#M64
1899
Grisaille watercolour on paper, heightened in white, ca. 17x25,5 cm (ca. 6 ¾ x 10 in), within hand-drawn ink frame. Signed “HMP” in watercolour in the right lower corner, printed title (cut out of the magazine) tipped to the lower edge. From a photograph by Horace W. Nicholls, Johannesburg. Ink stamp “7 Oct 99” on verso. A very good watercolour.
The watercolour was published in “The Graphic” (# 1558, October 7, 1899, p. 480) less than a week before the beginning of the Second Boer War (11 October 1899 – 31 May 1902). The printed caption underneath reads: "When the gold from the National Bank of Johannesburg is sent to the Cape, it is loaded up in a train in the presence of two officials armed with revolvers. When it is put on the train it is accompanied by an armed man, who travels in a special strong-room car. Each of the small square cases contains gold to the value of about 4,000 l., and sometimes as much as 400,000l. In gold is dispatched by the first mail of the month."
