ROCK-PAINTINGS IN SOUTH AFRICA

With:

Van der Riet (J.) & (M.) MORE ROCK PAINTINGS IN SOUTH AFRICA

from the Coastal Belt between Albany and Piquetberg, mainly copied by Joyce and Mollie Van Der Reit, with notes by the same and an Introduction and Explanatory

Remarks by Dorothea F. Bleek

First Editions: 2 volumes, I. xxviii pages of text + 72 coloured collotypes with accompanying text, folding map, red cloth back with paper title label, rock-patterned paper covered boards worn at the corners. II. xx pages of text + 39 colour plates with accompanying text, maps, red cloth back with paper title label and rock-patterned paper covered boards, some foxing on the earlier part of the book. A very good set.

G.W. Stow, a geologist and ethnologist travelled extensively across the interior of South Africa (specifically the Eastern Province and Orange Free State) between 1867 and 1882. Stow was one of the first Europeans to recognize the artistic and cultural value of these paintings, fearing—correctly—that they would eventually be destroyed by weathering and vandalism. Stow copied these images by hand, and while his copies are stylized interpretations rather than exact photographic facsimiles, they remain an invaluable record of art that has since faded or vanished entirely. After Stow's death, his portfolio was purchased by Lucy Lloyd (Dorothea Bleek's aunt) and eventually published nearly 50 years later with Bleek's introduction and notes.