Description
HARRIS, CAPTAIN W. CORNWALLIS. PORTRAITS OF THE GAME AND WILD ANIMALS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA. Sable Publishers, 1986. A reduced facsimile of the extremely rare original 1840 edition. " Portraits of the Game and Wild Animals of Southern Africa is one of the rarest of all Africana dealing with African big game and sport. This truly tremendous pictorial was first published in 1840 and shows what a wildlife paradise Southern Africa was at the time of the Great Trek. Included among the portraits are elephant, buffalo, rhinoceros, lion, leopard, kudu, roan, eland, and quagga. Each of the illustrations is also enlivened by scenic backgrounds of the habitat. The portraits are highlighted with Harris' detailed descriptions of the game and habitat, with occasional mention of his hunting adventures." 175 pp. frontis, 30 colour plates. 'First published in 1840 this famous work presented 30 magnificent animal 'portraits', the work of close and detailed observations by Harris, and inspired stone lithography by Frank Howard - a wonderful and greatly prized book. But it was also a huge and unmanageable book, too heavy to hold, and with a printed text that was scarcely legible. This reprint remedies the faults but preserves the virtues. Harris was an accomplished man - soldier, artist, author, engineer, diplomat, sportsman, naturalist and geographer. While on recuperative leave at the Cape he fully exploited his opportunities to travel and to hunt, to experience the strange and exciting African environment, to record his impressions and observations of the animal life and countryside. They are quaint and often shrewd, lively and tolerant,' [front flap notes].
Book condition: binding and contents faultless (previous owner inscription on front end-paper). Jacket: very good, but has been covered with sticky plastic laminate., 195pp. facsimile edition, with numerous full colour fold-out reproductions of Harris's paintings, and also many black and white sketches and illustrations.
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