Lucy Matilda Cubley – The Hills and Plains of Palestine – London, 1860 – Hand-Colored Lithographs

The Hills and Plains of Palestine, by Lucy Matilda Cubley. London: Day & Son, 1860. English.

An account of Lucy Matilda Cubley's journey through the Holy Land, accompanied by thirty hand-colored lithographs, after her own drawings and sketches. Among the plates are depictions of Jewish seamstresses at the workshop of Mrs. Caroline Cooper (The Jewesses' Institution), an effendi, a peasant woman with her children, the Cave of the Patriarchs, Ein Kerem, and others. The title page is illustrated with an image of the Dome of the Rock – one of the earliest known depictions of the Temple Mount by a female artist.

Original gilt-decorated binding, with embossed image of the Roman coin "Judaea Capta".

Lucy Matilda Cubley traveled through the Ottoman Empire between 1853 and 1856. During her stay in Palestine, she was involved in charitable work at the institution founded by Mrs. Caroline Cooper for the benefit of Jewish women – one of whose rare depictions appears in this album. She often painted sites from viewpoints that were off-limits to Christians, sometimes under military guard. According to her account, the title-page illustration of the Temple Mount was executed in just half an hour, under soldiers' supervision.

[3], 57 pages + [30] lithographic plates (28 of them numbered). 29 cm. Good condition. Minor stains. Several leaves with small marginal tears. Original binding, slightly worn.