Melton Prior, War Artist in Southern Africa 1895 to 1900

Brenthurst Second Series, number 3. Standard edition limited to 850 copies. Large 4to; original tan cloth; laminated pictorial dustwrapper; silk markers; pp. 279 + (i), incl. index. Faint rubbing to dustwrapper, with slightest curl to edges. Very nearly fine condition. "The drawings of Melton Prior reflect a working life spent in the trouble spots of the British empire. As a war artist employed by The Illustrated London News, Prior recorded both memorable moments and everyday events in the lives of colonials, soldiers and their opponents, on almost every continent. The Illustrated London News published Melton Prior's sketches regularly for over forty years and during this time Prior contributed to the fame and influence of this leading weekly newspaper. … Prior spent many years away from England: he boasted that between 1873 and 1904 he spent only one complete year at home. In 1878 he was sent to southern Africa for the first time, to cover the Eastern Cape frontier war. By the end of his career he had witnessed and recorded military campaigns in Basutoland, the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, the Transvaal War of 1880 to 1881, the Jameson Raid, the 1896 rebellion in Matabeleland, and the South African War of 1899 to 1902." This deals with Prior's activity in covering the Jameson Raid, the war with Lobengula's Matabele, and the Anglo-Boer War, including the Siege of Ladysmith.