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Finch & Co
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An Interesting Leather Bound Album of South African Watercolours
( South Africa
1900 to 2000
)
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Literature:
King William’s town was founded in 1825 by John Brownlee of the London Missionary Society on the banks of the Buffalo River and next to the homestead of Xhosa Chief Dyani Tshatshu who is especially noted for his 1836 visit to London to testify before the House of Commons committee on ‘Aborigines’. The beehive shaped huts shown on the embossed armorial of the town are typical of those built by the Ama Xhosa of the time. In the background is the Amatola mountain range which the cattle loving Ama Xhosa see and describe as leaping bullocks. The town was later adopted into the colony of Kaffraria and is today part of Buffalo City.
Around 1834 Major General Sir Harry Smith was Commander in Chief of the Cape colony garrison and in the following year pushed the Xhosa, who had overrun the European settlement back into the Amatola mountains and then fortified King Williams town. However, by 1852 the Xhosa, who had continued to fight against the loss of their lands, had lost 6’000 warriors, 80 Chiefs and 80’000 cattle and a vast number of goats. The war continued for another year, but the Xhosa were no longer able to mount a serious threat to the colony. In April 1853 Sir Harry Smith sailed for home, replaced by Major General George Cathcart.
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Description / Expertise
An Interesting Leather Bound Album of South African Watercolours
Depicting the landscape and people of King William’s town. The cover embossed with the armorial of the borough of King Williams’s town and dated 1925
The watercolours painted by Colonel J.L Brownlee DSO, grandson of the missionary the Reverend John Brownlee, founder of the town in 1825. Others painted by Dorothy James
Containing 18 watercolours, including one of three Xhosa girls, one of ‘Dagalietje’ a Tembu witch doctor, several scenes of the local landscape, one of the Reverend John Brownlee and one of Major General Sir Harry Smith, Commander in Chief of the South African Army and Governor of British Kaffraria
Circa 1925
Size: 41cm high, 32cm wide – 16 ins high, 12½ ins wide
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