Two photograph albums recording the Boer War and its immediate aftermath (items 4151 and 4152 sold together for £950)

Album of photographs from South Africa dated 1900-01 taken by a British soldier during the Second Boer War (11 October 1899-31 May 1902). South Africa n.p 1900-01. Forty-seven black and white photographs (53x78mm) mounted back-to-back in thick card mounts (104x130mm) bound in a maroon morocco small oblong album (110x135mm). One photograph is missing. Sympathetically rebacked and in very good condition. The grey mounts are all inscribed in pencil with descriptions of the photographs and the occasional comment. Apart from a stain on the front pastedown and the first mount (not affecting the photograph) it is in excellent condition internally. A few of the photographs are showing some slight fading but are still visible. The front pastedown has the inscription "To my wife as a small Xmas present from the Sunny South December 1901". Whether the wife of our anonymous soldier appreciated this Christmas present we will never know but it is certainly a very good, personal record of life in South Africa during the Boer War, the descriptions of each photograph adding depth and resonance. The photographs cover a surprisingly wide range. There are tourist pictures of Johannesburg. A number show the local parson accompanied with somewhat condescending comments: one photograph showing him with his wife who is wearing a tartan blouse has the comment "She likes a bit of Scotch" and another image shows some members of the congregation with the inscription "some types of beauty taken after the service…we go in for the latest modes a la Paris, don't you know". Our photographer is alive to what will seem exotic and different to his wife at home. A picture of women at work in the field has the note: "Another group of Kaffir Women hoeing up the ground. They are almost naked, these are Zulu's - very strong, they sing while they are at work". Beneath all this is a dark side though and these photographs always remind us that a war is the reason our man is in South Africa. One picture shows "Boer Prisoners captured near Rhenoster. 2 noted scoundrels, very surly and insolent". Another shows a man standing by a tent with a row of guns: this is "the armourers shop where all the work of South Africa is carried out, Lt White on the left". A photograph of a cannon has the inscription: "This is the very latest gun made from old wheels, biscuit tins, and an old water pipe". Another photograph shows a young black man tied to the wheel of a similar gun about to "have 25 strokes with the Seham Bok" (i.e. a heavy leather whip) and then, even more darkly, there is a picture of the poor man being whipped. A photograph showing a destroyed cannon and a derailed train is entitled "Some of de Wet's work": the de Wets were a fearsome family of Boer rebels. There are photographs of de Wet's farm, destroyed by the British and inscribed, as our photographer tells us with the names of soldiers, including his own. Another picture shows a group of soldiers cutting up wood with the notes that "sometimes the party gets sniped by Boers". A moving picture shows the graves of officers and soldiers of the Derbyshire Regiment at Rhenoster and perhaps our photographer was a Sherwood Forester. He manages to snap a photograph of Lord Kitchener at the Vredefort road station and towards the end there is a charming photograph of two young local women and a child with the inscription: "Please take my photo said one of these charmers so of course I had to obey orders".