Barney Barnato. From Whitechapel Clown to Diamond King (1937)

Lewinsohn, Richard (translated from the French by Geoffrey Sainsbury)

Description:

Invaluable among other things for its comprehensive bibliography, this work deals with its subject forcefully, sympathetically and simply. The last chapters, covering Barnato's illness and suicide at sea at the age of 44, are particularly moving, with the writer reminding his readers that, unlike most of his competitors, Barnato, although claimng to be depressed by his work situation, ran his mining companies so soundly that they continued to prosper long after his death. Although the writer clearly enjoys his subject's exciting youth in the poorest Jewish area of London, he keeps an equal focus on Barnato's confrontation with Kruger after the Jameson Raid, his importance to Rhodes and his dream of a Union of South Africa under the British flag.

The blue cloth-boards are stained and rubbed, with the spine bumped head and foot, though with no loss of material. The binding is firm. There is a handsome bookplate on the front pastedown but no other marks. There is some early foxing. The book's vii + 271 pp of text, bibliography and index + frontispiece and 7 other pages of inserted photographs are all present and unmarked.

 

Details:

  • Publisher: George Routledge
  • Publisher Place: London
  • Date of Publication: 1937
  • Edition: First
  • Binding Condition: Fair to Good
  • Overall Condition: Good+
  • Size: 220 x 150 x 40
  • Lot No: 131
  • Hammer Price: $30
  • Bids: 1
  • Visits: 37
  • Estimate: $75
  • Reserve: $30

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Seller Details:

  • Name: Fontein Books
  • Address: 27 Voortrekker Street, Philippolis 9970
  • Contact Person: Richard Proctor-Sims
  • Country of Origin: South Africa
  • Email: fontein@wol.co.za
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  • Preferred Payment Methods: Internet bank transfer or Visa or Mastercard
  • Trade Association: AA Approved
  • Additional Information: Fontein Books has for several years participated in Antiquarian Auctions and its predecessor. It specialises in historical and contemporary books on the Free State and Northern Karoo, and is also an active buyer and seller on commission in these and other fields. Fontein's owner, Richard Proctor-Sims, was an editor, writer and small publisher until 2005, when he moved from Johannesburg to Philippolis, the first settlement (1822) north of the Gariep or Orange River, where he opened his first physical bookshop (to which buyers and sellers are welcome), with reasonable holdings in Africana, both Anglo-Boer wars, biography, history, military history, natural history and travel. He regularly visits Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town and offers to deliver heavy or valuable books or sets to these cities on such visits. Richard Proctor-Sims retains the copyright of Fontein's Antiquarian Auction descriptions and these may not be reproduced without permission and acknowledgment.