This could never be an easy book to review, since it is the first on the subject, and therefore there is nothing with which to compare it. Anton Felton is clearly the right person to have written it, since he claims to have been “worrying, studying and collecting” Jewish carpets for over 30 years and has travelled widely in Europe and the Middle East in order to extend his collection and widen his knowledge of “these rare textiles”. Rare they may be, but in these 200 pages Felton has succeeded in describing and illustrating 100 different examples. Prior to that, he sketches their history from about 1250 bce (Before the Common Era) to the present day, and goes on to discuss such matters as their ethics and aesthetics, their colours and threads, and the histories and meanings of the symbols which appear in the carpets.
Anong the examples illustrated one comes across such relatively modern subjects as Lord Balfour, Max Nordau, Sir Herbert Samuel (later Lord Samuel), and Chaim Weizmann. Balfour is celebrated because he was a devout Christian who nevertheless supported the dream of a Jewish homeland and was the begetter of the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
There are four examples of carpets commemorating Herbert Samuel who was appointed High Commissioner under the British Mandate in 1920, and thus became the first Jew to rule Palestine for nearly 2,000 years. His youngest son, the Hon. Philip Samuel, was a personal friend of mine, and I shared many memorable conversations with him. Unfortunately he passed away in 1996 at the age of 95. I can only imagine the delight with which Philip would have greeted this book and, with his love for and knowledge of the arts, what a fitting person he would have been to review it.
The volume is lavishly illustrated and has been lovingly prepared for publication. The main body of the book is supplemented with generous explanatory notes, a glossary of terms used, a select bibliography, a detailed index, and end‐paper maps of Israel and the Middle East. I have reviewed numerous books produced by the Antique Collectors′ Club, and have yet to fault the production of any of them. This volume is no exception.
