The deluxe leather bound edition - No. 38 of 100 copies bound in gilt lined and lettered full blue leather on "Fine Art Paper". With a personal inscription by Kidd on the front free endpaper "To Meryl & Robin Newbery/with all my love/Mary Kidd/October 1963". Additionally signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. All edges gilt. 94 full page fine colour plates of Kidd's botanical drawings. 3pp. Foreword by Field-Marshall J. C. Smuts (himself a botanist of note). A near fine copy in the original cardboard box, hand addressed by the author to the recipients and stamped.
Loosely laid into the book is a fine 2pp. signed autograph letter on a Bishop's College letterhead, to Meryl (Newberry), sending her the book and referring to the very recent death of her husband (Hubert Kidd). Also included are two autograph postcards from Kidd to Newbery, the obverse of the cards comprising a reproduction of one of Kidd's botanical drawings.
A fine and special copy of this important book.
Mary Maytham Kidd was a well know botanical illustrator. In an article in Veld and Flora in 1963, Dr. J.P. Rourke maintained that this book was "probably the most widely circulated book on South African wild flowers ever produced". At that stage he estimated that 25,000 copies had been published in several editions. The book has recently been republished as "Wild Flowers of the Table Mountain National Park" by the Botanical Society of South Africa. Her husband, Hubert Kidd, was the Principal of Bishop's Diocesan College in Cape Town from 1943 to 1963, and Kidd's House at Bishop's was named after him.
- Binding Condition: About Fine
- Overall Condition: About Fine
- Size: 8vo.
- Sold By: Ronald Levine - Modern First Editions
- Contact Person: Ronald Levine
- Country: South Africa
- Email: [email protected]
- Telephone: 011643 8437
- Preferred Payment Methods: EFT for South African customers and International Bank Tranfer for customers abroad. I am unable to accept payment by credit card.
- Trade Associations: SABDA
