Palestine Photograph Album – American Colony – Olive Wood Binding

Palestine Photograph Album – American Colony – Olive Wood Binding
Photographs of the Holy Land. An album published by Fr. Vester & Co. (the American Colony store), Jerusalem, [ca. early 20th century].
An album with 36 photographs, most of them depicting the sites and residents of Jerusalem and its surroundings (mounted on thick cardboard leaves). Most of the photographs are signed in the plate: "American Colony, Jerusalem".
The photographs depict the Jaffa port, sites in the Old City of Jerusalem (including the Tower of David, the Dome of the Rock, the Western Wall, Via Dolorosa, Damascus gate and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre), Rachel's Tomb, Bethlehem, Bethany, Jericho, the Dead Sea, Bedouin hunters by the Jordan River, women grinding wheat, a Bedouin in traditional attire, and more.
The album is bound in an elegant olive wood binding, with a leather spine; on its front, the Jerusalem Cross is carved, and on verso, the word "Jerusalem" is printed in Hebrew and in English.
Album: approx. 23X32 cm. Good-fair condition. Many stains. Blemishes to the margins of several of the photographs (most of them minor). A large open tear to the margin of one of the photographs. Tears and open tears to the margins of the leaves. Ink notations on the front endpaper and on several leaves. Minor blemishes to binding.