Antiquarian Auctions

Auction #128 begins on 15 Jan 2026

Muller (Hendrik P.N.) & Snelleman (Joh. F.)

INDUSTRIE DES CAFRES DU SUD-EST DE L'AFRIQUE;

collection recueille sur le lieux et notice ethnographique par Hendrik P.N. Muller; description des objets representes par Joh. F. Snellerman

Published: E.J. Brill, Leyden, No date (circa 1893)

Edition: First Edition

Reserve: $1,000

Approximately:

Estimate: $1300/1600

Bidding opens: 15 Jan 16:30 GMT

Bidding closes: 22 Jan 16:30 GMT

Ships from: South Africa

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First Edition: (VI), 49, (i), (vi music), (i), 27 plates with accompanying pages of text (each plate is accompanied by at least 1 page of explanatory text), plates XI, XII, XVI, XVIII, XIX, XX (including gold), XXII (includes both silver and gold), XXIV are coloured, original brown cloth frayed at the top and bottom of the spine, first 16 pages of the text are unopened, a very good copy.

'This is arguably one of the most beautiful and scarce publications on 19th-century Southern African material culture. Published in a very small edition of no more than 100 copies. '

Mendelssohn (Sydney) South African Bibliography, volume 2, pages 63/64.

Wikepedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_Pieter_Nicolaas_Muller) ‘Hendrik Pieter Nicolaas Muller (2 April 1859 – 11 August 1941) was a Dutch entrepreneur, diplomat and publicist. He started his career as a businessman, trading with East and West Africa. In his mid-twenties he travelled to Zanzibar, Mozambique, and South Africa for business purposes, but showed himself a keen ethnographer as well.

‘In 1896, he was first appointed consul and later consul general for the Orange Free State. Muller held this position all through the Second Boer War and his high-profile performance as European representative for this Boer republic won him considerable notoriety. After the Treaty of ‘Vereeniging was signed in 1902, Muller retired to a life of travelling and writing for some years, making Muller a household name with his travel books. In 1919, the Dutch government appointed him envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Romania, and later to Czechoslovakia.

‘Muller was a prolific writer. Over the course of his life he published well over two hundred articles, brochures, and books about his travels, South Africa and the Boers, and Dutch foreign policy. Muller gathered a large fortune with well appointed private investments. He bequeathed his considerable wealth to a private fund in support of academic research and cultural heritage.’

  • Overall Condition: Very good
  • Size: Small folio (345 x 275 mm)


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