The History of the Postage Stamps of the Orange Free State and Orange River Colony. Part I (edition of 100 copies; 1907)

From the library of the late Andre Bezuidenhout, a leading collector and authority of the philately and postal history of the Anglo-Boer War and the Orange Free State. One of his philatelic coups was tracking down the whereabouts of the complete 17-volume stamp collection of Leon de Raay (author of this title and the title in Lot 308), purchasing it and bringing it from the Netherlands to South Africa.

This title was described by A E Geldhof in his 1938 work as one of the two outstanding books without reference to which his own monograph could not have been written.

All the printed works of De Raay (sometimes Raaij), the leading authority of the last decade of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century on the stamps of South Africa, are collectors' items.

Published 106 years ago, this is an outstandingly well-preserved copy. The mushroom cloth-boards, gilt to the spine, are lighly bumped at the corners and spine. The binding has been strengthened and new plain endpapers inserted. Some of the 388 pp of illustrated text, photographs, maps and plates are foxed. There are no owner signatures and the copy is unmarked except for "34" in pen (the number of this copy from the edition of 100 copies).