Kloof and Karroo in Cape Colony. Sport, Legend and Natural History

Bryden was a fine observer and writer, and this is a very good copy of the first edition (1889) of one of his better-known books.

From the Preface: "To me the scenes of which these pages treat were profoundly interesting. To have wandered in the footsteps of Paterson and Sparrman, of Le Vaillant and Barrow, of Burchell and of Campbell, and to have compared the wonderful fauna of their day with the fauna of the present; to have sojourned among the primitive up-country Boers and heard their old-world lore and legend, and noted their quaint customs; all these were experiences of never-ending charm."

Green cloth-boards with gilt design and lettering to the upper panel and gilt lettering to the spine. Top edge gilt. Plain maroon endpapers. xv + 435 pp of text + frontispiece photograph and 17 other inserted monochrome photographic plates with tissue guards.

CONDITION NOTES. The cover corners are lightly rubbed and the spine-ends lightly crushed, but the copy presents well - bright cover gilt, undiscoloured cloth and tight binding. The page edge gilding is dulled. The endpapers are pristine and there is no cracking. There is a former owner signature and date on the half-title. The book is complete and undiscoloured, with light foxing limited to the tissue guards. There are 3 short lines of pencil notes on the imprint page (the verso of p 435) and four pencil marks on the contents pages (one of them against the chapter on "The True Unicorn" as well as some pencil underlining in this chapter). A previous owner was careful to replace the damaged or missing frontispiece (of the Mountain Zebra) with an excellent facsimile, with the tissue guard intact, as well as 3 other plates (the other 14 are present in their originals) in sepia facsimiles but without tissue guards - the Meerkat, the Vaal Rhebok and the Gemsbok.

It is clear that the previous owner or owners cherished this copy, which is, therefore, collectable.