SHOWEL AND SIEVE (1959)

This fascinating book describes the mining and prospecting industries in South Africa in the 1800's and includes 12 glossy-paper photographic plates with total of 21 photographic illustrations. The author's grandfather, Albert Rosenthal, arrived in South Africa from Germany in 1854 and became an active participant in mining. There is no date of this publication but Roger Webster's Fireside Tales dates it as 1959.

"This book is a monument to that lively and unhonoured fraternity of South Africans I knew as a boy, the prospectors who searched for gold and other mineral wealth - often without success but never without a dazzling optimism. Others made the millions; they had the fun. From them and from the lips of the accompanying band of inventors, detectives, magnates and stock-brokers I heard the yarns that, in most cases, are here set down for the first time.

My thanks go out to those few veterans who survive and to the relatives of others who have passed on, for furnishing me with many of the unique portraits and other illustrations which help to embellish these pages."

(from the Foreword by Eric Rosenthal)

"The book 'Shovel and Sieve' was part of an online exhibition presented by the University of Johannesburg, the Goldfields Revisited. The curator included this book in a selection of eleven titles drawn from the UJ library putting the book in the context of early gold mining on the Witwatersrand.

As with almost all of Rosenthal's books there are no footnotes nor a bibliography. 'Shovel and Sieve' has the advantage of an index, a good selection of unusual photographs (which are now greatly prized) and the front and back end paper is a delightful illustration of a share certificate dating from 1889. It is a share certificate that immediately captures the fever of speculation and mad aspiration of the early days of Johannesburg as a gold field. A Mr Curling of King Williamstown purchased five shares of five pounds sterling each, nos 113-118 in 1889 in the Share Speculating and Exploration Company Limited. The certificate was issued in Johannesburg. Surely this was a ticket to lose money. Today though it has a rueful appeal of a lost cause."

(review by Kathy Munro, an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand - https://www.theheritageportal.co.za/book-review/review-shovel-and-sieve-book-has-be-read-because-it-captures-voice-johannesburgs-early)

CONTENTS:
Chapter:
I. PROSPECTOR PARADE;
II. ON THE VELD WITH THE PIONEERS;
III. THE HEIR OF TRAQUAIR;
IV. THE SHIP THAT TRAVELLED BY OX-WAGON;
V. THE LANGHAM DEEP;
VI. SAGAS OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE;
VII. WHEN THE STOCK PRETORIA EXCHANGE WALKED TO PRETORIA;
VIII. THE RISE AND FALL OF CARL HANAU;
IX. THEY FOUND SOUTH AFRICA'S RADIUM;
X. THE DEATH CAVE AT IRENE;
XI. TO JOHANNESBURG VIA TIBET;
XII. THE MAD MINE MAGNATE;
XIII. THE MEN WHO STOLE A STEAMER;
XIV. INVENTORS AND ALCHEMISTS;
XV. THE GOLDFIELD IN THE FOREST;
XVI. GHOST TOWNS OF THE GOLDFIELDS;
XVII. HE PEGGED A METEORITE;
XVIII. THE INCREDIBLE MAVROGORDATO;
XIX. POLICEMEN AS PROSPECTORS;
XX. LOST MINES OF THE AFRICAN VELD;
XXI. PIGMY MINERS AT PALABORA;
XXII. THE MYSTERY OF SIMON BRAND;
XXIII. THE SIXTY-THREE THOUSAND FEET SHAFT;
XXIV. MACNAMARA AND HIS EXCHANGE;
XXV. THE SCIENCE AND ART OF SALTING;
XXVI. THE HERMITS OF GREEN'S BUILDINGS;
XXVII. PROSPECTING UNDER THE FLEUR DE LYS;
XXVIII. THE ORIGIN OF OUR GOLD LAWS;
XXIX. THE END OF THE OLD PROSPECTORS.

Original publisher's teal cloth; Text in English; Collation complete - The front and back paste down and endpapers with an illustration of a share certificate dating from 1889, Half title, Frontispiece, Title page, (7), 199 page including Index, plus 12 plates on glossy paper with total of 21 photographic illustrations (a few full page illustrations and other plates with 2 to 4 photos); The binding actually feels strong, firm and tight and isn’t really splitting anywhere, little dusty and with usual shelf wear. Spine and boards bumped to the extremities, corners bumped and little chipped, minor rubbing. Boards little wavy. Some discoloration and a few stains to the top of the spine and front board. Joints and hinges are whole and stable. Text block/pages in very good condition, clear and very bright with a slight yellowing, no marks or annotations, with occasional marginal small foxing dots. The fore edge and the top edge with some foxing/yellowing. A sound copy.

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