Jerusalem of Gold B3(1)

Shapero RARE BOOKS J G J G 106 New Bond Street [email protected] www.shapero.com London W1S 1DN +44 (0)20 7493 0876 Contents Art and Photography 1 - 41 Voyages to Jerusalem 42 - 55 Zionism 56 - 81 Rabbinic 82 - 90 ‘Jerusalem of Gold’ (Yerushalayim Shel Zahav in Hebrew) is the name of the famous Israeli song written by Naomi Shemer (1930-2004), the Israeli songwriter hailed as the ‘first lady of Israeli song and poetry’. The song describes the Jewish people’s 2,000-years longing to return to Jerusalem. The expression ‘Jerusalem of Gold’ was first mentioned in a Talmud story and is assumed to be referring to a piece of golden jewelry in the shape of the walls of Jerusalem, possibly a crown, that a groom would gift his bride on their wedding night. It is the love story of Rabbi Akiva and his wife Rachel, which occurred about the second century AD in the land of Israel. In the story Rabbi Akiva tells his wife ‘if I had money I would buy you the Jerusalem of Gold’. Later the saying was applied to the view of the city walls together with Dome of the Rock at dusk and dawn, when they are lit by the sun’s rays and look as if they are all golden. Item 17 Art & Photography Shapero Rare Books 3 1. [MAYER, Luigi]. Veduta della probatica piscina nella città di Gerusalemme. [View of the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem.] c.1800. £6500 [ref: 90253] Attractive original watercolour which we can safely attribute to Mayer (fl. 1755-1803), the celebrated Italian orientalist who travelled extensively in the Middle East and published popular, beautifully illustrated works on Egypt and the Levant. The Pool of Bethesda is located in the Muslim Quarter of the old city of Jerusalem, on the path of the Beth Zeta Valley. The name Bethesda is derived from Hebrew - ‘Beit Hesed’ meaning ‘House of Mercy’. At the time of the Second Jewish Temple the pool was used as a water reservoir and a healing pool. According to the Old Testament, the pool was originally built as a reservoir for rain water. In the late 19th century, the French constructed the Church of Saint Anne at the south east corner of the site in honour of Anne, Mary’s mother. This photograph is one of the earliest pictures of the sight taken after its’ discovery. Watercolour and pastel on paper, mounted on cardboard (220 x 305 mm). Fine condition. Framed. 4 Shapero Rare Books 2. TAGLIAPIETRA, Marco. Città di Gerusalemme presa dal Monte Oliveto. [City of Jerusalem view from the Mount of Olives]. 1829. £5750 [ref: 95548] A charmingly naive bird’s-eye view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, populated in the foreground with Jewish and Muslim costume figures, as well as two men in European dress, and the very striking presence of what cannot be mistaken for other than the Madonna and infant on a donkey. In the title field above the image is a key to 24 numbered locations of biblical significance, among them: the house of Mary’s birth, Herod’s gate, the arch of Pilate, St Veronica’s house, and the road to Calvary. Watercolour and gouache on paper, signed and dated lower left: ‘Marco Tagliapietro disegno nel Settembre 1829’, overall dimensions including title and key panel 390 x 525 mm, the image 290 x 510 mm, some surface wear and a few small losses to the grey gouache border. Shapero Rare Books 5 3. ROBERTS, David. [Citadel of Jerusalem. April 19th 1841]. London, April 19 1841. £3000 [ref: 74973] David Roberts’ magnificent images of Egypt and the Holy Land rank amongst the finest topographical views of the 19th century. Commencing in 1838, Roberts made a two-year journey to the Middle-East where he produced numerous watercolours, the finest of which were selected for the publication. The lithographs were subsequently executed by Louis Haghe. In order to help fund the project, Roberts produced a deluxe subscription edition, from which this lithograph was taken. It is notable for being the only edition to have original hand-colouring, which would have been executed under the direction of the artist The image depicts Middle-Eastern men resting and smoking with the old city of Jerusalem in the background, including what seems to be the Jaffa Gate and the ‘Tower of David’ (as seen from inside of the Old City walls) on the left and the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre centre-right. Original hand-coloured lithograph on fine paper mounted on card, as issued, from the subscription edition of Roberts’ ‘The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia’. Dimensions: 490 x 325 mm. Framed. 6 Shapero Rare Books RARE PLASTER CAST MODEL 4. SMITH, Edwin. Model of Jerusalem and accompanying book. Sheffield, Edwin Smith, 1846-1847. £4250 [ref: 86048] A VERY RARE SURVIVAL OF A 3D TOPOGRAPHIC MODEL OF THE OLD CITY OF JERUSALEM WITH AN EQUALLY SCARCE ACCOMPANYING BOOK. Edwin Smith (1810–1889) was a Sheffield sculptor, who studied at the Royal Academy of Art and produced busts for various Sheffield buildings, as well as some monuments in Rotherham Parish Church. He is particularly well known for producing detailed three- dimensional topographic plaster models of Jerusalem. A similar model of Jerusalem was gifted to Queen Victoria and is currently housed at the Royal Family’s Swiss Cottage at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. The survival rate of these models, in vogue in the mid-nineteenth century, is very low owing to the fact that they are plaster-cast. This type of depiction was used generally for educational purposes to bring the subject alive and provide an accurate depiction of the subject in the time before the widespread use of photography. This model was produced in May 1846. The accompanying book was printed by J. Blurton of Sheffield in 1847. Essentially an advertisement for Smith’s plaster models of Jerusalem, it was most likely supplied with the model to the buyer, as it contains a map with the key to the model and descriptions of the noted buildings and locations. It also contains a 17-page detailed description of Jerusalem, followed by engravings of the various plaster models, in different sizes with different cases, and their prices. There are also some newspaper reviews of the models. This book provides a small and intimate window into an aspect of the early Victorian world and their view of Jerusalem at the time. Plaster cast relief model: (505 x 422 x 70 mm), some small metal details, within fitted wooden box (544 x 465 x 88 mm), some chipping and small loss to plaster and metal details, rather dust-soiled. Book: first edition, 175 x 100 mm, contemporary brown cloth boards with title mounted on upper board, slightly rubbed; 2 folding maps, 44 pp., complete. Shapero Rare Books 7 FELIX BONFILS (1831-1885) was a French photographer and write. He is considered to be one of the greatest pioneers of Middle East photography. Bonfils worked as a bookbinder until 1860, when he joined General Charles-Marie-Napoléon de Beaufort d’Hautpoul’s expedition to the Lebanon (to protect the Christian Maronite minority there). Soon after returning from his journey he became a photographer. The Bonfils family moved to Beirut in 1867 where they opened a photographic studio called ‘Maison Bonfils’ (renamed ‘F. Bonfils et Cie’ in 1878). ‘Maison Bonfils’ became one of the most prolific studios in the Middle East in the lateth 19 century. In the first four years of Bonfils’ studio produced a staggering volume of work: 15,000 prints of Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Greece as well as 9,000 stereoscopic views. The negatives were made on glass plates, coated with a collodion solution sensitised with silver nitrate. The plates had to be prepared on the spot-usually in a tent in the Middle East. They were then exposed and developed immediately afterwards. Prints could be made later, quite literally by sunlight: paper impregnated with a silver salt solution was stretched against the glass plate in a frame, and then exposed out of doors under direct sunlight. Though the prints, golden in tone, were beautiful, the photographer had to use egg white, or albumen, as a binding agent on the paper and this eventually became unpleasant since the Bonfils family apparently prepared the egg-white themselves. Lydie Bonfils, Felix’s wife, in 1917 was heard to mutter, ‘I never want to smell another egg again,’ and supposedly forbade them at her breakfast table thereafter. Bonfils was amongst the first photographers to employ the new technique of Photochrome, a photographic colour printing technique, developed in 1880 which involves direct photographic transfer of a negative onto lithographic printing plates, and producing a coloured lithographic image (similarly to chromolithography). FRANCIS FRITH (1822-1898) was a renowned English photographer active in the Middle East. Frith had a cutlery business, then suffered a nervous breakdown and turned to photography. In 1850 he opened a photographic studio in Liverpool, known as Frith & Hayward. He became a founding member of the Liverpool Photographic Society in 1853. Two years later Frith sold his other companies and fully dedicated himself to photography. He journeyed to the Middle East on three occasions, the first of which was a trip to Egypt in 1856. Having returned to Surrey from his travels in 1859 he opened the firm of Francis Frith & Co, which became one of the most successful photographic studios of its time. When Frith finished touring the middle east he got married in England and embarked on a new mission - to photograph every town and village of the United Kingdom.

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