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Collection of 37 glass photographic slides of the siege of Mafeking for sale 2 years 10 months ago #81312

  • BereniceUK
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Have come across this online sale of glass slides (the site may have a connection to Amazon), and I'm posting it in case someone's got €2,800 to spare.
antiquariat-pahor.de/november_up1a.pdf

"Set of 37 diapositive glass photographic slides (each 8 x 8 cm / 3.25 x 3.25 inches), with original glass backing and black paper mount, bearing contemporary manuscript titles, each within a later manila envelope, the whole set housed within a period wooden box (28.5 x 11 x 10 cm); accompanied by a 1930s typescript list describing provenance and contents (Overall Very Good, most slides in stellar condition, but slide nos. 6, 8, 19 and 25 with single hairline cracks; slide no. 28 with multiple cracks, repaired with tape, but no significant loss to image; slides nos. 36 and 37 lacking glass backing, mounts and mss. titles; *Please see list below for comments on the condition of specific slides; wooden box is in very good condition with some minor abrasions).

A fascinating and lovely artefact from the Siege of Mafeking (1899 - 1900), the highest profile event of the Second Anglo-Boer War and one of the greatest global media spectacles of the fin de siècle era, being a set of 37 diapositive glass photographic slides made from contemporary photos apparently by Frank Whiteley, the Mayor of Mafeking and one of the protagonists of the city’s resistance, featuring a diverse array of fascinating images of profound historical documentary value, including several images of Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, the garrison’s commander who later founded the Boy Scouts.

This a lovely artefact is from the period of the Siege of Mafeking (1899 - 1900), the most famous event of the Second Anglo-Boer War and one of the first truly global modern media sensations. For 217 days, from October 1899 to May 1900, an Afrikaner army surrounded and besieged the British colonial town of Mafeking, in the northern Cape Colony. The heroic resistance of the town’s civilians and its small military garrison, led by Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, captured the World’s imagination. A cadet corps of town’s boys formed during the siege was the primary inspiration for Baden-Powell to create the Boy Scouts in 1908, granting a permanent legacy to this momentous event on the Highveld of South Africa.

Present here is a stellar set of 37 diapositive glass photographic slides, housed in a period box, said to have been made by Frank Whiteley, the Mayor of Mafeking during the siege and one of the foremost heroes of the resistance. A typescript note found with the set, seemingly written by an English antiques dealer during the mid to late 1930s, explains the story behind the slides:

“All these slides were taken by Mr. Frank Whiteley C.M.G. who was Mayor of Mafeking during the siege. He was a keen photographer, but the art was in it’s infancy at the time. The slides are the old “3¼ x 3 ¼” size, black and white. The vendor was given them by Mrs. Whiteley after her husband's death [in 1933]. They form a unique facet of the Boer War, when the relief of Mafeking after the siege raised the whole nation to a state of enthusiasm never equalled since.”

Curiously, the note mentions only 35 of the 37 slides (the final two slides do not have titles or glass backings, so for this reason may have been omitted). The slides are of the turn-of-the-century vintage and were likely made by Whiteley shortly after the siege itself, based on photograph taken during and around the time of the event.

While some of the slides may be based on original photographs taken by Whiteley, many of the photos seem to come from other contemporary sources. For instance, Slide 25: “Baden-Powell’s Heads of Departments” was published under the title ‘Major-General Baden Powell and the principal men who helped him to defend Mafeking’ within a popular contemporary periodical covering the war, The Black and White Budget (vol. 3, no, 35, p. 297); although Whitley, who is pictured in the photograph, may possibly have had some role in the photograph’s creation and dissemination. Regardless of the sources of the original photos that were the basis for the slides, it is nevertheless an extraordinary collection. The images presented upon the slides are of profound historical documentary interest. They include views of key sights around the town (fortifications, homes, hospitals, bomb shelters, places damaged by bombardment); scenes of daily siege life (‘Siege Food’ and horse soup!); images of extraordinary curiosity (such as the “Big Guns” and “Armoured Train”); portraits of the key defenders; images of the opposition (the Boers), as well as seven different portraits of Baden-Powell. In sum, the slides present one of the most valuable and authentic insights into life in Mafeking during the time of siege, images selected by Mayor Whiteley, one of the protagonists of the event.

The present set appears to be unique; we cannot trace any references to another set of a similar description. The slides, which would have been very expensive to produce, seem to have been made by Whiteley as a personal keepsake not long after the siege. They were evidently retained by him upon his return to England in 1901, where he likely showed them while regaling friends of his exciting siege-time experiences.".

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