Books

Two large folios. 47 x 59.5cm. Later half morocco over early marbled boards, neatly rebacked preserving gilt-lettered spine, corners slightly rubbed. Printed on thick paper, all mounted on stubs, some text leaves watermarked 1801. Part I with 5 pages of descriptive text, aquatint title page dedicated to Lieutenant General Francis Dundas and and Plates 1-15. Part II with 5 pages of descriptive text, aquatint title page dedicated to David Davbis and and Plates 16-30. (the aquatint title pages are not numbered). References: Abbey Travel I, 321; Mendelssohn I, p.411; Nissen ZBI 1035; Tooley 168. OCLC Number / Unique Identifier: 54153395: "Issued without a title page. Title taken from the engraved dedication leaves. Organized into two parts, each with an engraved dedication leaf. Originally published in 10 (physical) parts, each containing three plates." Provenance: John Gaspard Gubbins (6 January 1877 Upham, Hampshire - 12 November 1935 Johannesburg). He was an Africana collector and writer. He was the son of a rector Richard Shard Gubbins (1 December 1826 St. Marylebone, London - 23 October 1884 Herne Hill, London) and Ellen Rolls (30 August 1845 Monmouthshire, Wales 1902 Kensington, London) who were married on 21 November 1865. Gubbins was educated at Haileybury and Clare College at Cambridge. Samuel Daniell (1775-1811) was an English painter and draughtsman who arrived in South Africa in December 1799. He was appointed secretary and artist for the expedition of 1801--2 from the Cape of Good Hope to Bechuanaland led by P.J. Truter and William Somerville. On his return to England, Daniell published, with the assistance of his uncle, the painter Thomas Daniell, and his brother, the painter and engraver William Daniell, African Scenery and Animals (1804--5). He later moved to Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), where he made sketches of scenery and people and eventually died of tropical fever. Samuel Daniell sketched animals from life in their natural habitats, and his work was praised for its accuracy and attention to detail. The book also includes sketches of people encountered on the expedition and several vivid landscapes. The individual plates as follows: 1. The title-page to the first part, the text on a large rock with a lion skin draped over it, two native tribesmen on either side, one bearing a shield and spear and the other crouching with his bow, an aloe to the left. 2. A view of a Khoikhoi (or Hottentot) village of the Korah tribe on the banks of the Orange River, tribesmen crossing the river with their sheep on submerged logs and another driving his flock to the water, cattle beyond, goats and a reclining figure before a wicker hut, trees lining the shore of the river. 3. Three San (or Bushmen) hunters armed with bows and arrows and clothed only in loincloths, two standing with elaborate head-dresses and the other reclining with an ostrich feather plume in his hair, a dog and an ostrich egg at their feet, a woman beyond with her children, huts and other San to the right by their campfires, other people on the plains beyond at the foot of the mountains in the distance. 4. A white-tailed gnu (Connochaetes gnou) standing on a rocky outcrop pawing at the ground, other wildebeest and hartebeest grazing to the left, ostriches beyond and a hunt in the distance, mountains beyond. 5. A view of a native (possibly Zulu) village on the banks of a small lake, huts on the low hills and at the water's edge, cattle watering in the lake and walking down the slope beyond, tribesmen and women going about their business, mountains beyond. 6. Native tribesmen (possibly Zulus) on a march, two warriors to the foreground armed with spears and shields and with elaborate headresses, a woman mounted on an ox and another cow being tended by a tribesman, other natives beyond with their cattle in the wooded landscape. 7. Three greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros), a male, female and a reclining juvenile, wooded cliffs behind and a hunt in the distance. 8. A view of a.