De Luxe Edition limited to 100 numbered copies. This is #18.
Publisher's green and brown moiré silk binding. Decorated gilt titles on front panel and spine. Top edge gilt. Emerald green marbled endpapers.
The De Luxe Edition is large, measuring 36 x 28cm and weighs 5.6kg.
xviii + 681pp, frontispiece portrait of the author (with tissue guard), 27 tissue guarded photogravure plates - 3 in colour, 11 maps, numerous illustrations in the text.
Binding tight. Contents clean.
Bookplate of Otto Beit on front paste down and Oppenheimer bookplate on verso of front endpaper.
These bookplates are VERY significant.
Sir Otto Beit (1865-1930) was a German-born British financier and younger brother of Alfred Beit, the Randlord who at one point controlled 37 percent of the gold produced at the Witwatersrand's goldfields in Johannesburg. Otto Beit came to South Africa in 1890 to gain experience in the diamond industry after his brother gained control of the diamond-mining claims in the Central, Dutoitspan, and De Beers mines in Kimberley. He remained for only six years but still played a significant role in the development of Rand Gold Mines. Apart from this Sir Otto Beit also served as Director of Rhodesia Railways Ltd., and of The British South Africa Company.
Sir Ernest Oppenheimer (1880-1957) was a diamond and gold mining magnate who, in 1917, founded Anglo American. In 1927 he gained control of the De Beers Diamond Mining Company, which was founded by Cecil Rhodes in 1888, and the company has remained prominent in the industry to this day. At some point ownership of Beit's copy of THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA passed on to the Oppenheimers. The Oppenheimer library is today known as The Brenthurst Library, their primary focus being on the acquisition, preservation, and publication of rare and unique documents that reflect South Africa's colourful past. One can only but wonder why this copy was withdrawn from their collection, but fortunately it ended up in the collection of Robin Fryde, who was the owner of Thorold's Africana, the legendary antiquarian bookshop which was located in the centre of Johannesburg for over a century.
An illustrious provenance on all three counts, two of which have a most intimate association with the subject matter.
'The author of this historical and practical account of the diamond industry, and especially of the South African diamond mines, was for many years the general manager of the De Beers Consolidated Mines, a gigantic undertaking founded by the late Cecil John Rhodes. The volume contains a full description of the mines with the fullest details respecting their working. Mr. Gardner Williams initiated the present system of work pursued in all underground diamond mines, and the work is replete with valuable information, and is the standard authority on all matters connected with diamonds and diamond-mining.
In addition to this, the work contains an account of the celebrated diamonds discovered in bygone times, a description of the discovery of the Kimberley group of mines and the rise of the surrounding townships, chapters on the formation of the diamond, the methods of cutting and polishing the jewels, a description of the early and modern diamond-mining machinery, and an Appendix containing an account of Kimberley during the South African War. The volume is elaborately illustrated, and many of the engravings reproduce ancient maps and charts and photographs of the greatest interest and rarity in connection with the diamond fields.' - Mendelssohn Vol.II, page 614
- Binding Condition: Very Good
- Overall Condition: Very Good
- Size: 36 x 28cm
- Sold By: Rare Paper
- Contact Person: Armandt Marais
- Country: South Africa
- Email: [email protected]
- Telephone: 0741235861
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