MISSIONARY LABOURS AND SCENES IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

Fourth thousand: 624 pages, colour frontispiece "The Mission Premises at the Kuruman Station" is printed by the Baxter process, folding map, 8 wood engraved plates, other engraved illustrations in the text, full dark green morocco decorated in gilt and blind on the covers and titled and decorated gilt on the spine - the leather is worn at the top and bottom of the spine and at the corners and edges, all edge gilt, red moiré silk as endpapers with the name Mrs Sherman embossed in gilt, red silk place marker. The frontispiece and title page are foxed otherwise the plates and contents are crisp.

Mendelssohn (Sydney) South African Bibliography, volume 2, page 29. 'The preliminary chapters deal with opinions of the author on the origin of the Hottentots, and gives a synopsis of the early work of the London Missionary Society in South Africa, reference being made to the labours of Drs. Vanderkemp and Philip, and other pioneer missionaries who predated Mr. Moffat. The volume gives a valuable account of mission work among the Bechuanas, with notes on the customs of the natives, and a description of the earlier travels of the author... There are some particulars concerning Dr Andrew Smith's expedition into the interior in 1835, and there is an ample account of the labours of the various missionary societies engaged amongst the Bechuanas, Matabeles, Basutos and other races at this period'.

The coloured frontispiece of the Kuruman Station is one of very few illustrations printed by the Baxter process in books of African interest. This plate was also sold separately as a print to raise funds for the work of the mission.

Signed on the second free endpaper by Edward Whymper (1840 – 1911) the English illustrator, explorer and climber (known for the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865).