Zacharias Wagner. Second Commander of the Cape (1967, ex-lib)

This book provides fascinating insights into the life of the Cape's little known second commander, a long-standing Dutch West and East Indies Company official of German nationality, usually known in South African history as Wagenaar, who served for just more than four years as Van Riebeeck's successor before resigning in relatively advanced age because of ill-health.

In addition to being an experienced administrator, Wagner was a man of of literary and artist accomplishments, being responsible for an "Animal Book" which he drew in Brazil during a relatively long 1634-1641 spell there in the service of the Dutch West Indian Company, and from which 30 examples are reproduced in this book.

This copy has not been badly treated by its library service and opportunities to procure better copies are rare. There is no dustjacket, the covers are quite extensively rubbed and there are library paraphernalia on the spine, front endpapers and title page. The 103 pp of text and illustrations, all on art paper, are in excellent condition, and the half-tone reproductions, especially those from the "Animal Book", again do credit, as in the book described in Lot 161, to the skill of Cape Town's Gothic Printing Company.