ALBUM OF ORIGINAL SKETCHES

24 unnumbered leaves – the end leaves are loose and detached from the binding - bound in an oblong sketchbook with beige cloth boards – the corners are frayed and worn and the back cover is broken at the top left hand corner and the cloth has been torn away. There is a cloth loop at the top of the front cover for holding a writing implement which is empty and the clasp to close the album is broken. The album contains 79 original water colour sketches executed on both sides of the leaves, there is one blank leaf. All the sketches are named, dated with captions written in pencil, and cover the period 1938 – 1950.

In a handwritten note near the beginning of the sketch book she writes: These flowers were the forerunners of the plates which were eventually published as Wild Flowers of the Cape Peninsula 24 Nov 1950 Mary Mytham Kidd.

Gunn (Mary) and Codd (l.E.) Botanical exploration of Southern Africa page 206: Kidd Mary Maytham b. East London 24 January 1914 artist. Rhodean School Johannesburg, Sorbonne Paris 1933; Royal Academy School. London 1936 – 1938. Author of Wild Flowers of the Cape Peninsula; also illustrated two books on edible and poisonous fungi by Miss E. L. Stephens and protected wild flowers for Cape Province Nature Conservation Dept. In 1948 she married Hubert John Kidd, Headmaster of Diocesan College, Rondebosch.

Extracted from “Wild Flowers of the Cape Peninsula” Veld and Flora June 1983 pages 61 – 62 By Dr. J. P. Rourke :Thirty three years ago, during October 1950, the first edition of Mary Kidd ’s Wild Flowers of f the Cape Peninsula appeared in bookshops throughout South Africa. As a compact field handbook illustrating some 814 species of flowering plants indigenous to the Cape Peninsula, it stood alone — nothing like it had ever appeared in this country before.

It all began shortly before the outbreak of the second world war. In November 1938, soon after returning to South Africa from England, as a young woman of 24, Mary Maytham, as she was then, journeyed to Simonstown to visit her old Roedean headmistresses, Miss T. L. Lawrence, Miss K. M.Earle and Miss R. Scott, who were living there in retirement. A drive to Cape Point followed, as all were keenly interested in wild flowers, but in those days, identifying the specimens encountered, was a major problem as there were no popular illustrated publications to consult. Knowing of Mary Maytham ’s artistic ability (she had won a school prize for drawing flowers), it is hardly surprising that this excursion with her former schoolmistresses should have occasioned a bold suggestion: “ Why don’t you illustrate a book on wild flowers” . The idea appealed to her and a few weeks later, in January 1939, the first illustrations had been completed.

Assembling the art work was a task that occupied her virtually every day for five years. Even social engagements had to be refused in order to capture some of the more fugacious species which open for scarcely more than a couple of hours before withering away. Moreover, travelling was restricted by war-time petrol rationing, while military installations placed many parts of the Cape Peninsula temporarily out of bounds to botanising until permits had been applied for and granted.

Despite all these obstacles, the whole Peninsula was thoroughly combed by the artist who was often accompanied on her excursions by hiking enthusiast Miss Pattie Price. So, apart from some unusual specimen gathered on high mountains by Elsie Esterhuysen, virtually all the collecting was done by Miss Maytham herself.

Initially, 120 plates had been planned but eventually it was decided to reduce this number, which necessitated a certain amount of cutting -up and rearranging of figures until the p resent number of 94 plates was arrived at.

By 1943 the colour plates were ready for publication but no accompanying text had yet been prepared. A move to England and Mary Maytham ’s marriage to Hubert Kidd, interrupted any further progress until 1948.