STRAY BIRDS (1917) - FORMER COPY OF J. H. PIERNEEF

Publisher's cloth binding with gilt titles on front panel and spine.

84pp + [4]pp catalogue of books by the author at rear. Frontispiece by Willy Pogány.

Binding tight. Contents clean. Moderate age-associated rubbing along the edges.

A scarce British first edition of this collection of 326 epigrams by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), the Bengali poet, writer, philosopher and Nobel Laureate of 1913.

This copy is from the library of Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef (1886-1957), one of the most important South African artists of the first half of the 20th century. His bookplate (linocut on paper) was designed by himself and is neatly laid down on the front paste down. It contains the artist's name, monogram and the words "Ex Libris". The bookplate depicts the artist in front of an easel, dressed in a painter's coat and with the iconic African Baobab "Kremetartboom" silhouetted in the background.

Bookplate size (margins included): 11,4 x 8,5cm.

Image size (excluding margins) 7,4 x 5,4cm.

Bookplate shadow or "ghost" on the second blank leaf. 

For reference see: Die Hout- en Linosneë van J H Pierneef (The Wood- and Linocuts of J H Pierneef) by F. E. G. Nilant, p.190.

Nature was Pierneef's greatest source of inspiration as can be seen through his numerous paintings of the South African landscape. A fact that is confirmed by the artist himself on page 22 of this very copy where he drew a short vertical line in pencil in the margin next to the 85th epigram, "The artist is the lover of Nature, therefore he is her slave and her master." This phrase is very significant as it offers a glimpse into how Pierneef viewed his role as artist in relation to his subject. 

Additionally, on the rear paste down and endpaper of this book, there are two rough landscape sketches in pencil. From a technical point of view they are most interesting as they throw light on the early stages in Pierneef's process of landscape composition.

Both sketches contain all the features that make up a typical landscape by Pierneef, which can be summarised as follows:

1.) A centred perspective with either some bushes or rocks scattered across a stretch of veld in the immediate foreground, which is followed by

2.) evidence of agriculture, in this case tilled fields, then

3.) a flat plane with a homestead at the foot of the mountains, and finally

4.) large geometrical mountains in the distance with the artist's characteristic sharp peaks and flat summits. 

The smaller sketch (on the rear paste down) measures 6,5 x 5cm, and the larger, more detailed one (on the rear endpaper) measures 9,7 x 8,7cm.

Although modest in size, they are from the hand of the master.