If you want to literally touch Johannesburg’s gold mining days, check in with James Findlay’s Collectable Books and Antique Maps store, recently re-located from his Saxonwold home to the basement of the Rand Club in the inner city.
The dignified old club is the perfect place for his collection of antique memorabilia. The grand Edwardian edifice is a bit of an antique itself: built in 1904, it was the third gentlemen’s club on the site and is rumoured to have been chosen by that now infamous capitalist and imperialist, Cecil John Rhodes.
The Rand Club (The Heritage Portal)
In this rarified atmosphere, Findlay gets to touch bygone eras every day. For instance, he owns an 1889 hand-rolled share certificate decorated with 24-carat rolled gold or gold leaf. He has 75 of these certificates for sale, so you can touch early Joburg as well.
“You are honouring what you admire by owning it,” he says, “you can own something beautiful; you see yourself in the items, you identify with the item.”
He’s moved into the spacious billiards room which was disused after being flooded five years ago, and has given it fresh energy. It’s a genteel space for a gentle, soft-spoken man. With grey concrete floor, its walls are now lined with bookshelves and display cases packed with...
