Simons

1998 · 120183AB — 1998. Vlaeberg South Africa Fernwood Press no year c.1998. 28 cm x 24.5 cm. Frontispiece 176 pages. Numerous coloured and monchrome illustrations. Hardcover / publisher's original half leather with slate gray boards. Gilt lettering on spine with raised bands. Gilt pictoral on front board. Housed in grey cloth-covered book case with coloured vignette on front board. Fine absolutely excellent condition throughout. Interior in excellent condition. Hand-numbered 21 of a collectors' special edition of only 100 copies. Signed by author on the certification page. Presentation inscription in calligraphy to Christopher Robin White. Front endpaper beautifully embossed. Superbly produced work. Includes for example the following: The Immigrant / Towards Capricorn / Civil Servant / Surveyor / 'A Multifarious Life' / Return to Scotland etc. Charles Davidson Bell 1813-1882 was born in Scotland and arrived at the Cape in 1830 at the invitation of his uncle Colonel John Bell who was then Colonial Secretary. The young man sketched local Cape Town scenes and personalities with a humorous and perceptive eye. At the age of twenty-one he joined Dr Andrew Smith’s “Expedition for Exploring Central Africa” with the task of keeping a pictorial diary of the expedition by sketching the landscapes and the indigenous peoples they encountered. After his return from this expedition Bell worked in various government departments and in 1838 he commenced in the survey department becoming in 1848 Surveyor-General of the Cape. A versatile and talented artist Charles Bell also mastered the art of wood-carving and wood-engraving and was the designer of the Cape triangular postage stamp and of various coats of arms including those of the South African College and the Old Mutual Insurance Company. Bell's profile available online from the University of Cape Town Libraries Digital Collections hardcover