London & Cape Colony 1877 (First Edition)

Important book about the gold discoveries of Southern Africa, with large map; the First Edition: The Gold Regions of South Eastern Africa.

Original Book:  Edwards Stanford; Cape Colony: J.W.C. MacKay, 1877. 8vo" 22.5 x 14 cm. Original green cloth, image of zebra; central black-ruled panel of upper cover, beetle in gilt to spine, lettered in gilt; pp. xxiv + 187 + 189-240 (advertisements); 4 mounted photo-type plates, one folding facsimile letter, one large folding sheet of Southern Africa in rear pocket.   Owner's signature of George S. Oettle on front end paper and as a stamp elsewhere in the book.

Book #AB-21    
$550
 

Close-up of Cover

Close-up of Cape Colony map

Close-up of Baines Portrait

Close-up of map of present day South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabe, Mozambique
 

Baines (November 27, 1820-May 8, 1875) was an English artist and explorer of British colonial southern Africa.

Baines arrived in Cape Colony from England in 1842, and from 1848 to 1851 he accompanied the British army in the Xhosa Wars as an artist. At the recommendation of the Royal Geographic Society he was appointed artist to Livingstone's Zambesi expedition in 1858 and was with Livingston when Victoria Falls was discovered. He was one of the first white men to view Victoria Falls. In 1869 Baines led one of the first gold prospecting expeditions to Mashonaland in what later became Rhodesia.Ten years later he headed an expedition to explore the gold fields of Tati, providing a written description of the route from the capital of the Transvaal Republic.  His meticulous mapping and description of the regions he explored helped fill in the blank spots of earlier maps, and his descriptions of the gold regions helped open the path to prosperity for white South Africa. This is the first book to contain an account of the gold discoveries in the Transvaal. The ads at the rear, from firms in Algoa Bay and Port Elizabeth as well as London, give an interesting picture for a person considering migrating from London to South Africa in search of wealth.

Mendelssohn, Sidney. 1993. South African Bibliography. 2 volumes. Cambridge: Maurizio Martino Publisher. (reprint of the 1910 first edition).

A fine original copy in clean sound condition, complete with fold-out original map in rear pocket.  Original bright green pictorial cloth gilt boards, light wear to extremities, Contents generally clean and tight, with the folding map with no loss but wear at the folds intersections.