THE VICTORIA FALLS ZAMBESI RIVER

First edition: lithographic title page, 10 tinted lithographic plates all hand-coloured, numbered 2 – 11 and are all dated 4 October 1865, plan, original pebble-grained mauve cloth stamped in blind and titled in gilt on the upper cover, top and bottom of the spine neatly repaired,  a very good copy.  

The plates are double-tinted lithographs drawn on stone by T.Picken, R.M.Bryson, F.Jones and E.Walker, all after paintings by Baines and printed by Day & Son. 

Dedicated, by express permission to the Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society. 

Title page: An account of the Mosi-o-a-Tunya (Smoke-Sounding) or Victoria Falls. 

There follow eight pages of descriptive letterpress, and the plates: 

1. Frontispiece, Bird's-eye View of the Victoria Falls from the West.
2. The Falls by Sunrise, with the " Spray-Cloud " rising 1200 feet.
3. The Leaping Water on the Westermost Cataract.
4. The Falls from the Western End of the Chasm.
5. Great Western (or main) Fall.
6. Herd of Buffaloes driven to the Edge of the Chasm.
7. Centre Rock Fall and the Eastern Cataracts.
8. Zanjueelah, the Boatman of the Rapids.
9. The Falls from the East End of the Chasm to Garden Island.
10. The Falls from the Narrow Neck near the Eastern Headland of the Outlet.
11. The Profile Cliff, Narrow Gorge, and Torrent of the Zambesi.

Bolze (louis) Pulbisher's Introduction the 1969 facsimile reprint: ‘The sketches done at Victoria Falls were painted as opportunity offered. View 4 was completed at Daka on the Rhodesia-Bechuanaland border on 1st September, 1862, which ranks it as the first modern picture painted in Rhodesia. Views 2 and 6 were finished a Logier Hill on 29th October and 11th December, 1862, respectively and 'Zanjueelah' at the house of Mr Andersson at Otzimbenque on 9th November, 1863. The paintings were exhibited at Cape Town before being sent to London where, under the sponsorship of the Royal Geographical Society, they were published on 12th January 1866 - not on 4th October, 1865, the date given in the portfolio. There were 'plain' and 'coloured' editions, for former being in pale sepia and the latter going through several printings for the additional tints. Extra colour was added by hand.’