Kathy Munro

On Saturday 16th February, Chinatown in Cyrildene put on its festive finery and glamour costumes. The colour red predominated and red symbolises happiness. The Chinatown in Cyrildene was celebrating the Chinese New Year in style with the biggest and best of street parties. 

As the sun began to drop over Cyrildene, the ladies in red marched with cymbals and drums. (Mark Straw)

The celebration is a harbinger of good luck and a happy year ahead for the residents, shopkeepers, neighbours, spectators and friends. It was a special event that highlights that Chinese culture is a vibrant part of Johannesburg and that Chinese customs, myths, beliefs and celebrations are now a part of the city’s heritage. Culture and heritage are for sharing. In China the new year festivities, which extend over a month from January to February, are also called the Spring Festival.

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The Johannesburg Heritage Foundation has been given the generous gift of a delightful 1987 centenary calendar, celebrating the 100 years of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The Calendar comprises six prints of watercolours by the well-known artist of that era, Philip Bawcombe.

We have taken the decision to photograph the prints and share them with the heritage community but also to sell the Calendar as a fundraiser for the JHF. The price we are asking is R600 for 6 large prints – the size is 52 x 49 cms for each print on high quality paper. They are eminently suitable for framing as a set of 6 and ideal for a company office or a study. You will be supporting a good cause as the JHF will use these funds for its work (e.g. the digitization of heritage records, more blue plaques for Johannesburg, the restoration of stained glass windows in a heritage church, supporting the Johannesburg Zoo 115 celebration etc.). We are always in need of donations to spend on heritage projects. Email - Katherine.Munro@wits.ac.za.

Thank you to Tom Bramwell for his donation and James Findlay for his ongoing support.

Philip Bawcombe watercolour prints are very collectable. He was best known for his delightful books Bawcombe’s Johannesburg  (1973) and Bawcombe’s Kimberley (1976). The text in both books was by Ted Scannell. H.F. Oppenheimer hailed Philip Bawcombe’s Kimberley (1976) as capturing “the spirit and portraying the fabric of old Kimberley,” and announced that his De Beers Company had acquired the original collection for permanent display...

Ordinances of the Transvaal 1903, 1904 and Statutes of the Transvaal 1907. Whoever wants to look at old, dry, dusty, obsolete law books? Law books date, they take up space on shelves and laws are repealed. Legal language is precise and unemotional. The Transvaal ceased to exist in 1994 and today a completely different provincial government structure has replaced the pre 1994 arrangement of four all white driven apartheid provinces and the 10 bantustans.

But step back in time and old law books acquire an antiquarian and historical interest and become yet another prism through which we can attempt to understand the past. Laws, ordinances and statutes are  building blocks of an orderly society. They are an expression of the norms and values of a society at a particular point in time. Laws embody the canons of justice. They give authority to the executive arm of government in matters large and small. A society without law shifts into an anarchic state. Laws enable government to implement policies, ideologies and principles. Law gives expression to changed circumstances in societies.

It is the bread and butter of lawyers to read law books but the layman can broaden his reach and grasp by also trying  to read a law book or two.

I recently dropped in on a sale of a deceased private collection of Africana and history books. Buying three old law books dating back to the early 20th century was not my first choice as I gathered up a miscellaneous but appealing selection of books. At R40 for a hard cover here was an opportunity not to be missed. Then...

Last weekend (Sunday 3rd February 2019) I joined ten heritage stalwarts of Kensington who came together to acknowledge history and pay homage to a remarkable war memorial and the men whose names once appeared on it. We gathered because during January 2019 the memorial had been extensively and probably irreparably damaged. Erica Lűttich had together with her students created an art installation by wrapping the memorial in cloth. We Johannesburg residents and heritage protectors are saddened, shocked and appalled by this latest assault on one of Johannesburg best known war heritage landmarks with a rich history. It is one of Johannesburg’s earliest war memorials, erected in 1905 - making it 114 years old this year.

A damaged section of the memorial (The Heritage Portal)

Missing plaques and graffiti (The Heritage Portal)

The memorial wrapped in cloth...

An advantage of book auction sales is that they renew the stream of collectable books coming onto the market and give a fresh spurt to book collecting. New book collectors are encouraged to join the book community. Old book collectors have the opportunity to acquire that elusive appealing title on the wish list. There is nothing quite like the excitement of bidding on an auction sale for a desired treasure, and the market deciding who will be the fortunate new owner. My heartbeat rises when I bid on auction sales and I wonder if everyone around me can hear the pulse when they all look so calm and nonchalant.  

Here is just such an opportunity coming up in Cape Town, though no doubt bidders will need to have deep pockets.

Auction notice

Stephan Welz & Co esteemed auctioneers in Cape Town will be holding a large auction sale on 4-5 February 2019, at the Old Mutual conference centre, Kirstenbosch. Click here to view online catalogue. Of particular interest to heritage enthusiasts and book collectors is the  sale of the collection of the late bibliophile and former SA diplomat, S J F Botha (Frikkie Botha), session 2 of this sale to be held on the afternoon of 4th Feb 2019. The collection can...

Kathy Munro's three part series on the Yeoville Water Tower comes to an end with this piece (click here to view the series index). The article highlights the overall German contribution to early Johannesburg and suggests that the German connection to the Yeoville Water might be a reason why its origins were concealed in 1914/1915. The article also sets out the overall significance of the landmark structure. The piece was first published in the December 2018 issue of Architecture SA. Thank you to Paul Kotze for giving us permission to publish.

Dr. Clive Chipkin, in an article in The Star newspaper (23/10/1980) wrote about the prima-facie evidence of German involvement in Johannesburg’s growth. South Africa imported heavy rails from F Krupp of Essen or from BVG of Bochum. Locomotives and steam engines were imported; for example, the firm Reunert and Lenz were agents for imported machines, engines and engineering equipment.
 
The German presence on the Witwatersrand and in Johannesburg was evidenced by early mining pioneers. Mr. George Albu came from Berlin, Mr. Julius Jeppe hailed from Rostock and Mr. Hermann Eckstein was born in Stuttgart. Mr. Carl Hanau was another Rand entrepreneur of German origin. Sir Julius Wernher was a prominent Randlord, who was born in Darmstadt. He was a key figure in the Eckstein company (Corner House) who later became anglicised. There were many others. German place names were in evidence in early Johannesburg – a Kaiser Street, a Wilhelm Street, Hohenheim the Phillips’ home in Parktown, the forest of Sachsenwald (that later became Saxonwold). The German Lutheran Church...

Below is Part 2 of Kathy Munro's wonderful series on the Yeoville Water Tower (click here to view series index). The piece takes an in-depth look at the historic blueprint and reveals the secrets of the water tower's origins. The article first appeared in the December 2018 issue of Architecture SA. Thank you to Paul Kotze for giving us permission to publish and to Gail Wilson for the use of some of her magnificent photographs.

It is literally an architectural “blueprint” or technical drawing. Firstly, there is a heading in German, Wasserturm mit Behälter von 50,000 gallons Fassungsraum (translation: Water tower with the capacity of 50 000 gallons). This pinpoints the German origin. We are able to date the tower with accuracy, as there is a date and place in the bottom right-hand corner – “Dortmund, d 2nd Januar 1913”. 

The top right-hand corner states Com [commission no] 2044) Blatt 1 [page 1]. We can assume that this was a commission and the first page of technical drawings. On the top left- hand corner is the name Fa. Geo L Kűstner, Johannesburg. Thus, there is a link to a Johannesburg man and to the tender mentioned in the annual reports of the Town Engineer.

Yeoville Water Tower Blueprint (click here to view full...

I recently came across the souvenir album Barnett's Views of Johannesburg and Suburbs. I photographed a panoramic view of the early town (in three sections) and thought I would share it. The book has no date but the look of the cover, very art nouveau design with floral garland, and the street scenes and buildings leads me to believe that it was published in the late 1890s or early 1900s. It is probably post 1897 but pre the introduction of Chinese labour to the Rand in 1904. This volume came up on sale on Antiquarian (book) auctions a few years ago and sold for $125.

Album Cover

Some of the images inside the album are familiar as Barnetts was the professional photography firm whose collection of glass plates came to be owned by The Star (collection now housed at Wits Historical papers, William Cullen Library). Two thousand photographs comprise The Star Barnett Collection and there were hundreds if not thousands of Barnett postcards. In 1966 The Star published two volumes of early JHB and South African photographs from the collection and those two books are now much sought after Africana books. They have a price tag of up to R500 each.

Volume I

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The 100th centenary of the end of the First World War will be celebrated this Sunday 11th November 2018. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 the armistice came into effect; men still poised to fight one another were stopped in almost mid battle in France. Church bells pealed and the guns fell silent. The physical losses had been horrendous. The total number of casualties, through war, destruction, disease, revolution and famine is in reality unknown because the conflict was so widespread. The four horsemen of the apocalypse rode the planet and with possible losses of military and civilian casualties topping 40 million the war was  among the most catastrophic in human history; that figure includes military deaths of between nine and eleven million on both sides of the conflict. One has only to travel through the battlefields and cemeteries of northern France and Belgium to grasp the enormity of the catastrophe and the tragedy of loss of a blighted generation. We still remember today with our gatherings at cenotaphs, we place wreaths against war memorials all over the world and wear poppies to remember men and women who died in the conflict. It was truly the Great War.

Johannesburg Cenotaph (The Heritage Portal)

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Markhams Building, located on the corner of Eloff and Pritchard Streets in Johannesburg, is a landmark of the city. It is striking because it has survived. Built in 1897, it is nearly as old as the city itself.

The heritage icon was sold on auction in September 2018 (The Heritage Portal)

Saving Markhams was a heritage battle of note in the late seventies (click here for details). Markham’s was a mens outfitters where you could purchase both off the rack readymade suits and bespoke clothing. In 1972 Markham’s was the shop for my about to be husband to purchase his wedding attire - he opted for a pure wool cheque fabric and a matching mustard shirt. The suit was durable and lasted about two decades until the moths got it. Today we laugh at how dated and period our wedding photos look.

The City of Johannesburg in conjunction with the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation unveiled a blue plaque at Markhams in October 2012 (I was one of the JHF supporters). It was a proud moment.

Markhams...