AntiquarianAuctions.com - Auction 130

AntiquarianAuctions.com Auction 130 features an interesting selection of ephemera, including documents, title deeds, and letters signed by key figures in South African history such as Cecil John Rhodes, Lord Charles Somerset, Ryk Tulbagh, and Olive Schreiner.

Among the highlights is Lot 1, a letter written by Sir John Barrow to Thomas Maclear, dated 4 March 1840. Of considerable scientific and historical importance, the letter conveys official Admiralty instructions relating to the re-measurement and extension of Nicolas Louis de Lacaille’s 18th-century arc of meridian at the Cape of Good Hope.

Also of significance is Lot 2, Native Life in Western Pondoland—a self-published photographic album by Ethel Eugene Clarke (c. 1940). Comprising captioned images of traditional life, it stands as an important ethnographic record of the Pondoland region.

Lot 6, Premier Livre de l’Histoire de la Navigation aux Indes Orientales par les Hollandois by Willem Lodewijcksz, is an exceptionally rare French edition documenting the expedition of Cornelis de Houtman (1595–1597), which helped break the Portuguese monopoly on the East Indies spice trade and contributed to the origins of the Dutch East India Company.

The sale also includes a selection of fine collectors’ editions on South African botany, alongside an attractive group of illustrated books, as well as works on travel and exploration, hunting and shooting, and natural history.