Homesteads & Villages of South Africa

This and the next three lots present four of the best-known works of James Walton, who may have been South Africa's leading vernacular (or folk) architect of the 20th century. The fact that they were published over a period of more than thirty years and all by different publishers is a good indication of how difficult it was to have even the best work in this field published. Walton was the long-serving chairman of the Vernacular Architecture Society of South Africa and of the Friends of Mostert's Mill - one of South Africa's most visible historical buildings. {His archive (to which is appended the archive of one of his closer younger associates, the late Joanna M Marx, who succeeded him in both the above positions) is held by - and may be consulted at - the Library of the University of Stellenbosch.]

The dustjacket of this, Walton's first major book, published 62 years ago, has material missing from the top of the spine (see image), but the jacket remains more attractive than its fair rating would suggest. The brick-red cloth boards are unmarked and in sound condition. The book remains tightly bound. The plain endpapers are unmarked but sunned in register with the jacket flaps. There is a bookseller sticker on the back paste-down. The last four leaves of the xii + 111 pp of text, bibliography and index are creased at the top corner, but these and the remainder of the contents of this copy remain unmarked and undiscoloured. The b/w illustrations in the text are all by the author, a fine draughtsman. Fifty-six b/w photographs, most of them by the author, are reproduced in art paper section at the back.

This is a true first edition copy: some copies of the 1965 reprint are listed on secondhand book websites as first editions. In its present condition it is rare and collectable.