THE FINANCIAL, STATISTICAL, AND GENERAL HISTORY OF THE GOLD AND OTHER COMPANIES OF THE WITWATERSRAND, SOUTH AFRICA

First edition: 271 + 69 pages of detailed company statistics + 24 pages publisher’s catalogue, large folding colour plan showing the various main reef properties, original maroon cloth boards, title gilt on the spine, water damage on the preliminary pages, several pencil annotations in the margins, starting to wear at the front hinge, a good copy.

Ownership mark on the front free end paper reads: Eckstein J Nov 1892 Wernher Beit and Company

In 1886 Alfred Beit extended his interests to the newly discovered goldfields of the Witwatersrand and met with great success. In his business ventures there he made use of financiers Hermann Eckstein and Sir Joseph Robinson. He founded the Robertson Syndicate and the firm of Wernher, Beit & Co. He imported mining engineers from the USA and was among the first to adopt deep-level mining. Rhodes purportedly was granted concessions by Lobengula, as a result of which Beit founded the British South Africa Company in 1888. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Beit

Mendelssohn (Sidney) South African Bibliography volume 1 page 616: Practically the first standard work of importance on the subject of the statistics of the Witwatersrand Companies. At the date of publication, the deep level properties of the Rand seem to have been almost unknown; or if their value was at all recognised by experts the knowledge of their immense possibilities appears to have been kept a careful secret from the public. There is an enormous mass of information collected in the volume which is still valuable on account of the " ancient history" of many important mines. as well as a record of a large number of enterprises which have failed to survive. There is a long folded plan of the Outcrop Main Reef properties, and Mijnpachts of the Rand, up to the time of publication