Manuscript letter from Missionary James Read to Abolitionist
Dr. John Philip (1834)
R25,000

The letter, signed by J. Read, describes the escalating tensions and perceived injustices on the frontier. The writer expresses deep concern over the practice of colonial patrols seizing cattle from the Xhosa based on reports of theft, often without proper verification or involvement of the local chiefs.

For more details and images, go to the website: https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/the-cape/manuscript-letter-from-james-read-to-dr-john-philip-1834

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There are currently 56 in this category.

Letter written and signed by Florence Nightingale‍‍ (c.1890)
R10,000

The concluding page of an autographed letter signed by Florence Nightingale, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale was an absolute master of political maneuvering and data visualization. Following her return from the Crimean War (1854–1856), she realized that true, lasting reform of army medicine and public sanitation wouldn't happen just by treating patients—it required changing British law. She spent decades relentlessly lobbying members of Parliament, writing exhaustive, data-driven reports, and using her immense public celebrity to pressure the House of Commons into passing public health acts.

The first part of this letter is missing.

For more details and images, go to the website: https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/documents/letter-written-and-signed-by-florence-nightingale

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There are currently 16 items in this category.

Report on The Geodetic Survey of South Africa (1896)
R5,000

This book represents a monumental cornerstone in the history of international cartography, astronomy, and geodesy. Far from being a bureaucratic blue book, this 1896 report documents a grand scientific ambition: measuring the shape of the Earth from the Southern Hemisphere.

For more details and images, go to the website: https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/science-maths/report-on-the-geodetic-survey-of-south-africa-1896

See more on Science & Maths on the website (new).
There are currently 7 items in this new category.

The Old Houses of the Cape by Hans Fransen and Mary Alexander Cook, Roneoed edition (1974)
R5,000

Ex libris Stephen Welz.
Two leatherbound volumes.

A "working copy" produced in an extremely limited run before the official second edition was published by A.A. Balkema.

Provisional text for the second edition, "entirely revised and extensively augmented by Hans Fransen."

This specific roneoed (stencil-duplicated) edition was limited to only 28 copies. This is copy No. 4, signed by Hans Fransen.

For more details and images, go to the website: https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/art-books/the-old-houses-of-the-cape-roneoed-edition-1974-

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There are currently 36 books in this category.

City of Johannesburg: Plan of the Municipal Area (1984)
R4,500

While it looks like a standard piece of mid-1980s bureaucratic municipal mapping, its publication date makes it a remarkable artifact of a highly fraught, transitional moment in South Africa's urban and political history.

In January 1984, the concept of a single "Johannesburg Municipal Area" was an administrative fiction designed to uphold the legal architecture of Apartheid.

For more details and images, go to the website:
https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/jhb/plan-of-the-municipal-area-1984

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There are currently 26 items in this category.

Deluxe Facsimile Edition of Sir Andrew Smith’s
Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa (3 vols)
R4,500

Number 60 out of 350 copies.
3 volumes; complete.
Published in 1977 by Winchester Press, Johannesburg.

When the Winchester Press took on the undertaking in 1977, they limited the print run strictly to 350 numbered sets, making this facsimile edition highly collectible.

For more details and images, go to the website: https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/natural-history/andrew-smiths-illustrations-of-the-zoology-of-south-africa

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There are currently 30 books in this category.

Archaelogia, ex libris Revil Mason (1824)
R3,000

The letter reveals a brilliant, secret piece of bookbinding history. The binder confesses to a marvelous bit of improvisation for the gold-stamping pattern on the cover:

"...the stamping of the pattern was done — tell nobody else! — with a most vulgar potato into which I cut the designs."

For more details and images, go to the website: https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/private-press-books/archaelogia-1824

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There are currently 42 books in this category.

I Killed to Live, Inscribed (1957)
R1,500

The two names related to this book—Eric Pleasants and Eddie Chapman—represent an extraordinary pairing. Long before this book was published by Cassell in 1957, these two men were cellmates and "partners in crime" in a civilian prison on the German-occupied island of Jersey. From that shared prison cell, their lives veered into two completely different, historically jaw-dropping directions.

For more info and images, go to the website:
https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/militaria/i-killed-to-live-inscribed-1957

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There are currently 51 items in this category.

Side Lights on South Africa by Margaret Rose McAdam (1899)
R1,000

While the title page credits "Roy Devereux," the book was actually written by an avant-garde, boundary-pushing woman named Margaret Rose McAdam (better known by her married name, Rosalie Devereux Pember).

Before turning her attention to geopolitical reporting, she was a prominent voice of the late-Victorian "New Woman" movement. When the threat of war in South Africa began to dominate the global stage, she adopted her gender-neutral journalistic pen name and traveled south as an intrepid foreign correspondent, a highly unusual and dangerous path for a woman at the close of the 19th century.

For more details and images, go to the website: https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/boer-war/side-lights-on-south-africa-1899

See more on the Boer War on the website.
There are currently 41 items in this category.

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, First edition (2012)
R1,000

After dominating the global cultural landscape with Harry Potter, this was J.K. Rowling’s very first novel for adults. Because the stakes were incredibly high for the publisher, Little, Brown (whose logo is visible at the bottom of the page), the book was shrouded in a level of security usually reserved for state secrets: Reviewers had to sign strict non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) just to get an early look. Physical manuscripts and advance proofs were guarded fiercely to prevent early leaks, a massive logistical feat in the digital age.

For more details and images, go to the website:
https://jamesfindlaycollectablebooks.com/first-editions/the-casual-vacancy-by-jk-rowling-2012

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There are currently 29 books in this category.

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James Findlay
+27 (0) 79 779 4574
jamesfindlaycollectablebooks@gmail.com

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