Combretaceae in Southern Africa (Edition limited to six copies)

Carr, J D

Description:

This is No 6 of the sponsors' edition limited to six copies of Denzil Carr's modern (1988) and authoritative monograph on Southern Africa's second most numerous family of trees and shrubs - the combretums.

This is the last available and mint copy of the six - the others being the author's copy, one each in Berlin and Cape Town (in the Special Collection of the National Botanical Gardens, Kirstenbosch) and two in Johannesburg.

The six sponsors' copies were half bound by Peter Carstens of Johannesburg in different colours of goatskin (this is the maroon copy) and matching marbled paper, with gilt lettering to the spines of the book itself and the quarter-bound solander case in the same materials in which the book is presented and preserved. The sections are hand-sewn into five raised spine bands and head and tail bands. The top edge is gilt. The outer endpapers are single-sided colour leaves augmented by three leaves of plain endpapers front and back. The text pages of this edition are printed on heavy Hahnemuehle acid-free laid paper from Germany.

Denzil Carr was an engineer by profession and a botanist by inclination, and before his book on the Combretaceae he authored the standard and now scarce book on the Southern African acacias. As well as the present limited edtion, the combretum book was published in standard and subscribers' editions.

As well as the frontispiece and 16 other full-page plates illustrated by Elise Buitendag, there are more than 300 photographs, distribution maps and other monochrome illustrations in the text.

This copy has been in the uninterrupted possession of the editorial and design partnership which produced the book for the Tree Society of Southern Africa; and it is in mint condition. The condition of the solander case, which, with the book it contains, has been carefully wrapped in between occasional viewings, and is close to mint.

This may be one of the finest examples of botanical book production to have appeared in South Africa in the past fifty years or more.

 

Details:

  • Publisher: Tree Society of Southern Africa
  • Publisher Place: Johannesburg
  • Date of Publication: 1988
  • Edition: Sponsors' limited edition
  • Binding Condition: Mint
  • Overall Condition: Mint
  • Size: 320 x 240 x 45
  • Lot No: 181
  • Hammer Price: $600
  • Bids: 1
  • Visits: 100
  • Estimate: $1000
  • Reserve: $600

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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
  • Website:
  • 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.