The Diamond Mines of South Africa by Williams, Gardner F

(New York: B. F. Buck & Company, 1906). Two royal 8vo volumes; red half morocco with cloth sides; spines tooled in compartments, gilt-ruled and gilt-lettered; new endpapers; pp. xvii + (i) + 359, xv + (i) + 353, incl. index; copiously illustrated with photogravure plates and captioned tissue-guards, numerous photographs, line drawings and diagrams in text. Merest suggestion of foxing to corners of some leaves. A fabulous set of the two-volume, enlarged and revised edition. (Mendelssohn II, p. 614; Hosken, p. 217) "Williams served as general manager of De Beers for eighteen and a half years. During this time he was responsible for the planning and introduction of a vastly-improved underground mining system as well as for many improvements in the methods of extracting diamond-bearing rock. By 1892 underground shifts had been reduced from twelve to eight hours on his initiative and under his supervision De Beers gained the reputation of being one of the foremost mining companies in the world. Judged by his contemporaries to be an outstanding mining engineer, Williams commanded the complete confidence of the great financial houses in Europe and America. ... His authoritative work, Diamond mines of South Africa, first published in 1902, is still a standard reference work. The Royal Academy of Science in Sweden awarded him their silver medal in 1905 and the University of California an honorary doctorate of Law in 1910." - DSAB IV, p. 785. .