Onder Krugers Hollanders (2 vols plus 2 vols of page proofs)

This comprehensive, authoritative and finely produced history of Nederlandsche Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg-Maatschappij was commissioned by the ZASM society of the Netherlands for the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the original company - on 21 June 1887.

The particular interest of this lot is that it includes two bound volumes of page proofs corrected in pencil throughout and with all the marks carried through to the printed copies. The detail of the process, including the additions and alterations to the index, indicates that these were the author's own proof copies. Loosely inserted in Vol I is a printed card "Aangeboden door Bestuurders der Vereeniging Zuid-Afrikaansche Stichting Moederland. Kaisersgracht 141, Amsterdam" ["Presented by the Managers" etc]

The published copies are full-bound in brown cloth-boards, gilt-lettered to the upper panels and spines, with plain grey endpapers, tissue-protected bromide-covered engraved sepia portrait plates and inserted folding maps and diagrams, and are printed on heavy ivory wove paper.

Vol I. xvi + 289 pp of text and appendix. The frontispiece is a photograph of R J W C van den Wall Bake, the company's founder. Map 1, with the caption in Dutch and the lettering in French, is a contour sketch of the Incomati Valley and the Matingatinga River, which mark the border between the Portuguese territory and the Transvaal, showing the location of the planned rail line and river crossing. Map 2, at a scale of 1:1.5 million, shows the 1881 survey lines, the proposed route of the main line, and other detail. There are a few marginal marks in pencil, but no previous owners' names or bookplates.

Vol II. xii + 377 pp of text plus an index to both volumes. We have not identified the signatures on the frontispiece and another inserted portrait. Map 1 shows existing and planned railways in the Transvaal and Mozambique as at 1 January 1900, and Map 2 has the same information for the whole of Southern Africa up to the latitude of Chinde, with rail distances tabulated in kilometres and English miles. A third pull-out is a graphic representation of the traffic shares of the lines between the Witwatersrand and the coast: This shows that the traffic from Delagoa Bay doubled from 28% in 1896 to 56% in 1906; from Durban there was a fluctuating share starting and ending with 34% over the same period; while from Cape ports: there was a two-thirds decline between 37% in 1896 to less than 12% ten years later.

CONDITION NOTES. The published volumes are tightly bound but the spine covers have started to separate from the boards, for a total of 155 mm for Vol I and 25 mm for Vol II. The corners are lightly bumped or rubbed. No other defects. The sections of the proof volumes are sewn, trimmed and gathered into buff paper covers. Apart from the proof marks there are no other markings. The frontispiece of Vol I is present but without the bromide protection. One Vol II map is loose at the back. Both paper bindings are damaged - spine cover missing from Vol 1 and 180 mm tear between back cover and spine of Vol II.

This already scarce set is unique with its additional page proof volumes.