Shovel and Sieve (book)

Published: c.1959

Author: Eric Rosenthal

Publisher: Howard Timmins for George Allen & Unwin, London

It is estimated that the book was published in about 1959. The book is mostly about interesting mining characters who visited Eric's father's offices at Nos. 13-14 Permanent Building, Johannesburg.

There was never a pair of offices like Nos. 13 and 14, Permanent Buildings, Johannesburg, and there never can be anything quite like them again. Both rooms, now engulfed in a larger and more modern suite, have disappeared with the age to which they belonged. The premises themselves have changed their name. Nos. 13 and 14 were the last stronghold of the Victorian and Edwardian treasure-seekers of South Africa and I am happy to think that I was allowed to see them in their prime. The view from the windows was a web of drainpipes and the backyard of the Rand Club, haunt of Johannesburg’s millionaires. What an aura of excitement and daily romance dung to the two interleading offices! On the door to the passage was a board reading: "Mining and Estate Agent.” Little estate business was carried on in practice, but as for mining - there was rarely a day when someone with shiny eyes and a bagful of samples did not stride in, to tell the eternal story of millions for the picking up.