First Edition.
By Captain William Cornwallis Harris

Delineated from Life in their Native Haunts, during a Hunting Expedition from the Cape Colony as far as the Tropic of Capricorn, in 1836 and 1837, with Sketches of the Field Sports.

Elephant Folio (555 by 338mm). The large paper issue with a lithographic additional title page with a hand-coloured vignette, 30 hand-coloured lithographic plates by Frank Howard after Harris and 30 uncoloured lithographic vignette tailpiece illustrations at the end of each chapter. Both title pages dated 1840. In a contemporary half leather and marbled boards binding with matching marbled endpapers. On the front endpaper is the small ex libris of the noted African collector, Birch Bernstein. The spine has six raised bands and seven panels, six of which have gilt embossed decoration of African animals. All edges gilt.

This huge work was first published in parts between 1840 and 1842 and in volume form in 1843. It was considered by Mendelssohn “One of the most important and valuable of the large folio works on South African fauna”. Each chapter has a detailed description of the animal illustrated in the accompanying plate.

CONDITION: The binding is fairly worn with rubbing of the leather, especially at the joints and edges and scuffing of the corners. The raised spine bands are rubbed but otherwise the spine label and gilt decor is attractive and intact. The marbled paper over the boards is quite badly rubbed. The headbands are worn. The marbled endpapers are in nice condItion, but the front hinge is starting. The book nevertheless is firm and tight. Internally there is moderate to (in some pages) more marked foxing of the text. The coloured plates are on heavier paper stock and are in much better state, the foxing varying from almost none, to mild, to a little more marked in only a few of the plates. The most notable feature of this copy is that there are NO TEARS OR REPAIRS to either the text pages or the plates. Each plate has a blank paper guard and one of these has 4-5cm. closed tear – the only tear in the entire book.

Please note this book is on consignment, requiring special arrangements for viewing.

R200,000