Firsts Hong Kong: From its early days – a truly collaborative international effort

He recalled the ILAB Congress and Book Fair in Tokyo in the early 1990s and wondered why no similar gathering existed to connect booksellers and collectors across Asia on a regular basis.

With several loyal customers in Hong Kong and neighbouring countries, Paul began discussing the idea, and the response was enthusiastic. To turn the idea into reality, he approached the late Mitsuo Nitta of Japan, an energetic and generous bookseller who was instantly keen. Together, they brought in Christopher Li of Swindon Bookshop, whose family also owned Kelly & Walsh, a historic name in Hong Kong’s bookselling world. Paul flew several times from Sydney to Hong Kong to meet with Christopher and Mitsuo, scouting venues and refining the concept. Their goal was to create not just a market, but a space for cultural exchange, professional relationships, and new collecting interests to grow.

The first fair took place in 2007 at Pacific Place in Admiralty, with exhibitors from Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Thailand, and the USA. There was a sense of adventure: late-arriving shipments had to be chased down, or “an enormous bouquet of flowers at the entrance”, tells Paul.
Sales were encouraging, but more importantly, long-term friendships and collecting interests were formed, particularly linking Australia, Japan, and China.

As Christoper Bailey, exhibitor since the inaugural fair, recalls, this “first generation” of fairs, organised by Paul Feain, Mitsuo Nitta, and Christopher Li, ran for two or three years at Pacific Place before moving to the Harbour Centre in Wan Chai, where the fair continued, sometimes under challenging conditions, including building works that blocked the entrance.

A “second generation” began when Bernard Quaritch Ltd. took on the fair under the direction of Joanna Skeels and Andrea Mazzocchi, rebranding it as China in Print and hosting it at the Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware and the Renaissance Hotel and later at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, where the fair is still based today. China in Print ran successfully until 2018, establishing Hong Kong as a distinctive meeting point between Western dealers and Asian collectors.

Throughout its early years, the fair was animated by optimism and a pioneering spirit. Sally Burdon’s 2010 article (https://ilab.org/article/a-growing-antiquarian-book-market-at-the-hong-kong-antiquarian-bookfair) captures this atmosphere so well. She describes bustling crowds, a lot of media attention, and a cosmopolitan mix of exhibitors and visitors. Collectors came from Hong Kong, mainland China, and across Southeast Asia, many attending an antiquarian fair for the first time. “We met young collectors as well as older local collectors who had never experienced an antiquarian book fair before,” she wrote. “Humbling was the word that frequently came to mind.”
In the article, Australian bookseller Douglas Stewart reflected: “Hong Kong was my first international rare book fair, and as interesting and diverse as the city itself. The various rare book dealers’ exhibition stands all paid tribute to the importance and influence of Chinese culture in Hong Kong, but at the same time included fascinating gems which reflected their global origins. The result I felt was a success, with sales of works as different as German books on Peter the Great, American photographs of Java, and English charts of Vietnam… Hong Kong must rank as one of the most important new locations for the growth of the industry.”

After 2018, political unrest and the global pandemic forced a pause. But in 2024, the fair was revived for a “third generation” under the leadership of Daniel Crouch, with the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association (ABA) in the UK taking over the organisation. Rebranded as Firsts Hong Kong, it became an official ILAB-affiliated fair.

Booksellers and collectors now look forward to the next edition, which will be held from 5 – 7 December 2025, as before at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, bringing together international dealers offering rare books, manuscripts, photographs, prints, and works on paper relating to Asia and beyond.

https://firstshongkong.com/

Looking back, Paul Feain summed up his feelings in a note to ILAB:
“I consider myself very fortunate to have been involved in organising this fair and to have benefitted so much for years to come.”

From those early days of enthusiasm and improvisation to its present form as a world-class event, the Hong Kong Antiquarian Book Fair has always been a bridge, linking traditions of collecting in Asia with the international rare book trade, and continuing to live up to the spirit of international collaboration that ILAB stands for and is so symbolic for our trade.