A substantial run of 111 issues of the Special Siege Edition and Special Siege Slips of 'The Mafeking Mail', from Number 1 (1 November 1899) to Number 148 (23 May 1900), the first issue after the end of the siege, with impeccable provenance
Mafeking, Townshend & Son, 1899 and 1900.
111 issues (various sizes, see below), printed on paper of many different colours and of varying quality (often poor), with 43 printed as a broadsheet, the balance printed recto and verso, with three early numbers folded and issued as bifolia.
Unbound, as issued; some loss, primarily owing to the poor quality of some of the paper; however, these extraordinary artefacts produced under siege conditions are of the utmost rarity in any condition. All issues in this run are now housed in individual Mylar pockets, sealed on two sides only for easy access. A detailed list (including the number, date, colour of paper, length, and condition of each issue) is included with the lot.
Dr Robin Pelteret has published his impressive research notes on 'The Mafeking Mail Special Siege Slips' online. He sets the scene: 'Mafeking lies 1392 kilometres north of Cape Town and 298 kilometres west of Johannesburg.... [It] was first settled in the early 1850s. From the early 1860s it became a centre of squabbling and outright fighting between the Transvaal Republic, the Baralong, the Goshen Republic, the British South Africa Company and the British Empire. By the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War it was a robust "dorp" with some 1500 European citizens, a group of Indian and oriental background and 5000 Baralong. It was a major rail junction with a station and railway workshops; a significant commercial centre, and boasted a number of substantial buildings including two schools, two churches, a Standard Bank, a Masonic Lodge, a newspaper building, a public library, the Victoria Hospital and St Joseph's Convent (Irish Sisters of Mercy). The Siege of Mafeking was conducted between 14 October 1899 and 17 May 1900, that is 217 days, and began 3 days after the declaration of war by the Transvaal Republic. It involved British and Colonial Forces under the command of Brevet-Colonel Robert Stephenson Smythe Baden-Powell, the besieged, and Boer Forces ab initio under the command General Piet Arnoldus Cronje, and later Kommandant Sarel Eloff, the besiegers'. The precursor to the siege issues of 'The Mafeking Mail' was the 'Mafeking Mail and Protectorate Guardian', in its infancy when the siege was imposed. Number 22, the last full edition, was published on Saturday 14 October 1899, the first day of the siege; a Special Siege Edition (Number 23) was dated Saturday 21 October 1899, but headed 'reprinted on 23 October 1899'. On 1 November 1899, a fortnight after the beginning of the siege, the first of the famous siege issues was published, 'Issued Daily, Shells Permitting. Only Terms, One Shilling Per Week, Payable in Advance'. 'They were to be numbered 1 to 152, of which 143 [minus Numbers 45 and 56] appeared during the actual siege. The newspaper contained snippets of information - both parochial and national, General Orders and advertisements.... [Actually, we have found them to be far more dramatic and engaging than this bland description implies, especially reading these issues that were purchased day by day during the siege, and have survived to this day. However, we digress ...] In Mafeking, there was to exist a fragile peace between the publisher and editor of the "Mafeking Mail Special Siege Slip", G.H.N. Whales, and the military authorities. Whales was somewhat acerbic of tongue. He once publicly thanked the press censor for saving his life, a boer shell having destroyed his editorial chair whilst he was submitting his newspaper copy for military scrutiny elsewhere in the village. He was to be briefly imprisoned on one occasion for publishing querulous criticism on the conduct of the siege and the restrictions put on the availability of news. In protest, he was known to publish empty columns (No. 47) and indeed cancelled one whole edition (No. 45) as visible disregard and mute testimony to the censor's liberal use of a blue pencil.' Dr Pelteret has established 'there are three different printings which appeared as four "editions"'. He surmises that by the time Number 6 came to press 'the commercial value to the printers of "The Mafeking Mail Siege Slips" had been discerned ... and a substantial "overrun" allowed (and set aside) for later sale'. Indeed, in Number 151, dated 30 May 1900, 'there was an offer to make up sets at 30/- each of the Nos. 1-147 for "delivery July next" ... [They were] issued soon after the lifting of the siege ... cardboard-bound into two books of differing sizes and held together with metal staples'. The current run comprises Numbers 1 and 2 (both second issue, 'on sale soon after 22 November [1899]'), 6 (with the word 'Only' in the masthead), 7-8, 10-60 [but 45 and 56 were not published], 62-68, 70, 77-79, 83-84, 97-98, 100, 102, 104, 106, 107-109, 111-127, 129-141, and 144-148. Sizes vary considerably: the first 30 or so are approximately 380 × 255 mm; most of the last 40 or so are approximately 340 × 200 mm; for the rest, they range from one issue at 255 × 155 mm, to several at 375 × 500 mm. There are easily ten different colours of paper, often acidic and now prone to brittleness; a handful have peen printed on recycled ledger paper, pre-printed with columns in red or blue. 'Petticoat in Mafeking. The Letters of Ada Cock', edited and published by John F. Midgley (Kommetjie, 1974), contains 57 letters, now extensively annotated, written during the siege. The letters 'were addressed to her elder sister Emily (Empy) Fuller, née Franklin.... [Emily's husband] Harry James Fuller was the owner of the cattle ranch "Oaklands", which was situated a few miles outside of Mafeking and was managed by his brother-in-law Willie Cock, Ada's husband. Under the threat of possibly hostilities, Willie and his wife moved into Mafeking and its environs with all their stock at the beginning of October, 1899. They also took with them four young children Eileen (Tooky), Liell, Vaughan and Baby Ada' (introduction, page 1). In the earliest surviving letter, dated 12 October, Ada writes that 'Willie ... will ... join the B.R. [Bechuanaland Rifles]' (page 23). The basic pencil drawings of several cannon (one labelled a '9PR') on the partially blank verso of Number 21 (Wednesday 29 November) and the blank verso of Number 22 (Thursday 30 November) are possibly in his hand. Provenance: William and Ada Cock; by descent through their son Alfred Vaughan Cock to their great-grandson, the vendor. [111 items].
Item #142162
Price (AUD):
$3,000.00