Shovel and Sieve Author: Eric Rosenthal
Shovel and Sieve (Collectible Africana First Edition)
The Delightful and Humorous Chronicle of the Forgotten Prospectors, Inventors, and Mad Speculators of the Early Witwatersrand Goldfields
Bibliographic Specifications
- Title: Shovel and Sieve
- Author: Eric Rosenthal
- Publisher: Howard B. Timmins for George Allen & Unwin Ltd., Cape Town / London
- Printer: Nasionale Pers Beperk, Cape Town
- Publication Date: Circa 1950 (Undated first edition stable release, records note active trading copies by 1952–1959).
- ISBN-10: None Issued (Pre-ISBN Era)
- ISBN-13: None Issued (Pre-ISBN Era)
- Edition Details: First Edition, First Printing (Hardcover).
- Binding: Original publisher's premium blue cloth boards with crisp printed titles. The front and back endpapers are uniquely adorned with a full-page graphic facsimile replication of a historic 1889 share certificate from the early days of the Johannesburg gold fever. Complete with the original paper dust jacket.
- Physical Format: Octavo (8vo), 199 pages. Comprehensively illustrated with a prized and unusual selection of rare primary-era photographic plates, pioneer portraits, and a structural index panel.
- Language: English
Official Condition Report
-
The Book: Very Good (VG)
o Exterior / Boards: The original blue cloth boards remain straight, rigid, and well-bound. The outer surfaces exhibit only light, standard handling wear and typical storage scuffing at the rim extremities, but maintain strong corners and structural flexibility.
o Interior: The internal text block is solid, tight, and robustly unified. The white pages, index tracks, and historical photographic gloss plates are clean and entirely free of user highlighting, ink annotations, common library marks, or dog-ears. -
The Dust Jacket: Very Good (VG)
o Condition: The original illustrated paper dust jacket is highly complete and retains its historic trade charm. It shows standard age and edge wear, including very slight, minimal paper loss restricted to the extreme head and crown points of the spine panel. It is now immediately protected and stabilized inside a brand-new, archival-grade clear plastic sleeve to stop any future wear.
Synopsis & Historical Value
Published in the early 1950s by the legendary Howard Timmins publishing stable, Shovel and Sieve is one of Eric Rosenthal's most charming and culturally vivid historical achievements. Bypassing standard academic statistics, Rosenthal dedicated this volume as a direct monument to what he called "that lively and unhonoured fraternity of South Africans I knew as a boy, the prospectors who searched for gold and other mineral wealth—often without success but never without a dazzling optimism".
Published in the early 1950s by the legendary Howard Timmins publishing stable, Shovel and Sieve is one of Eric Rosenthal's most charming and culturally vivid historical achievements. Bypassing standard academic statistics, Rosenthal dedicated this volume as a direct monument to what he called "that lively and unhonoured fraternity of South Africans I knew as a boy, the prospectors who searched for gold and other mineral wealth—often without success but never without a dazzling optimism".
The narrative weaves together the lost accounts and humorous yarns of the unforgettable figures who flocked to the early Witwatersrand gold fields—men like Jacques Lebaudy, Carl Hanau, Carl Mauch, and James Pratt. Rosenthal captures the unvarnished spirit of early Johannesburg, charting not just the mining lords who made millions, but the inventors, detectives, stock-brokers, and rogue characters who populated the dusty mining camps. A key focus highlights historical anomalies like MacNamara, an enterprising Irishman who ran a highly unofficial private stock exchange behind his saloon after hours. Rich with prized vintage portraits and anchored by its beautiful 1889 share-certificate endpapers, this out-of-print first printing serves as an excellent investment asset for dedicated mining history enthusiasts and collectors of rare early-fifties Africana bindings.
Author Profile: Eric Rosenthal
Eric Rosenthal (1905–1983) was one of South Africa’s most prolific and widely read historians, authors, and journalists. Born in Cape Town, he authored over 40 books specializing in regional history, biography, and cultural heritage, while also editing the famous Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa. Renowned for his ability to uncover fascinating human-scale details from original archival records, Rosenthal's accessible prose style bridged the gap between academic history and popular narrative non-fiction, leaving an indelible mark on contemporary South African historiography.
Eric Rosenthal (1905–1983) was one of South Africa’s most prolific and widely read historians, authors, and journalists. Born in Cape Town, he authored over 40 books specializing in regional history, biography, and cultural heritage, while also editing the famous Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa. Renowned for his ability to uncover fascinating human-scale details from original archival records, Rosenthal's accessible prose style bridged the gap between academic history and popular narrative non-fiction, leaving an indelible mark on contemporary South African historiography.
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