HERBERT BAKER - ARCHITECTURE AND IDEALISM 1892-1913 THE SOUTH AFRICAN YEARS

Publisher's blue cloth binding with pictorial dust jacket.

246pp. Illustrated.

Binding tight. Contents clean.

'To many, Sit Herbert Baker's name is synonymous with the Union Buildings, yet a vast amount of his preceding work remains in shadow. The magnificent Buildings in Pretoria were, however, the pinnacle of his twenty-one-year career in a country with a scantily developed architectural heritage.

In March 1892, Baker sailed from England to the Cape as a young, unknown English architect. He had come to help a younger brother establish himself as a fruit farmer but soon fell in love with the Cape and its architecture. Given the immediate patronage of Cecil Rhodes in the Cape, and later that of Lord Milner in the Transvaal, Baker established a vast practice operating eventually from offices in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Bloemfontein.

While resident in this country he produced not only his finest work but a distinctive style - emulated by many, admired by most - that has left its mark on almost every South African town.' - editor's note