Philip Bawcombe's Kimberley by Philip Bawcombe & Ted Scannell & Brian Roberts

Philip Bawcombe's Kimberley (Illustrated 1976 Kimberley Architecture in Dust Jacket)

Philip Bawcombe's Watercolours of Old Kimberley, with Historical Text by Ted Scannell and a Foreword by H.F. Oppenheimer

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: Philip Bawcombe's Kimberley
• Authors: Philip Bawcombe & Ted Scannell & Brian Roberts
• Publisher: Village Publishing (Pty) Ltd., Johannesburg
• Publication Date: 1976
• ISBN-10: 0620020903
• Binding: Publisher's hardcover with an illustrated colour dust jacket.
• Physical Format: Large-format illustrated coffee-table volume with colour paintings.
• Language: English

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Very Good Plus (VG+)
• Exterior / Boards: The boards are not described beyond the hardcover binding. The spine is clean, with legible lettering. Corners and edges are not recorded in detail.
• Interior: The title page and copyright page are clean. No inscriptions, stamps or bookplates are present on the preliminary pages.
• The Dust Jacket: Present. The illustrated colour jacket, cream-grounded with a watercolour of the Gowie Brothers corner building in Kimberley, is clean and bright with a glossy finish and no obvious tears. The jacket is covered in a clear protective film and the book is protected in a Mylar sleeve.

Synopsis & Historical Value

Published in Johannesburg in 1976 by Village Publishing, Philip Bawcombe's Kimberley is an illustrated tribute to the diamond city, pairing the artist's paintings with historical text by Ted Scannell, an introduction by Brian Roberts and a foreword by H.F. Oppenheimer.

The paintings record the architecture of Kimberley's diamond-rush era, preserving buildings and streetscapes that shaped the character of the town. The original artworks belong to De Beers Consolidated Mines and hang in the Kimberley Mine Museum at the Big Hole, and Oppenheimer publicly praised the book for capturing the spirit of old Kimberley.

The book is also cited as a source for many Kimberley buildings in the Artefacts architectural database, which makes it of continuing interest to collectors of Africana, South African art and the history of the diamond fields.

Author Profile: Philip Bawcombe

Philip Bawcombe (1906–2000) was born in London and trained as an industrial designer. He worked as resident art director at a London film studio, later Shepperton Studios, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1938.

He moved to Rhodesia and then South Africa shortly before the Second World War, served in a camouflage unit in the Middle East, and became an official South African war artist. He worked mainly in watercolour, and exhibited across southern Africa from 1946 until his death. His other notable book is Philip Bawcombe's Johannesburg (1973), also with text by Ted Scannell.

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