Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa (2 vols)

This is a very good and complete set of the original editions of 1822 (Volume I, 750 copies) and 1824 (Volume II, 500 copies). Burchell may not be the most valuable item of Africana, but it must surely be the most beautiful and authoritative. The rarity of an original Burchell set is well known - apart from the small print-runs, meaning that a maximum of 500 sets were originally available nearly two hundred years ago, copies were cut up for the plates and many sets were said to have been lost in the London blitz of WW2.

This set is complete:

Vol I. Plain endpapers, extra endpaper leaves, half-title, title-page printed in red and black, small errata sheet pasted on to contents page, xi + 582 pp of text followed by 4 pp Hints on Emigration to the Cape of Good Hope ("by the same author") bound at the back of this volume + 10 full-page or fold-out coloured engravings + 50 "vignettes" (monochrome engravings) in the text + the very large 16-fold map at the back.

Vol II. As for Vol I, with [viii] including full-page of errata for both volumes + 658 pp of text, itinerary and weather conditions, zoological and botanical index, and general index + 10 full-page or fold-out coloured engravings + 46 vignettes.

BINDING AND CONDITION NOTES

Half-bound in tan calf and marbled paper sides. 5 raised bands with gilt titles on red labels in the second pockets. Top edges gilt. Other edges red and blue speckled. The corners are friable and leave brown powder on a cloth even with the gentlest handing for description purposes. The backstrip of Vol II was also frail and started to come away from the lower board during the same description operation.

There are light cracks at some of the endpapers but there is no damage to the hinges and the binding remains tight.

There are no owner or other marks but "1983" in pencil on both front paste-downs may indicate the last time the set was purchased. The front endpaper of Vol I is browned in register with a small and undated newspaper cutting describing the then high price of a Burchell set at auction.

The text and plates are unmarked. There is some spotting early and late (see images). Many of the pages adjacent to plates have brown offset stains from colours used on the plates, and there is occasional text offset on the backs of plates. All the plates - on higher-quality smooth wove paper - are perfect and untorn. Some hinge folds to plates and the map have been reinforced. The map itself is perfect save for a 1-2 cm tear at one of the folds.

In our view, rebinding is not called for but the backstrip of Vol II should be repaired.