Blumen des heiligen Lande. Flowers of the Holy Land. Fleurs de la Terre Sainte.

Jerusalem: no publisher or date [c. 1900].

Small oblong album. 12 leaves. Floral title-page printed in blue-violet, with text in German, English, French and Russian; pressed flowers and foliage mounted in decorative arrangements on card leaves, with tissue guards and locality captions in Hebrew, French, German, English and Russian.

Olivewood boards with bevelled edges and a geometric inlaid border, the front board lettered “Jerusalem” in Hebrew and Roman lettering; red cloth spine ornamented and lettered in black in English and French.

               An album of flowers arranged as miniature wreaths, upright sprays and radiating designs, preserving areas of purple, blue and cream against the pale card. The captions associate these compositions with biblical places, including Jerusalem, Mount Zion and Siloah. Their five languages address an international readership, while the combination of actual plants and olivewood gives the souvenir a physical connection with the landscape it commemorates.

Contemporary accounts reveal the labour behind this souvenir trade. Baedeker’s 1894 guide identified dried-flower cards made by German deaconesses and the Sisters of Zion. A 1907 report from Jerusalem’s American Colony describes women producing flower cards and albums throughout the year, supported by seasonal collectors and the lengthy work of pressing, drying and preservation. These records illuminate the wider production context of this anonymous example, connecting botanical craft with women’s work, religious institutions and the international market for keepsakes from the Holy Land.

Condition. Cloth spine slightly faded; minor marks to the boards. Scattered foxing and browning, minor creasing and small edge defects to paper and tissue; a few loose botanical fragments. Areas of purple, blue and cream colour remain.

References:

Gurevich, Dmitry. “Herbaria Albums from the Holy Land Exhibited at the State Hermitage Museum.” Christian Orient, vol. 9 (XV), 2021, pp. 383–406.

Pop, Adina-Nicoleta, et al. “Flowers of the Holy Land—A Rare Botanical Album from Late XIXth–Early XXth Century in the Țării Crișurilor Museum’s Collection.” Brukenthal. Acta Musei, vol. 20, no. 3, 2025, pp. 501–14

Zehavi, Ami. “אלבומי הפרחים המיובשים כמזכרות לתיירים” [“Dried-Flower Albums as Tourist Souvenirs”]. Tzemach HaSadeh, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, 11 Nov. 2014.

———. אלבומי הפרחים המיובשים מירושלים [Pressed Flower Albums from Jerusalem]. 2nd ed., Ami Zehavi, 2026.