Beschreibung:

BOWLER, Thomas William (1812-1869). Four Views of Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope. Drawn from nature by T.W.Bowler; and lithographed by Day and Haghe . Cape Town: J.H.Collard, XXIV Heregracht, and sold by John Snow, Paternoster-Row, London, [1844]. 2° (535 x 350mm). Original upper cover of printed wrapper on grey paper with the letterpress title, 4 tinted lithographic plates of Cape Town by T.Picken of Day & Haghe after Bowler, all marked proof. Contemporary half morocco (joints and corners rubbed). A rare group of views of Cape Town by 'one of the most important of South African artists' (Abbey), published by Collard in Cape Town. Bowler came to Cape Town in 1833 to work in the Royal Observatory on the instigation of Sir Thomas Maclear. In 1837 he set up as an artist in Cape Town and made a small living on his art. His first lithograph was published in 1843, and this series of plates represent his first major foray into print publishing. Bowler arranged for Mr Snow to have his sketches prepared and printed as lithographs by Day and Haghe in London, and they were sold by subscription in Cape Town through the stationer J.H. Collard, the bookshop A.S. Robertson, the Public Library and the Commercial Hall, the proofs priced at 29 shillings, the ordinary issue at 24 shillings. Most surviving plates appear to be proof sets (Bradlow Thomas Bowler p.28). Mendelssohn I p.170; Kennedy Catalogue of Prints in the African Museum , Johannesburg, 1975, I B250-253.