Golden South Africa. The Gold Fields Revisited (1889)

Mathers' first edition of 1884 comprised "collected notes of a trip from Natal to some of the Transvaal Gold Fields . . .  sent to press 'with all their imperfections' . . . in responsee to public demand . . . ". In the second and third editions of October and December 1887 "revised and extended" press jottings "have been brought together into what may . . . prove to be an acceptable handbook". This fourth edition of February 1889 is an unaltered reprint of the third edition.

Scheele's green cloth-boards with gilt lettering to the spine. Plain endpapers, [xvi, including advertisements] + 390 pp + 5 inserted folding colour maps (Golden South Africa; District of Delagoa Bay; Kaap Fields and Swazieland; Moodie's; Witwatersrand and Heidelberg Fields).

CONDITION NOTES

Although the spine ends are chipped, the corners are lightly rubbed and the front board is rubbed in two places, the cloth retains its colour and the binding is tight. The endpapers are unmarked but lightly sunned, with a minor crack at the front. There is a former owner's name and date [1894] in ink on the title page. A few unobtrusive pencil markings highlight, for example, the high prices of milk and eggs in Barberton, and there is a small brown stain at the top of pp 56-61. The text is otherwise unmarked and unfoxed, with slight sunning towards some page edges. The maps are all present and in place and the only damage is a 10 cm unclosed tear to the largest map, Golden South Africa, opposite the title-page.