[Gold Mining] Rand Mines, Limited ... Rapport[s] Annuel

Georges ROULIOT. - RAND MINES, 'The Corner House'

Rand Mines, Limited ... Deuxieme [Quatrieme...; Cinquieme...; Sixieme... ] Rapport Annuel;  [... Rapport Interimaire pour l'annee close le 31 Decembre 1899 [... pour l'annee close le 31 Decembre 1900].

London or Paris: W.W. Sprague or Chaix, 1895, 1897, 1898, 1899, [1900, 1901].

6 reports (in French) bound into a single volume, folio (12 5/8 x 8 inches). 3 folding coloured lithographic maps (in the 2nd, 5th and 6th reports), Waterlow & Sons of London, or Argus Co. Ltd. of Johannesburg.

Contemporary red half-calf bound for Georges Rouliot, with his name blocked in gilt on the upper cover, a precis of the contents also lettered in gilt on the upper cover and spine, original wrappers bound in.

Condition: some browning to the text, but otherwise very clean, maps in excellent condition;  binding scuffed with surface damage to the leather, joints slightly split, some damage to upper inner pastedown.

Provenance: Georges Rouliot (binding).

A fine collection of some of the earliest official reports from the Rand Gold Mines. This example, translated into French and bound for board member and president of the South African Chamber of Mines.

Other stars of the company were: Sir Julius Charles WERNHER (1850-1912), Alfred BEIT (1853-1906), Sir Lionel Phillips, 1st Baronet (6 August 1855 – 2 July 1936) and others (directors/company officers).

The three folding maps are fascinating and quite beautiful maps of the holdings of Rand Mines, they are;

1. Waterlow & Sons Limited (printers). - Edward H. V. Melvill (surveyor). General Plan Shewing Properties of the Rand Mines, Limited. Witwatersrand Goldfields, S.A.R. [no date but 1895] (11 3/8 x 32 1/2 inches).

2. Waterlow & Sons Limited (printers). - Edward H. V. Melvill (compilor). General Plan Shewing Properties of the Rand Mines, Limited. Witwatersrand Goldfields, S.A.R. December 31st 1897 (12 1/2 x 35 3/4 inches).

3. Argus Co. Ltd. (printers). - Edward H. V. Melvill (compilor). General Plan Shewing Properties of the Rand Mines, Limited. Witwatersrand Goldfields, S.A.R. December 31st 1898 (12 1/4 x 35 inches).

Rand Mines, the South African mining house, originated as H. Ekstein & Co. in 1887 and was soon nicknamed 'The Corner House'. The founders were Alfred Beit, Hermann Ekstein and Julius Wernher. They formed Rand Mines as a financial company in 1893 to help pioneer the first deep level mines with assistance from the Rothschilds. They developed East Rand Proprietary Mine  and Durban Deep, both destined for a hundred-year life.