ATLAS VAN DE KAAP DE GOEDE HOOP

ESTANANDE UIT ALGEMEENE KAART, EN 42 AANEENSLUITENDE KAARTJES; GETEKEND DOOR F.T. BOONZAJER.

43 manuscript maps comprising a general map of the Cape of Good Hope and 42 maps of the Cape in sequence according to the key marked on the general map, hand coloured and annotated with place names, mountains and rivers. The maps are finely drawn within hand coloured borders showing latitude and longitude, each 232 x 183 mm with a central fold and bound into the album on hinges. Laid paper with what is thought to be the watermark of the Dutch papermaker De Erwen de Blauw but unfortunately the watermark is not complete on any of the pages. Contemporary quarter brown leather with a red title label on the spine, and brown paper sides, bookplate on the front paste-down endpaper and a corresponding small stamp on the manuscript title page. The maps are in excellent condition.

The atlas is not dated but the general map is possibly a copy of the map in Barrow’s Travels (1801-1804) or Bouchenroeder’s Reize in de Binnenland van Zuid-Afrika,1803 (1806). Boonzajer mentions Colonel Gordon’s discovery of the Orange River. Worcester, which was established in 1819, does not appear. Although he has apparently used official survey maps of the time some of the notes do appear to be from actual observation. The maps include extensive notes on game, “De witte Rhinoceros, Springbokken, Hartebeesten en Elanden worden hier veel gevonden.” Also mentioned are vegetation, geology, rock art and farming.