A view of the ‘Wailing Wall’ in Jerusalem, one of the 31 chromolitho plates after Werner that make up Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and the Holy Places… of 1865. Sold by Sotheby’s at £45,000.
A two-volume proof copy of the first edition, it contains a map of Jerusalem and 31 chromolitho plates after paintings by Carl Werner, all mounted on card. The accompanying descriptive text is by the Rev George R Gleig.
The 10 original parts were in a later binding but with the original printed stiff yellow card wrappers bound in.
Sotheby’s was unable to find any other auction appearance in 40 years and could trace only one complete copy in institutional collections – that in the V&A.
Werner travelled in Palestine and Egypt from 1862-64 and he was one of few non- Muslims to gain access to paint the interior of the Dome of the Rock, which features in his work as the ‘Mosque of Omar’.
