AFRICA

Stamped South African Police permit, headed 'Martial Law Regulation', granting permission for the wife and family of the mining engineer J. J. R. Smythe to leave Klerksdorp by car in the early days of the First World War.

Author: 
[First World War South African Police permit, signed by T. W. Cooper; J. J. R. Smythe, mining engineer, of Warren Hill, Klerksdorp, North West Province, South Africa]
Publication details: 
Stamp of the South African Police, Klerksdorp. 9 November 1914.
£35.00

Mimeographed typed form, completed in manuscript, on one side of a slip of paper. In fair condition, heavily-inked on aged and worn paper. Oval stamp in blue in bottom left-hand corner: 'SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE | 9 - NOV. 1914 | KLERKSDORP.' The form reads (with manuscript additions in square brackets): 'MARTIAL LAW REGULATIONS | Permission is hereby granted to [Mrs. J. J. R. Smythe & family] of [Warren Hill] to leave Klerksdorp for [ - ] by [Motor] | [signed] [T W Cooper]'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W F Butler') from Sir William Francis Butler, Irish officer in the British Army, to an unnamed correspondent, discussing the 'great mediaeval Sin' that was committed by the English in Ireland.

Author: 
Sir William Francis Butler (1838-1910), Irish officer in the British Army in the Red River and Asante [Ashanti] campaigns, member of the Irish privy council and supporter of Charles Stewart Parnell
Publication details: 
On letterhead of North Camp, Aldershot. 13 May 1894.
£80.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'My dear Sir'. England and Ireland are not named in the letter, but subject of the letter is clear from the context. He has read 'with very great pleasure' the pamphlet which the recipient sent him. 'You are correct in surmising that for the present at least I take no part in the political question of the day - but my views show no change'.

Field notebook compiled by J. H. Driberg, later Lecturer in Anthropology, Cambridge University, compiled while a British colonial official, and dealing with local, linguistic and other matters.

Author: 
Jack Herbert Driberg (1888-1946), Lecturer in Anthropology, Cambridge University, 1934-42; and brother of the Labour MP and gossip columnist 'William Hickey' Tom Driberg (1905-1976); Uganda; Africa]
Publication details: 
The earliest dated entry from Longarim, Uganda, 27 March 1923; and the latest from Loriya HIll, 15 January 1925.
£450.00

A significant item, written, as his biographer Roy Abrahams explains, by a man who was 'almost single-handedly responsible for keeping academic social anthropology, and one might add the place of African research within it, alive in the small Archaeology and Anthropology Department in Cambridge in those otherwise rather barren days of the 1930s'. 45pp., 12mo. In a ruled, stitched notebook without cover. Written in pencil on stained and aged paper. Some of the text is faded.

Typed Letter Signed from John Papworth to Mrs Ena Driberg, wife of the Labour MP Tom Driberg

Author: 
John Papworth (b.1921), English economist and activist, personal adviser to the President of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda [Ena Mary Binfield, née Lyttelton, wife of Tom Driberg of Bradwell Lodge, Essex]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the British Asian and Overseas Socialist Fellowship (London Branch). 15 November 1957.
£36.00

1p., 4to. Fair, on aged paper, with one small burn-hole to margin. Addressed to 'Mrs. T. Driberg, | Bradwell Lodge, | Bradwell juxta Mare, | nr. Southminster, | Essex.' He thanks her for receiving 'an African boy from Northern Rhodesia and some members of my family', and 'showing us the details of your charming house so unhesitatingly'. He discusses the 'astonishing contrast the house is to the landscape around it.

[Handbill] Census or Stocktaking of the People. A Few Simple Words [...]

Author: 
[South African Census 1904]
Publication details: 
R.G. McKowen & Co., Printers, Johannesberg, [1904]
£160.00

Four pages, sm. folio, bifolium, small tears, fold marks, fair condition. The Introductory words continue: " Explaining the law, which requires everybody, under a penalty of £10 or one month's imprisonment, to give true answers to all questions put to them, FOR FINDING OUT ALL ABOUT THE PEOPLE OF THE COLONY WHO WERE ALIVE ON | SUNDAY NIGHT, THE 17TH APRIL, 1904." Dual language (English.Afrikaans), with 24 points of information some addressed specifically to farmers. No copy traced.

Keywords:

Autograph Letter Signed ('L. Homburger'), in English, from the French linguist Lilias Homburger to the Cambridge anthropologist J. H. Driberg, discussing the difficulties arising from mixing anthropology and linguistics, with reference to Africa.

Author: 
Lilias Homburger (1880-1969), French linguist, authority on African languages [Jack Herbert Driberg (1888-1946), social anthropologist]
Publication details: 
Written from 'London Tuesday [no date]', giving the French address as '98 rue de la Tour | Paris | 16e'.
£135.00

2pp., 12mo. 28 lines. In fair condition, on aged high-acidity paper. Homburger begins by thanking Driberg for his 'papers' and expressing pleasure at their meeting. He encloses 'a list [not present] of feila words (just a few typical) and a draft of my paper not complete nor absolutely definite but which will shew you that I have pretty sound basis for my ideas as to the sénégalais nilotique.' 'Great difficulties', he considers, 'have arisen [...] from mixing anthropologie [sic] & linguistics.

Five items from the papers of Robert French Helm, relating to his post-war career at the International Civil Aviation Authority, including a report and plans on the 'Zambianization of the Air Traffic Services Division', and two chapters of memoirs.

Author: 
Robert French Helm (1913-1995), of the International Civil Aviation Authority, a Royal Air Force Flying Officer in the Second World War [Institute of Navigation, Royal Geographical Society]
Publication details: 
Undated [relating to events in the 1950s and 1960s], apart from the certificate, which is from 1971.
£220.00

ONE: Mimeographed typed document titled 'Zambianization of the Air Traffic Services Division of the Department of Civil Aviation'. 7pp., foolscap 8vo, with eighth page carrying table of contents. Undated [mid 1960s]. Given that the plans accompanying this item are initialed by Helm, it seems reasonable to assume that this report is also his work.

Printed paper headed 'Preliminary Examination in Arabic. Cavalry, Artillery, Camel Corps, Infantry, and Sudan Civil Administration.' Answered and marked in pencil.

Author: 
Sudan Civil Administration [Anglo-Egyptian Sudanese Protectorate; Ottoman Empire]
Publication details: 
'1st February, 1904.'
£120.00

2pp., foolscap 8vo. On wove paper with the star and crescent watermark of the 'GOUVERNEMENT EGYPTIEN'. Aged and creased, but in fair overall condition. Questions in English and Arabic script, requiring translation between the two languages. Answers in pencil, and marking along both margins in red and blue. Scarce: no copy on COPAC.

1910 manuscript diary of the purser of, first, HMS Cornwall (with much golf played) and, second, SS Balmoral Castle, describing the Duke of Connaught's voyage to the Union of South Africa, to open its first Parliament on behalf of King George V.

Author: 
[Purser's diary, Royal Navy Armoured Cruiser HMS Cornwall and SS Balmoral Castle; Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn; opening of first Parliament of the Union of South Africa, 1910; golf]
Publication details: 
19 January to 28 December 1910.
£850.00

99pp., in 'Army & Navy Octavo Scribbling Diary (with a week on an opening) for 1910'. Good, on aged paper, in worn boards, with some preliminary leaves torn out, and a few childish scrawls by Irene and Pauline Knott (grandchildren of the author?) at beginning and end (not affecting text) . The author is intelligent and well-educated, pious and with a keen interest in sport, but there are few clues regarding his identity: his family is from Staines, and he trained at the Royal Naval College, Osborne. The itineraries of the two ships mentioned in this diary are as follows.

Sabi Legend and Other Poems

Author: 
N.H.D. Spicer and John Spicer, with illustrations by D.J. Avery.
Publication details: 
Published by John Spicer, [Rhodesia, 1947
£125.00

31pp., 12mo, illustrated blue wraps (a warrior), contents crudely joined to wraps with sellotape, wraps sl. chipped and worn, contents mainly good. No copy listed on COPAC; four copies listed on WorldCat (3 in South Africa, and Texas).

[Printed British parliamentary paper, 1913.] British Trade in Certain Colonies. Reports on British Trade in British West Africa, Straits Settlements, British Guiana, and Bermuda. Furnished to the Board of Trade by the Honorary Correspondents [...]

Author: 
[British parliamentary reports on British trade in British West Africa, Straits Settlements, British Guiana, and Bermuda, 1913.]
Publication details: 
London: Published by His Majesty's Stationery Office. Printed by Darling and Son, Ltd, London. 1913.
£95.00

Folio, 59 pp. Stitched. In original blue printed wraps. Good, on lightly-aged paper, in lightly-worn wraps. Title ends: '[...] by the Honorary Correspondents of their Commercial Intelligence Branch in those Colonies. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty.' Title-page carries shelf-mark and stamp of the Bibliotheque du Palais de la Paix. Scarce.

Diaries of Lieutenant Albert Smith, RN, 1867-1897 and 1914 to 1919, describing tours of East Africa and the Mediterranean, and giving a first-hand account of the sinking of HMS Victoria following its collision with HMS Camperdown, 1893.

Author: 
Lieutenant Albert Smith (1844-1928), RN [Royal Navy; Naval and Maritime; Collision of HMS Victoria with HMS Camperdown, 1893]
Publication details: 
1867-1919. From various locations in England, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
£950.00

Ten notebooks, nine of them 4to and the other folio, totalling in excess of a thousand pages. Not uniform. In original worn bindings, five with marbled boards and the others in full cloth. Internally all ten volumes are sound, with their texts neatly-written, clear and complete. Numbered 2 to 18 (lacking 1, 7, and 12 to 17). The dating of the diaries is as follows. ONE ('2'): 15 May 1867 to 1 September 1868. TWO ('3'): 4 September 1868 to 19 September 1870. THREE ('4'): 20 September 1870 to 7 September 1872. 'A diary written by "Albert Smith" G.M. & G.S.

Autograph Note Signed "S. Passarge" (German geographer) to [E. von Thumen - on envelope].

Author: 
Siegfried Passarge, geographer and geomorphologist known for his studies of southern Africa.
Autograph Note Signed "S. Passarge" (German geographer)
Publication details: 
Metz, 16 Jan. 1900.
£120.00
Autograph Note Signed "S. Passarge" (German geographer)

In German. One page, 12mo, good condition, pencilled biographical note in French at bottom. See Scan on my website for text: http://www.richardfordmanuscripts.co.uk/catalogue

Union of South Africa. Department of Native Affairs. Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on the Social, Health and Economic Conditions of Urban Natives.

Author: 
[Union of South Africa, Department of Native Affairs, Report on the Social, Health and Economic Conditions of Urban Natives, 1942] [South African; apartheid]
Union of South Africa, Department of Native Affairs, Report
Publication details: 
Printed in the Union of South Africa by the Government Printer, Pretoria. 1942
£125.00
Union of South Africa, Department of Native Affairs, Report

Folio, 30 pp. In original blue printed wraps. Stapled. Text clear and complete. On discoloured, frayed and creased paper. Ownership inscription of A. Copeman, Cambridge. Only copies on COPAC at the British Library and University of London SOAS.

Report of Enquiry into Wages and Costs of Living of Natives at Kroonstad, Orange Free State.

Author: 
South African Institute of Race Relations (Incorp.) / Suid-Afrikaanse Instituut vir Rasseverhoudings (Ingelyf) [Bantu; apartheid]
Report of Enquiry into Wages and Costs of Living of Natives at Kroonstad
Publication details: 
Dated in type 'A. L. S. July 1st, 1940.'
£100.00
Report of Enquiry into Wages and Costs of Living of Natives at Kroonstad

Folio, 13 pp. Mimeographed typed document on seven leaves stapled together at head. Some leaves separated. Text clear and complete. On aged high-acidity paper with slight chipping to extremities. Report over first seven pages, followed by two appendixes: 'Minimum Diet for Urban Bantu Family of Husband, Wife and Three Children and Cost thereof in Kroonstad' and 'Occupational and Wage Statistics'. No copy on COPAC or in the British Library.

Writers Against Apartheid [broadsheet magazine containing poems by MacDiarmid, MacNeice, Empson]

Author: 
I. F. White, editor, 'Writers Against Apartheid' [South Africa; racism; Sean O'Casey; Hugh MacDiarmid; Louis MacNeice; William Empson]
I. F. White, editor, 'Writers Against Apartheid'
Publication details: 
Printed by Villiers Publications Ltd., Ingestre Road, London, N.W.5.
£280.00
I. F. White, editor, 'Writers Against Apartheid'

Broadsheet bifolium, 4 pp. Text clear and complete. On lightly-aged paper, worn along fold lines. Poetry collection, containing twenty-eight poems by writers including 'Mazizi Kunene (In Exile, London, 1960)' and Hugh MacDiarmid, whose two poems have the footnote 'We are especially pleased to print these two new poems by Hugh McDiarmid, contributed despite the painful after effects of his recent car smash. We wish him a speedy and complete recovery.' Masthead endorsement by Sean O'Casey: 'I am with you in all efforts to create perfect race equality the world over.

Autograph Letter Signed to "Mr Armstrong" [conceivably the industrialist]. With Autograph Note, initialled, also to Armstrong.

Author: 
Carl Peters [Karl Peters](1856-1918), German traveller in Africa
Publication details: 
Burlington, Eastbourne, 13 Sept. 1898 and no date [1890s].
£350.00

[1898 letter], 2pp., 4to, closed tear on fold but mainly good, text complete and clear. "Here the answer to that vicious article in the Desdener Zeitung" [perhaps he had enclosed a letter or article - no longer present]. He asks for a careful copy and that Armstrong sign it and send it to the newspaper. "They must publish it on the strength of p.11 of our press law" subject to legal penalty. It will make a betetr impression if you sign it as I have spoken in it of my own risks(subscription of £2000 etc.etc)".

Autograph Letter Signed "Wm Geo. Skyring" to John Ince of the Royal Navy, of Crooms Hill, Greenwich

Author: 
William George Skyring, Naval Officer and surveyor, Captain of HM Surveying VesselS Aetna
Publication details: 
H.M. Surveying Vessel Aetna, 9 Oct. 1833.
£250.00

One page, folio, some tears on fold marks, other minor defects, text clear and complete. "I beg you to let me know by return of Post [phrase underlined] whther you desire to join the Aetna - I heard from Captn. Beaufort this morning that you do - but you have acted with so much indecision that I scarcely know whether to apply or not until more fully assured - For your Mothers sake alone I am perfctly willing to wait an answer - and if you are prepared to join - send me - / Your name at length / Date of original Entry in the Service / Name of last Ship / Rating on her.

Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'J Rose Innes') from Sir James Rose Innes, and one letter from his wife ('Jessie Rose Innes'), all to Lady Bower.

Author: 
Sir James Rose-Innes (1855-1942) and his wife, born Jessie Dods Pringle (d.1943) [Lady Maud Bower (born Maude Laidley Mitchell), wife of Sir Graham Bower (1848-1933)]
Publication details: 
Sir James's letters: 1935, 1936 and 1939. His wife's letter: 1937. All four on letterheads of Kolara Farm, Gibson Road, Kenilworth [South Africa].
£180.00

All items good, on aged paper, with Lady Rose-Innes' letter in its envelope. Bower and Rose-Innes had worked together when the former was Imperial secretary to the High Commissioners for Southern Africa at the time of the Jameson Raid. Rose-Innes three letters are dated 17 October 1935 (12mo, 4 pp), 9 July 1936 (12mo, 4 pp) and 13 April 1939 (12mo, 4 pp). All are closely and neatly written. In the first letter Rose-Innes describes a journey 'through the S.

Engraving ('J. Harris Sculpt'), reproducing a mediaeval illustration, titled 'The Expedetion [sic] of Africa, undertaken by the Duke of Bourbon, as General in Chief, with several other English & French Knights, at the entreaty of the Genoese.'

Author: 
J. Harris, engraver [The Expedition of Africa, 1390; Louis II (1337-1410), Duke de Bourbon]
Expedetion
Publication details: 
Undated. [London, circa 1810?]
£110.00
Expedetion

On paper 25 x 20 cm. Plate size 14 x 18.5 cm. Uncoloured. Title beneath print and engraver's details beneath bottom right-hand corner. Image and text clear and intact. On aged, creased and foxed paper with wear and slight loss to extremities. The illustration shows a number of galleons at sea with wind-filled sails. Each is filled with knights whose flags and shields, each bearing different designs and coats of arms, are ranged along the sides. The National Maritime Museum possesses a coloured copy of this uncommon print, which also featured in the Hennin Collection.

Newspaper Cuttings (Guardbooks) of reviews of their much travelled act, cartoons and newspaper advertisements.

Author: 
MIlner & Storey (Dulcie Milner and George Storey), vaudeville artists.
Publication details: 
1908-1928.
£850.00

Two vols, hf-lea, one 4to the other 8vo, title "Newspaper Cuttings on front of one, "Cuttings" on spine of the other, boards bumped and bent but mainly good condition, 112pp. and [160]pp, vast majority of items, some substantial and folded, laid down and with a neat statement of the newspaper source and the date. The Names "Milner & Storey" and "Dulcie Milner & George Storey" are written attractively at the beginning of the volumes. The record, charting the theatrical careers of the partnership in great detail, was obviously a labour of love (self-love?).

Diplomatic and Consular Reports. Trade of the German Colonies [Togo, Cameroon, East Africa, German South-West Africa, Kiau-Chow, German New Guinea, Marschall Islands (1896). No. 474.

Author: 
[Foreign Office. 1897. Annual Series] [GERMAN COLONIES]
Publication details: 
Foreign Office, 1897
£35.00

Pamphlet, stitched as issued, blue wraps, 44pp., 8vo, sl. marked, mainly good condition. Report for 1896.

Album containing 170 photographs of an unnamed British army officer and his family, compiled while on service in Africa, India and elsewhere.

Author: 
[Schoolmaster Cameron, 2/4th Battalion the East York Regiment] [the Raj; British Army; Victorian photography; Bermuda]
Publication details: 
From c.1900 to c.1920.
£950.00

170 photographs, on forty-one pages of a fifty-page album with leaf dimensions of 26 x 35.5 cm. The album is half-bound, with black leather corners and spine, and green faux-leather boards, aged and with loose leaves and worn binding. The photographs are often slightly faded, but are for the most part in good condition. Each page is entirely filled, the photographs ranging in size from 22 x 26 cm to 3 x 2 cm.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Quatremère'), in French, to 'Monsieur Feuillet, Bibliothecaire de l'Institut'.

Author: 
Étienne Marc Quatremère (1782-1857), French Orientalist [Laurent François Feuillet (1768-1843), from 1823 chief librarian of the Institut de France]
Publication details: 
Undated [between 1823 and 1843].
£45.00

12mo: 1 p. Eight lines of text. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. A bifolium, addressed by Quatremère on the reverse of the second leaf. He is returning a work borrowed from the library of the Institut, and asks Feuillet 'de vouloir bien me communiquer le Voyage de l'Anglois en Afrique, et le 5e. volume de la nouvelle histoire des voyages.'

Crown Deep Ltd. Insurance Plan', carbon printed on cloth, giving a detailed layout of the gold mine, keyed to seventy-seven entries. With Manuscript table of results of 'Crown Deep tube milling tests, 1907'.

Author: 
Crown Deep Ltd (gold mine) [South African Gold Mining; Mines]
Publication details: 
Insurance Plan' dated in manuscript 1898. Manuscript table covering the period from 1 August to 9 October 1907.
£225.00

The two items rolled into tubes. The 'Crown Deep Ltd. Insurance Plan' carbon printed on one side of a piece of cloth roughly 44 x 102 cm. In good condition: slightly discoloured and frayed. The keyed entries range from '1 No. 1 Headgear & all appurtenances' to '77 Shed near Feedwater tanks', and include '69 Coolie Compound at Dam' and '57 Stable Boy's House'. The table of results of the 'milling tests', approximately 37 x 74 cm, is clear and complete on discoloured paper with closed tears at head repaired with archival tape.

Victorian panoramic sepia photograph of the bay at Simon's Town.

Author: 
Simon's Town [Simonstown; Simonstad], Cape Town, South Africa [photograph; panorama].
Simonstown
Publication details: 
Taken on Saturday July 10th. Simons Town'. [mid-nineteenth century]
£220.00
Simonstown

Made up of four sepia photographs, each roughly 7 cm square, laid down overlapping each other to make a strip of 7 x 27 cm. Somewhat faded (especially to the right of the image) and with one small stain, and a one cm closed tear to the left. The paper on which the panorama is laid down, which is captioned in a contemporary hand, is somewhat grubby and chipped.

Autograph Letter Signed ('h. f.') to 'Madame [Eliza] Thomas'.

Author: 
Henri-Jérôme-Marie Fournel (1799-1876), French civil engineer, geologist and disciple of Saint-Simon [Algeria]
Publication details: 
1 September 1842 ('4h du matin'); place not stated.
£200.00

8vo bifolium, 3 pp. 57 lines of text. Addressed on verso of second leaf of bifolium, with circular postmark in black ink, to 'Madame Thomas, chateau de marville, près et par St. Denis (Banlieue de Paris).' Good, on lightly creased and aged paper, with slight damage to second leaf from breaking of wafer. Text clear and entire, in a difficult, indiosyncratic hand. An interesting and significant letter, announcing Fournel's appointment to the post which would result in his greatest achievement.

Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Chief Jonathan M. Moshoesh [Moshesh, Moshoeshoe, Mshweshwe] , of modernday Lesotho [Basutoland]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated (but between 1905 and 1913).
£100.00

Dimensions roughly 2.3 x 11.5 cms. On paper with three vertical rules. Reads 'chief Jonathan M. Moshoesh'. Neatly laid down on larger piece of grey paper (roughly 6 x 12 cms), docketed in a contemporary hand 'Basuto chief called Jonathan. He is the biggest chief in Basutoland after "Letsia", the Paramount Chief & next to the throne, being Uncle to "Letsia" who has no heir.' From the reference to childlessness 'Letsia' is clearly Parmount Chief Letsie II Lerotholi, who reigned between 1905 and 1913.

Four Autograph Letters Signed by Florrie Cockle (one signed 'Florrie Cockle (soon Iggulden)' and another 'Willie and Florrie'); one Autograph Letter Signed ('Birt') by Birt Cockle; all to their sisters Kate and Maggie.

Author: 
Florrie Cockle and Albert ('Birt') Cockle [Willie Iggulden; Boer War; South Africa]
Publication details: 
East London, South Africa; 1898 and 1899.
£150.00

Very good, on aged and lightly creased paper. Six long letters to family in England written during a turbulent period in South African history. Affectionate, chatty, and written from a lower-middle-class point of view (Florrie: 'we always have an h[ou]r., when I change my dress for the afternoon after dinner'). Mostly dealing with family matters. Letter One (from 'Florrie', 4 September 1898, 'P.O. East London, South Africa', 4to: 4 pp): tells an amusing story about Birt, a cart and a goat. Letter Two (from 'Florrie', 11 September 1898, address as Letter One, 4to: 2 pp).

[Headed "The Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society] Four Typed Letters Signed, to Sir Henry Trueman Wood (2), S. Digby (1) and G. K. Menzies (1), of the Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir John H. Harris [SLAVERY]
Publication details: 
3 and 6 March 1917, and 31 January and 25 March 1918; all four on letterhead of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society.
£85.00

Campaigner against slavery and colonial exploitation in Africa (1874-1940) and Liberal MP for North Hackney, 1923-24. All four items one page, quarto. All in good condition, though on somewhat discoloured paper. Two items docketed in pencil and two bearing the Society's stamp. ITEM ONE: He hopes to be present at Dr. Max Horn's lecture, and wants to know whether the Society is 'publishing the lecture by Mr. Wilson Fox on Imperial Resources'. He thinks he should join the Society, 'if not now soon after the war', and asks to be sent the conditions of membership.

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