the Report of the Committee of the most honourable Privy-Council in...

    Dublin, Printed by John Harding … [1724].

    First edition of the third of Swift’s Drapier’s letters, bound with other works including two further pamphlets on Wood’s coinage (Remarks upon Mr. Wood’s Coyn and Proceedings by Sir Michael Creagh, and A Word or two to the People of Ireland, concerning the Brass Money),...

    £12500

  6. ACTON, William.

    Prostitution, considered in its moral, social, & sanitary aspects, in London and other large cities. With proposals...

    London, [Savill and Edwards for] John Churchill, 1857.

    First edition of this medico-social analysis of sex work and sexually transmitted infections in London, in which physician William Acton argues for increased governmental intervention, influential in shaping the later Contagious Diseases Acts of 1864, 1866, and 1869.

    £1250

  7. [CHINA.]

    Peking.

    Peking, S[anshichiro] Yamamoto, May 1909.

    Second enlarged edition, with ten further plates compared to the first (1906). A thorough portrayal of the city, through the eyes of foreigner-photographer Yamamoto. During the Boxer Rebellion he had come to the city from Tokyo to record events, then stayed. This selection includes a good series...

    £2800

  8. 山本 讃七郎 YAMAMOTO, Sanshichiro.

    Views of the North China Affair 北清事變寫真.

    Tokyo, S. Yamamoto, February 1901.

    First and only edition, rare, of this ambitious photographic project published in the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion, with portraits of troops and soldiers, as well as architectural and landscape views in areas which were affected by the warfare.

    £3500

  9. [BEIJING.]

    Album of Beijing and environs.

    [1920s.]

    A meticulously presented and captioned series of views, by a tourist or resident in Beijing (then Peking) with a thorough approach to recording their experience of the city and environs.

    £1500

  10. 山下 富吉 YAMASHITA Takayoshi.

    青島寫真帖 Souvenir Tsingtao.

    Tsingtao, Showa 16, [1941].

    A Japanese souvenir of Tsingtao (Qingdao) published during the second period of Japanese occupation of the city.

    £300

  11. [SHANGHAI.]

    “So–this is Shanghai”.

    [Shanghai, A. S. Watson & Co. and Kelly & Walsh, c. 1935.]

    Rare first edition of a photographic souvenir book of Shanghai. The initial full-page topographical views of the city are followed by a series of smaller format ‘Studies of Chinese Life’, including street scenes and portraits.

    £350

  12. PACIFICUS, Sacerdos.

    Two letters signed regarding religious paintings.

    [?Hong Kong, 1846.]

    Two interesting letters referring to paintings of St Anthony, St John the Baptist, and Mary, and their display in a chapel so that the congregation might admire them.

    £1100

  13. [MAP.]

    Henan quansheng yutu 河南全省輿圖 [‘Map of the whole province of Henan’].

    [China, c. 1835.]

    Extremely rare map of the province of Henan, produced in China. We have been unable to trace this map in the Library of Congress.

    £1800

  14. [MAPS.]

    ‘Carte du Vicariat Apost. de Péking & Tche-ly Nord’.

    [China], 1896.

    Two handsome maps providing a snapshot of the region around modern Beijing and the Bohai Sea encompassed within the Vicariate Apostolic of Northern Chi-Li and the Vicariate Apostolic of Southwestern Chi-Li in 1896, showing towns, missionary residences, roads, railways, rivers and lakes, and part...

    £1800

  15. [MAP.]

    Karte von Ost-China. Hankau.

    [Berlin,] Kartographische Abtheilung der Köngl. Preuss. Landes-Aufnahme, 1904.

    A map from the Royal Prussian Land Survey’s renowned 1:1,000,000 series, which was published between 1901 and 1912.

    £550

  16. [MORRISON, John Robert.]

    List of Buddhist texts purchased in 1839.

    [China, 1839.]

    A handwritten list of some 130 Buddhist texts in Chinese likely bought by John Robert Morrison (1814–1843), Sinologist, interpreter, and colonial official who played a major part in the British acquisition of Hong Kong.

    £3500

  17. [RAMEAUX, François-Alexis.]

    Edictum pro regis Hou-kuanensis adversus Europaeum Mou (idest adversus RR.DD. Rameaux).

    [China], [1840–1] 道光卄年.

    A letter sent by the Department of Justice to the Hubei provincial government to request an arrest warrant for the French missionary François-Alexis Rameaux (1802–1845). This is most likely a copy, being written on decorated paper as used in private exchanges, especially between lower and higher...

    £3500

  18. [MISSIONARIES.]

    Shopping list of Christian texts, signed ‘Joseph Ly’. [with:] Receipt issued by a financial office (Shou Shan...

    [China, c. 1850.]

    A shopping list of Chinese Christian texts ordered by the Catholic vicar general of Canton. The works include two sets of the Shengjing zhijie 聖經直解, a translation of Gospel readings from the Mass by Manuel Dias the Younger (1574–1659); thirty sets of the Rike cuoyao 日課撮要,...

    £1500

  19. [RAMEAUX, François-Alexis.]

    Notice of the death of Rameaux issued by Bernard-Vincent Laribe.

    [China, 1845.]

    A circular notifying the Christian community of the death of François-Alexis Rameaux (1802–1845), Vicar Apostolic of Zhejiang and Jiangxi from 1838, issued by his friend and successor Bernard-Vincent Laribe (1802–1850), asking that prayers for his soul be practiced nightly for six months....

    £2000

  20. MENNIE, Donald.

    Glimpses of China. A Series of Vandyck photogravures illustrating Chinese life and surroundings. Shanghai, A. S. 

    Watson & Co. Ltd, [1920?].

    First edition, scarce, with thirty images taken across China. Some of the captions are descriptive, but others, in keeping with the pictorialist aspects of Mennie’s photographic practice, are poetic – “Where peace and calm contentment dwell serene”, “Some dim pavilion where my lady dreams”...

    £1200