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Here is another example with the same monogram as those in my last post. To give some indication of the numbers made by this individual / group of individuals, forty percent of the page turners I have collected over the last forty-odd years are signed JCR/CJR.

Obverse with the arms of the Transvaal and "Lord Roberts occupied Pretoria / Z.A.R. / 5th June 1900". Reverse with the arms of the Orange Free State and "Made in Boer Camp / Ceylon 1900 1902 / JCR/CJR P of W". 350mm long. This example can be found on p.89 of Pieter Oosthuizen's "Boer War Memorabilia".








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Neville wrote: Some enterprising POWs took the production of these carvings to a new level by establishing businesses or co-operatives with their own trademarks and quoted from the Times of Ceylon “Compared with the first batch of prisoners, [these POW’s] presented a more healthy and cheerful appearance. Our representative was given to understand that most of them were “well off”, and this was more or less apparent from the character of the kit that each man carried, photographic cameras and kodaks being greatly in evidence.”

From a collection of pictures of the day-to-day life in the Diyatalawa camp a few photographs with scenes relating to the production of wooden artefacts. The photograph of the DIY lathe nicely illustrates the credo “ Een Boer maak ‘n plan”. To realise that these men crafted all those beautiful wooden and bone objects using just the rudimentary tools on display, is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

Fantastic photographs, Everhard. I'm sure Vicky Heunis would have loved to have included these in her book on POW art. Images of the tools and apparatus involved are few and far between, and generally of poor quality. I wonder, were these taken by one of the "well off" Boer prisoners with his Kodak, or by a British guard?

The photo below is from the Bloemfontein Museum collection.



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