Pretoria 125 By Hannes Meiring
Pretoria 125 (Premium First Edition Copy)
An Architect's Exquisite Sketchbook and Bilingual Architectural Chronicle of the Capital City’s Vanishing Heritage
An Architect's Exquisite Sketchbook and Bilingual Architectural Chronicle of the Capital City’s Vanishing Heritage
Bibliographic Specifications
- Title: Pretoria 125
- Author / Illustrator: Hannes Meiring
- Publisher: Human & Rousseau, Cape Town / Pretoria
- Publication Date: 1980
- ISBN-10: 0798112468
- ISBN-13: 9780798112468
- Edition Details: First Edition, First Impression. Standard Hardcover Issue.
- Binding: Publisher's original premium cloth boards with crisp stamped title lettering on the spine, topped with an illustrated architectural dust jacket.
- Physical Format: Landscape Quarto (4to), 230 x 285 mm, 152 pages. Beautifully illustrated with a comprehensive gallery of intricate ink drawings, architectural elevation line sketches, structural diagrams, and historical cross-sections.
- Language: Bilingual (English and Afrikaans text presented side-by-side).
Official Condition Report
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The Book: Very Good (VG)
- Exterior / Boards: The original cloth binding remains structurally excellent, flat, and square. The edges show standard light storage shelf-wear, while the spine remains entirely straight, rigid, and completely undamaged.
- Interior: The text block is robustly bound, tight, and true. Internal pages and the delicate fine-line ink illustration sections are exceptionally clean, clear, and firmly attached. Free of modern user highlighting, heavy foxing, previous owner markings, or dog-ears.
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The Dust Jacket: Very Good (VG)
- Exterior: Present and beautifully preserved within an archival clear protective cellophane wrapper. The jacket exhibits standard, limited signs of age-related edge wear, surface rubbing, and minor crinkling along the borders. The cellophane sleeve stabilizes the presentation beautifully, shielding the artwork and ensuring a handsome appearance on the shelf.
Synopsis & Historical Value
Published in 1980 to mark the historic 125th anniversary of the founding of South Africa's administrative capital, Pretoria 125 is an architectural masterpiece that serves as an invaluable record of the city's built environment. Renowned architect and heritage conservationist Hannes Meiring moves away from dry historical registers to present an intimate, deeply visual architect's sketchbook that captures the physical identity of Pretoria.
Published in 1980 to mark the historic 125th anniversary of the founding of South Africa's administrative capital, Pretoria 125 is an architectural masterpiece that serves as an invaluable record of the city's built environment. Renowned architect and heritage conservationist Hannes Meiring moves away from dry historical registers to present an intimate, deeply visual architect's sketchbook that captures the physical identity of Pretoria.
Through a magnificent collection of intricate fine-line ink drawings, Meiring maps out the city's historical evolution—from early Voortrekker thatched cottages and classic Dutch Reformed churches to the grand Victorian and Edwardian public buildings surrounding Church Square, and the monumental scale of the Union Buildings designed by Sir Herbert Baker. The parallel bilingual text in English and Afrikaans provides detailed histories of the structures, building materials, and historical preservation efforts. Crucially, the book documents many historic residential streets and old homesteads that have since been demolished or structurally altered by modern commercial redevelopment. Long out of print, this scarce first impression stands as an indispensable cornerstone item for architecture enthusiasts, local historians, and serious collectors of fine Africana.
Author Profile: Hannes Meiring
Hannes Meiring (1934–2010) was an internationally acclaimed South African architect, historical preservationist, author, and artist who spent his life documenting and saving the country's historic architectural fabric. Educated at the University of Cape Town and the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, Meiring was widely respected within archival circles for combining active, award-winning structural design with aggressive conservation advocacy. Over a prolific career, he authored and illustrated several seminal volumes—including Kruger's Pretoria, Boukunste van Suid-Afrika, and Stellenbosch te Voet—which played a critical historical role in preventing the destruction of historic town centers. His unique ability to combine rigorous architectural measurement with a loose, expressive freehand sketching style earned him prestigious accolades from the South African Academy for Science and Arts, cementing his legacy as one of the country's most influential cultural preservationists.
Hannes Meiring (1934–2010) was an internationally acclaimed South African architect, historical preservationist, author, and artist who spent his life documenting and saving the country's historic architectural fabric. Educated at the University of Cape Town and the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, Meiring was widely respected within archival circles for combining active, award-winning structural design with aggressive conservation advocacy. Over a prolific career, he authored and illustrated several seminal volumes—including Kruger's Pretoria, Boukunste van Suid-Afrika, and Stellenbosch te Voet—which played a critical historical role in preventing the destruction of historic town centers. His unique ability to combine rigorous architectural measurement with a loose, expressive freehand sketching style earned him prestigious accolades from the South African Academy for Science and Arts, cementing his legacy as one of the country's most influential cultural preservationists.
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