Boer War Memorabilia. The collectors\' guide (inscribed by author; 1987)

Apart from the invaluable and authoritative main text - which includes chapters on ceramics, model soldiers, glassware, stamps and covers, prisoner-of-war handicrafts, coins and notes, gold, silver and jewellery, tin and pewter, ephemera, textiles, and general collectables - the prelims are packed with information not easily found elsewhere, including a short but select bibliography and, especially, a chronologcal list of major Boer War events and an alphabetical reference of names and places.

The half-title carries the following interesting list: \"The Boer War was also known as the Anglo-Boer War, the Crying War, the Freedom War, the Great Boer War, the Last Colonial War, the Second Anglo-Boer War, the Second Boer War, the South African Campaign, the South African War, the Transvaal Campaign and the Transvaal War.\" However and although the book is in English, the author might have added \"Die Tweede Vryheidsoorlog\" [the Second War of Freedom], which more than a century later remains the name preferred by historians and others writing from the Boer perspective. (See, for example, the monumental Lot 98 in the present auction.)

Oosthuizen\'s book is an incomparable work of reference.

The laminated photographic dustjacket, not price-clipped (35 pounds), is lightly rubbed at some extremities and there is a lamination crease-line at the front. The front paste-down had become detached from the case and needs to be reglued. There is an owner\'s signature on the front free endpaper and, on the title page, a later dedication, in Afrikaans, by the author to the same owner. The book\'s xxxvi + 239 pp of colour- and monochrome-illustrated text, prelims and index are on coated stock and are in pristine condition.