The Story of An African Farm - FIRST EDITION

The very scarce first edition in two volumes of this work - arguably THE highspot of South African literature, published under the pseudonym "Ralph Iron". The entire printing of this first edition has been suggested to be about 500 copies - some say only 300! Most of these went to libraries and are no longer in collectable condition. Copies in the original olive cloth binding rarely come on to the market. The binding has some wear, most notably at the base of the spine, especially of Vol.2. The front pastedowns of both volumes have W.H.Smith Subscription Library bookplates. (Far preferable to those copies, more commonly found, where these stickers were applied to the front boards, causing considerable damage). The bookplates have an ownership signature dated 1885. This set has no other evidence of ex library stamps, marks or annotations. There has been some reinforcement of the inner hinges evidenced by a 2.5cm. wide strip of cloth along the inner sides of both front and rear pastedowns. Interestingly, the W.H.Smith bookplates overly this strip of cloth, suggesting that the reinforcement was done early in the life of this book. It would seem that the cloth at the extremes of the spine has also been reinforced as it is stiffer than usual. Internally both volumes are exceptionally clean with no inscriptions, marks or foxing, but there are some faint pencil annotations (barely visible) on both rear fep.'s. The volumes are tight and are protected in a custom made two division slipcase covered in cloth and marbled paper and also lined in the same marbled paper. Overall a good copy with a reserve price a fraction of the price of a finer copy.