Geschiedenis van de Emigranten-Boeren en van den [Eerste] Vrijheids-Oorlog (with folding and other plans; 1882)

Du Plessis, C N J [and Kommandant J D Weilbach]

Description:

This work begins with a brief overview of the Great Trek and its causes before going on to record the establishment of the Boer governments in Natal, the Free State and the South African Republic, followed by the British annexation of the diamond fields.

It then deals extensively with campaigns of the (first) Anglo-Boer War of 1880-81, ending with the Pretoria Convention in terms of which the British Government made reparations to the Boer Governments and guaranteed their independence subject to the overall suzerainty of the British Crown.

Although two authors are named on the title page, the book appears to have been written only by the first of these, C N J du Plessis of Potchefstroom, a full-length woodcut portrait of whom is reproduced as the frontispiece.

Du Plessis's account is both contemporary and well informed. He seems to have had access to a wide range of agreements and other documents. From the internal evidence of the book alone, he may have been Kommandant Weilbach's ghost-writer.

The spine lettering has has been lost, and the book's name is now roughly written on a spine label. The magenta marbled paper boards are worn at the corners and the lower edge. The binding remains tight. The plain endpapers, lightly sunned, are in near-original condition. The first four leaves (pp i-viii) are foxed but the remainder of the book's 420 unindexed pp as well as the inserted large engraved folding plan of the Ingogo River north of Newcastle and the page-size plans of Potchefstroom, Rustenberg, Standerton (bound upside-down) and Lijdenburg are all present and unmarked.

As a day-to-day account of much of the First Boer War of Independence, Du Plessis's rare work may be unequalled.

Details:

  • Publisher: Saul Solomon
  • Publisher Place: Cape Town
  • Date of Publication: 1882
  • Edition: First
  • Binding Condition: (Repaired) Fair to Good
  • Overall Condition: Very Good
  • Size: 215 x 147
  • Lot No: 120
  • Hammer Price: $100
  • Bids: 1
  • Visits: 51
  • Estimate: $200
  • Reserve: $100

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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.