Antiquarian Auctions

Auction #125 begins on 14 Aug 2025

Thompson (W. Wardlaw F.Z.S.)

THE SEA FISHERIES OF THE CAPE COLONY

From Van Riebeeck's Days to the Eve of the Union with a Chapter on Trout and Other Freshwater Fishes

Published: T. Maskew Miller, Cape Town & Pretoria, 1913

Edition: First

Reserve: $60

Approximately:

Estimate: $100

Bidding opens: 14 Aug 16:30 GMT

Bidding closes: 21 Aug 16:30 GMT

Lot 240 preview

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163pp Gilt titling to the spine and front cover.  

Previous owner's name on the title page.

The book includes chapters the history of the Cape Sea Fisheries, inshore fisheries, the steam trawling era, colonial markets and the export trade, the whale and seal fisheries, trout and other freshwater fishes and oysters, as well as five appendices.

There are extensive pencil marks in the book as if it was being edited for a new edition. Three of the seven chapters are almost free of edit marks with four chapters extensively edited though remaining legible. Notes such as "all these experiments failed" and on page 148 mention is made that "oysters perished and from what cause is quite unknown", the pencil writing in the text states that "Probably a 'Rooigety' (red tide) disaster around the 1880s was responsible".

There is a break in the binding between the front cover and FFEP.

William Wardlaw Thompson Thompson was a Fellow of both the Zoological Society of London and the Linnean Society, he was one of the founding members of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science in 1902 and by 1910 he was a member of the Royal Society of South Africa. Source: S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science via Wikipedia

  • Binding Condition: Fair
  • Overall Condition: Fair
  • Size: 190 x 130 mm


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