TOPIC:

A recent addition to the collection was this Boer book of Psalms and Hymns that was claimed to be taken from a fallen Boer by a Canadian soldier.

There is no provenance to support the claim but there's no doubt it saw good service on the veldt and I absolutely love the running repairs such as the stitching to the spine of the book. Such a pity that we can't honour who it belonged to.









THE BOOK OF PSALMS, TOGETHER WITH THE HYMNS, USED BY THE REFORMED CHURCH OF THE NETHERLANDS, BY ORDER OF THE HIGH MIGHTY LORDS STATES GENERAL OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS, SELECTED IN THREE SESSIONS IN THE YEAR 1773, WITH THE NECESSARY CHANGES MADE THEREIN



AUTHENTIC COPY OF THE EVANGELICAL HYMNS

We, the undersigned Ministers and Elders, commissioned by the Synod of the Dutch Reformed Churches to revise the Evangelical Hymns, and entrusted with the examination and comparison of the EVANGELICAL HYMN BOOKS, along with the Book of Psalms, recognized by the Synod as the Word of God, hereby declare that in the year...



By the Netherlands Bible Company. In Amsterdam, J. Brandt and Son. In Haarlem, Johannes Enschedé and Sons. 1884



The only handwriting in the book itself.

Sturgy, the first lines of the pencil writing: "Deze boek behoort aan" = "This book belongs to". The name is difficult to read to me it looks on first glance like Naudé or Kotze. Naude renders 5 POW deaths and 20 Burger deaths, For Kotze (which was also used for Coetzee, Coetser, Coetsee etc) there are plenty of candidates. Perhaps someone with access to a police forensic lab or clever software can enhance the writing.

Hi EFV,

Fantastic, well spotted. Tomorrow I will try and take some better photos.

Thanks.