Some South African Recollections by Mrs Lionel Phillips

Some South African Recollections by Mrs Lionel Phillips, better known as Florence Phillips, is an important early Africana memoir dealing with one of the most turbulent periods in late nineteenth-century South African history. Published in London by Longmans, Green, and Co. in 1900, this copy is identified on the title page as the Fifth Impression, following the book’s original publication in 1899. The volume comprises approximately 183 pages and was issued with 36 illustrations, providing a valuable visual accompaniment to Phillips’s recollections. Contemporary bibliographic records confirm the 1900 Longmans edition and its 183-page extent.

Florence Phillips wrote the work partly as a record for her children of the role played by her husband, Lionel Phillips, in the Reform movement in the Transvaal.

As a near-contemporary personal account, Some South African Recollections has enduring appeal to collectors of Africana, Anglo-Boer War antecedents, Transvaal history, Johannesburg history, Jameson Raid material and South African political memoirs. This 1900 fifth impression is particularly attractive as an early issue produced only months after the original edition.

Condition – Fair

Original green cloth hardcover with extensive rubbing, scuffing, fading and staining to the boards and spine, with wear and fraying at the corners and spine ends and several areas of surface damage. Page edges are toned and soiled. Considerable foxing is present, particularly to the endpapers and preliminary leaves, with foxing continuing through the volume. Prior ownership inscription dated May 1900 and an ownership stamp to the prelims.