Description
Regency Cape Town – C. Pama
Signed and numbered (197/1500)
In 1974 the Africana Museum, Johannesburg, bought an album of 100 pencil drawings by Sir Charles D’Oyly, all made in Cape Town in the early 1830’s and only recently discovered in London. They give a humorous and unsophisticated view of daily life in the Mother City under the Governorship of Sir Lowry Cole : a picturesque town of some 10 000 inhabitants.
These interesting drawings, which were never published before, are all reproduced in this book and, to make the panorama complete, other Cape Town drawings of D’Oyly have also been added, together with those of his friend Frederick Knyvett. This book, therefore, gives a pictorial record of a few years in the city’s history that is as unique as it is entertaining.
The author matches the text to the pictures and gives a social history of daily life in Regency Cape Town : its buildings, its theatres and concerts, its singing and dancing, its military parades; but also the more serious side of life : religion and education, the struggle for the freedom of the Press and democracy, and for better medical care.
From drawings and text together emerges a fascinating picture of Cape Town in the exuberant Regency spirit : a period much nearer to us than many today may imagine.
