Narrative of the Kaffir War of 1850-51. Illustrated with Engravings

London: Pelham Richardson, 1851-[1852]. First Edition. First impression, with Advertisement dated May, 1851. Octavo (22cm); 19th-century half morocco over marbled boards, 310pp; 6 unnumbered leaves of plates (including frontispiece); of which three are tinted lithographs; additional inserted leaf with a Table of Distances; one map and several tables in text. Bound from the four original parts, with stab-holes evident. Presentation inscription on title page to an Edward Dwyer from E. Gilbert (see note below); this has been struck through in ink, with later ownership signature "McIntyre" to front endpaper. Still later printed bookplate to front pastedown, "W.H. Coetzer," dated 1946. A generally clean, sound, Very Good copy; small chip to leather at crown of spine, marginal staining to two plates, light foxing to frontispiece and prelims, corner loss to p.310 without loss of text. Mendelssohn calls for eight plates, but we note that in previous copies at auction, and those confirmed copies in institutional collections, the collation conforms with our copy. Pencil marginalia on about a dozen pages, offering personal glosses (clearly by an eye-witness) of events described in the text.

The rarely seen London edition of this important eyewitness account of the Eighth Xhosa War, issued in four parts beginning in May, 1851, preceding the Colonial Edition by nearly one year. Though the text as presented here appears incomplete, ending rather unceremoniously in the middle of the 23rd chapter, it is complete as issued. According to Mendelssohn, the 310 pages published here comprised, when reset, the first 471 pages of the Graham's Town edition of 1852, which was then continued to 511 pages. Mendelssohn continues: "...The work contains an incomplete history of the Kaffir war, which commencing at the end of the year 1850, lasted till the submission of Sandilli in 1853...the narrative of the hostilities is written from the extreme Colonial point of view, and, if the missionaries of the Kat River Settlement are not actually charged with aiding and abetting the Hottentot rebels, it is certainly insinuated..."

This copy with the (elided) presentation inscription of "W. Gilbert;" this almost certainly William Gilbert, a personal acquaintance of Godlonton and colonial commissioner at Blinkwater, whose heavily fortified farm was one of the first white settlements to fall to the rebels - an encounter described in considerable detail in the current work. Given the context, we believe the pencil annotations to the text are likely Gilbert's own.

Altogether uncommon. OCLC appears to note a dozen or so locations in Great Britain and North America; on closer inspection all but three of these appear to be mis-described copies of the 1962 Library of Johannesburg facsimile. Only the copies at British Library, The Bodleian, Cambridge and the University of Cape Town appear to be complete and original. Two copies traced at auction this century (both at Christie's in 2004; one failing to sell, the other, supplemented with the Graham's Town continuation, realizing nearly £7,000). MENDELSSOHN I:614. THEALL p.118 (noting only the British edition, and stating incorrectly that it was never continued).