First edition, 2 parts in one volume, 2 aquatint title (dedication) pages with sepia wash, 30 fine hand-coloured aquatint plates by Samuel and William Daniell, with accompanying text (text of three plates per page), later half calf with marbled paper sides secured with ties – the edges of the paper are worn, bookplate of the Westdean Library on front paste-down endpaper and the shelf mark of the Octagon Library R9. W1935, the aquatint plates are delicately coloured and in unusually good state.
A spacious copy measuring 635 x 500 mm which is larger than Abbey’s.
Mendelssohn (Sydney) South African Bibliography, volume 1, page 411.
Abbey (J.R.) Travel in Aquatint and Lithography 1770 - 1860, Volume I, no. 321, describes this folio as follows, "In Mendelssohn's opinion this is 'the scarcest and most valuable of the large atlas folios of South African illustrations.' Samuel Daniell arrived at the Cape on 9 December 1799. He was appointed by Lieutentant-General Dundas, who became his patron there, and to whom the first volume (part) is dedicated, to act as secretary to a mission to the 'Booshuanas'. The expedition eventually reached Lataku, at that time the limit of European exploration, and was the source for Daniell of the plates."
From Dr Frank R. Bradlow's comprehensive introduction to the facsimile reprint published in Cape Town in 1976. 'Samuel Daniell's folio album of plates, African Scenery and Animals, was the first of the great colour-plate books produced about Southern Africa. It preceded William Cornwallis Harris' Portraits of the Game and Wild Animals of South Africa - the second of these albums - by some thirty-five years. Daniell's splendid atlas folio album differs in important respects from nearly all its great successors; the main difference arises from its early date of publication (preceding the first British Occupation of the Cape) and it thus belongs to an historical era in which the British were not firmly established, and records a different milieu from those that followed.'
- Binding Condition: Very good
- Overall Condition: Very Good
- Size: Folio (635 x 500 mm)
- Sold By: Clarke's Africana & Rare Books
- Contact Person: Paul Mills
- Country: South Africa
- Email: [email protected]
- Telephone: 021 794 0600
- Preferred Payment Methods: Visa & Mastercard via PayGate secure links and Bank transfers.
- Trade Associations: ABA - ILAB, SABDA
Similar lots in the current auction View all
Click on an item to view more details and to bid.
