PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEWS OF SOUTH AFRICA

Unpaginated, 11 plates, (1 double) on fold-out strip, a leporello.  

The term leporello refers to printed material folded into an accordion-pleat style. Also sometimes known as a concertina fold, it is a method of parallel folding with the folds alternating between front and back.  

Many leporellos are used as a way of telling a story, while others are purely visual. In the Victorian era, leporellos were quite commonly used as travel souvenirs, depicting beautiful, panoramic scenes of the places travellers had just seen. http://www.abebooks.com/blog/index.php/2013/05/16/leporello-and-concertina-books/ 

Green cloth, title and publisher in embossed gold lettering on front cover, spine repaired with tape. J Stephens, copyright on cover. No imprint and undated. 

Plates are lithographed drawings closely resembling photographs.  

Views include St. Georges Street showing buildings of Saul Solomon and Co., Government Printer till 1881; his insolvent business was wound up in 1886.

From A South African Bibliography, volume 5 (The Supplement), page 255. Commercial firms often issued view albums under their own names for publicity. Cape Almanacs list a John Stevens, general dealer at 10 Napier Street from 1877 to 1890's (possibly the publisher of this album?).