The Mountain Bushmen of Basutoland

Pretoria: J. L. Van Schaik Ltd., 1962. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Very Good. James Walton. First edition. Brown cloth boards with stamped pictorial on front cover in dark orange, white, and dark brown. Foot of spine lightly bumped. Illustrated endpapers. Interior is clean and unmarked. Illustrated by James Walton on six double-sided plates with many in-text illustrations. 63 pages. 10 x 8 inches. Dust jacket chipped at spine ends and along top edge of front panel; in an archival mylar sleeve. A study of the Mountain Bushmen of Basutoland and their tradition of rock painting. The author, Marion Walsham How (1890-1964), was born in Basutoland, and her work here derives from her personal contact with Basotho artists, and from the academic work of her father, James Comyn Macgregor, and her grandfather, David-Frederic Ellenberger (who arrived in Basutoland in 1861 and collected Basotho history from Chiefs and tribal historians while tradition was still a living thing). James Walton, who illustrated the book, spent thirteen years in Basutoland, during which he copied paintings from hundreds of rock shelters, often from remote and little known locations. Walton and How's work presents a picture of the life and art of the last African rock painters, the Mountain Bushmen.