Thousands for a gem
SAXONWOLD – Thousands of rand put forward for a rare find during an online auction.
A missionary pamphlet from the year 1850, written in pidgin, has been sold to a collector for R9 400 during an online auction in Saxonwold.
James Findlay, a collectables dealer at Collectable Books, Antique Maps and Engravings, said the pamphlet – which was created in South Africa and printed in America – was a rare find and when an item is considered a gem, the value always increases.
“I bought the pamphlet from an overseas traveller,” said Findlay.
“With every piece, we try and get the original story but, unfortunately, with this piece I don’t know where it originates from but it is possible that this batch was intended for distribution and actually wasn’t distributed,” he said.
The four-page pamphlet, written in pidgin – a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups that do not have a language in common – contains baptism notices and community meeting invitations, tells a story of a horse. Findlay says it is an original but, unfortunately, there is no way of telling which book it originated from.
Having had an interest in South African history at a young age, which sparked the interest in dealing, Findlay described collecting as a different form of investing. He said in South Africa more interest needs to be cultivated because many people did not know that rare works of this nature existed.
“As our country develops, these sorts of things will gain more value and become more of an investment,” he said.
“This is who we were over 150 years ago and things have changed. The pamphlet shows what was important then, which was missionaries who wanted to spread the gospel.”
He added that it was disheartening that, in South Africa, many of these rare, rich finds were not being archived correctly. However, as a dealer, he understood there was not enough budget because it would be a costly exercise for the country.
“I have been a dealer all my adult life and it’s tremendous fun working with all these things,” he concluded.
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