Archibald Duncan’s The Mariner’s Chronicle, published in 1805
(4 vols)
R10,000

In the early 1900s, British readers had an insatiable appetite for what modern scholars call "maritime gothic" or shipwreck narratives. Publishers like James Cundee capitalised heavily on this trend. Rather than just dry reports, Duncan’s collection combined technical naval details with highly dramatised accounts of cannibalism, starvation, and encounters with indigenous peoples on distant shores. It served as the reality-TV or true-crime genre of the Georgian era, reinforcing both a fascination with and a deep fear of the open seas. Hence these copies would have been well read.

For more details and images, go to the website: https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/transport/the-mariners-chronicle-1805

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There are currently 22 items in this category.

Four Years in Southern Africa by Cowper Rose (1829)
R6,500

Cowper Rose was an officer in the British Army’s Royal Engineers, a socially exclusive, highly educated elite branch of the military whose officers were trained in meticulous technical observation, mapping, and reconnaissance. However, despite his rigid military background, Rose's writing style was surprisingly poetic. Literary historians have described his prose and outlook as uniquely "Wordsworthian and Byronic"—blending the technical precision of a military engineer with the romantic, languid perspective of a 19th-century traveler.

For more details and images, go to the website: https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/books-on-africa/four-years-in-s-africa-c-rose-1829

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There are currently 41 books in this category.

Voyages and Travels Round the World by the Reverend Daniel Tyerman and George Bennet (1840)
R4,000

The geographic scope of Tyerman and Bennet’s journey is staggering: the South Sea Islands (including Tahiti and Hawaii), Australia, China, India, Madagascar, and South Africa. However, as the introduction notes, the voyage was so grueling that "Mr. Tyerman was suddenly removed by death" while in Madagascar in 1828. Bennet was left to navigate a sudden political revolution in Madagascar alone, before completing the final leg of the journey through South Africa and returning to England in 1829.

For more details and images, go to the website: https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/books-rest-of-the-world/voyages-and-travels-1840

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There are currently 22 books in this category.

Nathaniel Isaacs' Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa.
Deluxe reprint by C. Struik (1970)
R3,000

No. 11 of only 100 deluxe copies specially bound from a total run of 1,500.

Nathaniel Isaacs was a young English adventurer who was shipwrecked at Port Natal (modern-day Durban) in 1825. He lived among the Zulu people for nearly seven years, becoming a close associate and fluent translator for King Shaka Zulu. Shaka even granted Isaacs large tracts of land and named him a chief.

Because Isaacs and his contemporary Henry Francis Fynn were among the only literate Europeans to witness the height of the Zulu Empire firsthand, Isaacs' journals became the primary source material used by subsequent historians, novelists, and filmmakers to shape the global image of Shaka.

For more details and images, go to the website: https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/kwazulu-natal/nathaniel-isaacs-travels-and-adventures

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There are currently 28 items in this category.

British anti-Napoleonic invasion broadside c.1805
R2,500

Following the collapse of the Peace of Amiens in 1803, Napoleon gathered the Armée d'Angleterre on the coast of Boulogne, fully intending to invade Great Britain. In response, the British government, printers, and patriotic societies launched an unprecedented mass-media propaganda campaign. Thousands of cheap broadsides like this one were distributed to pubs, street corners, and village squares to stoke public fear, foster intense nationalism, and encourage British citizens to volunteer for local militias.

For more details and images, go to the website:
https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/militaria/british-anti-napoleonic-invasion-broadside-c1805

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There are currently 50 items in this category.

The Auricula by José Escofet, limited-edition botanical plate book published by Stephanie Hoppen (1990)
R2,500

The large-format portfolio of The Auricula, a limited-edition botanical plate book issued as a loose-leaf folio of 500 numbered copies, features twelve colour plates illustrated by the celebrated Spanish-born still-life painter José Escofet, paired with an authoritative historical text by Brenda Hyatt.

For more details and images, go to the website: https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/decor/the-auricula-by-jose-escofet-1990

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There are currently 5 items in this category.

The Pretoria Art Museum Catalogue, signed by Edoardo Villa (1989)
R1,250

The joint exhibition held between August and October 1989 was a flagship event curated to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Pretoria Art Museum. To mark a quarter-century of the institution's existence, the museum brought together two of South Africa's most formidable artistic stalwarts: the Italian-born master sculptor Edoardo Villa and the renowned painter and printmaker Cecil Skotnes.

For more details and images, go to the website: https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/art-books/pretoria-art-museum-catalogue

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There are currently 40 books in this category.

Herbert Baker in South Africa by Doreen E. Greig, Limited edition (1970)
R1,000

Doreen E. Greig was one of the earliest women to graduate with an architecture degree from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and went on to become the very first female President of the South African Institute of Architects (SAIA).

Her exhaustive research for this book fundamentally reassessed Baker's legacy. Rather than just viewing him through a colonial lens, Greig critically analyzed how Baker successfully synthesized traditional Cape Dutch vernacular architecture, local materials (like kopje stone), and British Arts and Crafts principles to create a unique regional aesthetic.

This volume is number 556 of a limited edition of 2,000 copies, printed at Purnell's facility on Keerom Street in Cape Town.

For more info and images, go to the website:
https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/architecture/herbert-baker-in-south-africa-1970

Architecture is a brand new category on the website

Issued by University of Cape Town Islamic Association:"Interesting Interview” with George Bernard Shaw and Sufi missionary, Maulana Abdul Aleem Siddiqui on Islam (1935)
R800

Though published by a South African student body, the actual "Interesting Interview" recorded in this booklet took place on April 17, 1935 (despite the "1934" date printed on the cover) in Mombasa, British-occupied Kenya. The Irish playwright, essayist, and Nobel laureate George Bernard Shaw was traveling as a tourist when he crossed paths with the elite, globe-trotting Islamic scholar and Sufi missionary, Maulana Abdul Aleem Siddiqui.

For more details and images, go to the website: https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/religion/george-bernard-shaw-on-islam-1934

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There are currently 21 items in this category.

Ten Cameos from Darkest Africa, published by The Lovedale Press (1937)
R750

This small booklet, Ten Cameos from Darkest Africa, published by The Lovedale Press in 1937, is a profound and poignant piece of South African social, medical, and political history.

While the title utilizes the typical paternalistic colonial phrasing of the 1930s ("Darkest Africa"), the content and the biography of its author reveal a deeply radical life of compassion and anti-apartheid resistance.

For more details and images, go to the website: https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/private-press-books/ten-cameos-from-darkest-africa

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There are currently 42 books in this category.

James Findlay will share stories about banned books from his private collection, ‘fake news’ from 1801 and other fascinating anecdotes that illuminate the joy of collecting rare books, maps and documents.

Date: Tuesday 16 July 2026
Time: 18:00 for 18:30
Venue: Rawdons Hotel, Nottingham Road, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Tickets: R350 including buffet dinner
Book through Quicket.

For more information contact
James Findlay
+27 (0) 79 779 4574
jamesfindlaycollectablebooks@gmail.com

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