SOUTH AFRICA - CAPE OF GOOD HOPE


Journal of the artist Edmund Pink describing his sojourn in the Cape of Good Hope, travelling to Zwellendam, Franschhoek, Stellenbosch and Cape Town, "a very pleasant excursion...having made a circuitous trip of nearly 600 miles", staying in several fine establishments and visiting vineyards, Boer estates and the Moravian missionaries at Gnadenthal ("...our attention was particularly drawn to the respectful deportment of the Hottentots assembled and the singing of the Females..."), 11 pages, 4to, paper wrappers inscribed with title in ink, 11 October to 6 November 1820; with "Sundry Journals", a daily account of his voyage on the Neptune from England to the Cape of Good Hope (27 January to 2 May 1820), thence to Rio de Janeiro on the Wakefield (16 February to 26 March 1821) and back to Dover on the Hankinson (28 September to 12 December 1825), describing life on board with detailed notes of weather, wildlife, and sailors' anecdotes, including tables of longitude and latitude and several drawings of the ship tipped in, 44 pages, paper wrappers inscribed with title in ink, folio (335 x 192mm.), January 1820 to December 1825; and a collection of printed ephemera including two Acts of Parliament relative to trade in the Cape of Good Hope (printed by George Eyre and Andrew Strahan, 1809 and 1817), newspapers Cape Town Gazette and African Advertiser and the Extraordinary Gazette (printed at the Government Press, Cape of Good Hope), and Pink's Colonial Passport, bound with Pink's handwritten notes, including a draft copy of his journal, lists of pictures painted, notes concerning trade and commerce, description of naval signals (with watercolour sketches of flags), and extracts from the news (including an account of the execution of men concerned with the insurrection at Robin Island in December 1820 ("...their heads are to be sent to Robin Island...as a warning..."), c.100 pages, paper wrappers with title in ink, folio (340 x 230mm.), Cape of Good Hope, 1820 (2)
|Edmund Pink's ten month sojourn in the Cape came at a boom time when England, financially in difficulty after the Napoleonic Wars, looked to its colonies and in particular the Cape to promote English trade and wealth overseas, and encouraged emigration to relieve unemployment at home. He stopped off on his way to Rio de Janeiro to take up an appointment with his brother-in-law's merchant business, G.T. Standfast & Co., and on his return resumed his earlier profession of a surveyor. His collection not only reflects his professional interest in commerce and trade but also provides a broader picture of life in the colony, with the personal ads in the newspapers being particularly evocative ("WANTED...PORTER...must understand reading and writing...NB Flew away, a very tame green Parrot").