VRS Fine Second Series 1-40 (1970-2009)

The 40 volumes between 1970 and 2009 are complete and include the introduction by the Van Riebeeck Society (later the "Van Riebeeck Society for the Publication of Southern African Historical Documents") to its new series, as well as various notices, tipped-in and other illustrations, folding and other maps, and loose or pasted-in errata sheets and slips.

The volumes in this set carry no ownership or other marks, are undiscoloured and are in original condition. As a whole, the set is rated fine, but many of the volumes are in unread mint condition.

The first of the new volumes was a new edition of "Leo Fouche's Diary of Adam Tas and Appendix", originally published under the auspices of the Board of the South African Library in 1914 [see Lot 504], and "the main cause of the foundation of the Van Riebeeck Society" four years later, with John X Merriman as its first chairman. As in the case of the original edition, VRS II-1 is published in parallel Dutch and English, with copious notes, but the original Dutch version was re-edited and this version was re-translated into English. This first volume of the new sereis, as well as Vols 2-18, appear in the Society's brown cloth boards, gilt to the front and spine, with endpapers usually plain but sometimes printed with maps or other subjects, and have no dustjackets; the colour of the cloth varies slightly from volume to volume.

Vols 19-40 - "The Frontier War Journal of Major John Crealock 1878" [Rhodes University - The Graham's Town Series] to "Alan Paton - Selected Letters" - are bound in the same brown cloth but additionally have laminated dustjackets printed in bright red, with some colour variations over the years. The jackets are sometimes additionally printed in black only or in duotone but they sometimes - as in the cae of Vols 19-24, 26, 28-30, 35 and 38 - have full-colour panels inset into the front covers.