Apprenticeship in Kuruman

Presentation edition, Oppenheimer Series, Number Five, limited to thirty-five copies, of which this is number 7, Government Archives of Southern Rhodesia, I.Schapera (editor), 307 pages, leather binding, gilt edging, uncut, illustrated with plates & maps, 260 x 180mm, condition; very good.

Work first began on the Series when Professor J.P.R. Wallis of the University of Pretoria joined the Government Archives of Southern Rhodesia during the Second World War. With support from Sir Ernest Oppenheimer the Archives produced the 'Oppenheimer Series' consisting of nine publications in thirteen volumes, in collaboration with Chatto & Windus between 1943 and 1956.The series focused on the penetration of central Africa by explorers, missionaries, traders and empire builders in the nineteenth century. As the series consisted of their journals, diaries, notes and maps, they are the source documents of the latter European construct in central Africa, the settled identity,  and hence the foundation of Cecil Rhodes and his successors, ergo the 'Oppenheimer Series' (based on 'The Bibliography of Africa: Proceedings and Papers', James Douglas Pearson, Ruth Jones).

[The 'Oppenheimer Series' is offered in the Presentation Edition, lots 233-235 and lots 237-242. The complete 'Oppenheimer Series' (Presentation Edition) is limited to twenty-five copies (numbers seven and eight) ,the other seven numbers being limited to between thirty-five and fifty copies each.(booksellers note).]