Thomas Bowler in Mauritius

Quarter cream leather and salmon boards, with gilt blocking to upper board, and spine titles.

This book was conceived in July 1967 when my wife and I visited Mauritius, primarily in search of pictures by Thomas Bowler. The enchanting natural beauty of this island in the Indian Ocean, so unlike that of my native Cape of Good Hope, made such an appeal to me, that I felt strongly that it was something of a tragedy that Bowler had been unable to carry out his intention of publishing by public subscription, an album of lithographic prints, showing views of Mauritius over a hundred years ago. It occured to me, therefore, that a small monograph containing as many reproductions as possible of the original Mauritius paintings and sketches made by Bowler, would help in some small way to remedy this deficiency.

When my wife and I commenced the research for our first study of Bowler, Thomas Bowler of the Cape of Good Hope, in 1952, we were intrigued by the sketches he had made of Mauritius. At that time the album contained the preliminary sketches made by Bowler in 1866 was still available for inspection in the Mendelssohn Collection of the Library of Parliament Cape Town. Unfortunately, however the album has since mysteriously disappeared, and if the publication of this little monograph could serve to discover it, its purpose would be achieved by this alone. As we poured over this album of sketches in 1952, we became fascinated by the scenes Bowler portrayed. In his sketch books which were not designed for the gaze of the public, Bowler painted and drew more freely, than in the formal compositions which he presented to the public. The Mauritius sketches were no exception, and as Bowler was at the height of his powers in 1866, they represented some of his best work. We studied the exotic scenes with delight, and became familiar with the many euphonious sounding place-names; Pamplemousses, L'Etoile, Tamarind, Tombeau Bay, and the others so common in the Isle of Paul and Virginia. We determined to visit the home of these enchanting scenes, but it was not until fifteen years later that we were to achieve this dream.

Half Title-Illustrated, Map Frontispiece, Title, Dedication, Contents, List of Illustrations, Introduction. 64 pages text with supporting illustrations, some folding.

Very Good.