A remarkable multi-national vellum-bound autograph book and album that witnesses the moment when General Allenby captured Jerusalem in December 1917, ending 400 years of Ottoman rule and establishing British control over Palestine. during World War I. Apparently compiled by a Jewish woman called Shulamith Shabtai whose name appears repeatedly as well as that of her father father, Yitzhak, the album brings together a cast of characters who sum up Jerusalem’s pan-national importance. From before Allenby’s arrival there are inscriptions from occupying German soldiers including Georg Fernbach, a non-commissioned officer with the Imperial Field Hospital who writes affectionately ‘Zum Andenken an meinen Aufenthalt in Jerusalem während des Feldzuges 1916–17 gegen Engl’, a fond farewell ‘In memory of my stay in Jerusalem during the campaign of 1916–17 against the English’. From July 1917 Dina Mayer takes the same elegiac tone: ‘Eternity cannot rob you of what you are’, signed by Mayer in July 1917.
Dating from after Allenby’s famous entrance on foot into Jerusalem in December 1917, the most important inscription is from Antonio de la Cierva y Lewita, the Count of Ballobar (23rd March 1918) who was the Spanish Consul in Jerusalem from 1914 to 1920 and famously managed the interests of the belligerent nations during World War I. Writing in purple ink, Lewita contributes a poem about love: ’Dicen que el amor es serio / dicen y es muy verdad / si una seria se enamora / se enamora una barbaridad’ with a further handwritten note to the effect that: In a few years we will see if this is true.
There are five inscriptions by British and Allied forces from after December 1918: these include one by a Forces Chaplain called H Motley who writes ‘East—West, Home is best’ but there are kind hearts everywhere. This is a remembrance of some I found in Jerusalem’ on December 10, 1917 - the day after the Ottoman mayor of Jerusalem surrendered the city to the British, and includes a small black and white snapshot.
Another is in a mix of English and Hebrew, which reads ‘In remembrance of my first Pesach spent away from home— a Pesach spent in a way many a Jew from England may well envy—in the holy city of Jerusalem among new friends & good friends’, signed in Hebrew by Abraham Pinchas Golderg(?) There is also a Russian language entry by an English soldier, T Lewin - Lewis?, ‘Jerusalem, March 20, 1918’ and a few other smaller inscriptions with a simple message and name, including from a Welshman, W F Thomas of Richards Street in Cardiff and Frederick Marsden Winfield, who served with the Medical Corps (February 1918) ‘In memory of a very pleasant afternoon.’
DESCRIPTION: Small vellum-bound autograph book (13x19cm) with hand-painted floral decoration to the upper board. Generally very good. Light discolouration to the vellum and a red ink stain to the outer corner of the upper cover. The manuscript book was produced as a Jewish religious notebook with the words ‘Study of Torah’ printed in Hebrew and gilt to the upper board, along with a delightful hand-painted floral design (Lily of the Valley and Forget-me-nots). Written below the lily is what seems to be Lamed-Zayin, signifying learning and sustenance, or divine movement. Top edge gilt. Most of the book remains blank with fifteen very powerful entries, scattered throughout, and the languages are English, German, Hebrew, Russian and Spanish. Recent bookplate of ‘Christopher D Roberts’.
