Details
DAVID LIVINGSTONE (1813-1873)
Four cloth panels, illustrating David Livingstone's first African journey, printed in black with colours (stamped: Working Men's Educational Union, three with applied Elliot Stock overstamps) and numbered 348-349, 351 and 354, [ca. 1857-58]. 88 x 115cm. approx. (Some light stains, two with later missionary material pasted onto verso.)
The scenes represented here are taken directly from the wood-engravings made for Livingstone's Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, published in London by John Murray in 1857. An admittedly poor draughtsman, Livingstone collaborated with a commercial book illustrator to produce a number of the wood-engravings specifically for his work. The scenes offered here are: Presentation at court (to Mosilikatse) of two successful young lion-hunters; Scenery in Angola. -- The Masheela... coming to rest under a Baobab and Euphorbias; The Missionary's Escape from the Lion, and The Pit at the Extremity of the Hopo. The illustrations came to encapsulate the Victorian image of Africa and exotic adventure. They also served to illustrate missionary pursuits in Africa, and were reproduced as lantern slides and, as here, banners to be hung at educational or religious meetings. (4)
Four cloth panels, illustrating David Livingstone's first African journey, printed in black with colours (stamped: Working Men's Educational Union, three with applied Elliot Stock overstamps) and numbered 348-349, 351 and 354, [ca. 1857-58]. 88 x 115cm. approx. (Some light stains, two with later missionary material pasted onto verso.)
The scenes represented here are taken directly from the wood-engravings made for Livingstone's Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, published in London by John Murray in 1857. An admittedly poor draughtsman, Livingstone collaborated with a commercial book illustrator to produce a number of the wood-engravings specifically for his work. The scenes offered here are: Presentation at court (to Mosilikatse) of two successful young lion-hunters; Scenery in Angola. -- The Masheela... coming to rest under a Baobab and Euphorbias; The Missionary's Escape from the Lion, and The Pit at the Extremity of the Hopo. The illustrations came to encapsulate the Victorian image of Africa and exotic adventure. They also served to illustrate missionary pursuits in Africa, and were reproduced as lantern slides and, as here, banners to be hung at educational or religious meetings. (4)