SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM QUAGGA (3)
A Fire-Insurance Atlas – Cape Town. Volume1.
Author: Goad, Charles Edward
A fire-insurance atlas of central Cape Town. Comprising of 25 sheets, 53 x 62cm, most with outline duplicates to the facing page. Covering the area from Victoria Basin in the north to Culemborg Goods Yard and Searle Street in the east, De Waal Park in the south and Waterkant Street and the Malay Burial Ground in the west. At a scale of 50ft – 1inch. With a Key Plan in 500ft – 1inch.
The original sheets are lithographs from 1925. Revised by hand in 1931, 1937, 1949 and 1956. Revisions were done by pasting paper cut-outs onto the original sheet. There is a key -“Explanation of Signs used on Insurance Plans of Town & Cities.”. A Key Plan, showing the entire area covered by the atlas. An index sheet and a further 24 sheets of detailed plans of the City Bowl. There are outline plans to the facing pages of 14 of these. Making a total of 39 plans.
Fire insurance plans were designed by Charles Edward Goad 1848-1910, a noted Canadian map maker and civil engineer. The purpose of the maps was to assess the risk of fire in the area, and to determine the potential for damage. The plans are very scarce as they were not sold to the public, but were hired out in atlases to organisations such as insurance companies and local authorities. They were revised every 5 – 10 years when the atlases were withdrawn and new buildings and other details were added by pasting the cut-out revisions on top of the earlier plans
The plans identify all kinds of information including street widths, property numbers, property owners and businesses etc, and a colour coding system was used to classify different types of building with brick buildings shown in red, wooden buildings in yellow, stone buildings in dark blue, low level skylights in light blue, and high level skylights in purple. All this information helped insurers to determine the likelihood of fire, and the potential for damage. The plans contain a wealth of detailed information about the history of the buildings of the inner City.
Binding: Card sheets bound in a half black leather binding with blue cloth boards. 53 x 62cm.
Condition: Good. Some cockling to the sheets and numerous amendments to the plans. Some scattered insect damage and pencil notes. General light wear to the binding.
Reminiscences of Kimberley by Louis Cohen
The author remarks that he “will attempt to describe men and things” as he had known and seen them “for the last thirty-five years”, and those who lived amongst the scenes he depicts can testify to the general accuracy of the vivid pictures he has drawn of the early days of the Diamond Fields. Many of the character sketches are written in an extremely caustic manner, and many of the African magnates are handled in a somewhat rougher manner than is generally accorded to these favourites of fortune. (South African Bibliography, Sidney Mendelssohn, vol.I pg 351).
Cohen was sued by the mining magnate J.B. Robinson and the book was withdrawn. As a result Cohen went into bankruptcy.
An association copy with a tipped in three page letter from Ernest Selby Allsopp relaying his account of the robbery at Natal Bank, Kimberley in 1888 which is also described in the book. Allsopp was transferred from the Johannesburg branch to Kimberley as a result of the robbery. The current bank manager having been suspended under suspicion of negligence for allowing a wax copy of his safe key to be made. Also tipped in are two letters from Fred Rose, Africana Specialist. The letters, to Mr Allsopp state how important and valuable this copy of Cohen’s book is.
First edition, published by Bennett in 1911. Some scattered foxing and general light wear to the binding. Some sunning to the spine with a split to the top rear edge and a few worm holes.
Eleven Postcards of the 1929 South African Cricket Team to Tour England
The South African cricket team toured England in the 1929 season to play a five-match Test series against England. It was the first tour since 1924, though Tests has been played between the two sides in the interim with the 1927-28 England tour of South Africa
England won the 1929 Test series, winning two matches with the other three games drawn. In first-class matches overall, the South Africans won nine games and lost seven, with 18 being drawn. There were three non-first-class matches; two of them ended in South African victories, the other was drawn.
The following players are represented on the cards: N.A. Quinn (Griqualand West), H.W. Taylor (Transvaal), J.A.J. Christy (Transvaal), D.P.B. Morkel (Western Province), E.A. van der Merwe (Transvaal), I.J. Siedle (Natal), Q McMillan (Transvaal), A.J. Bell (Western Province), A.L. Ochse (Eastern Province), R.H. Catterall (O.F.S.), H.G. Owen Smith (Western Province)
All cards unused. Some light foxing and creasing. General condition good to very good.
