Palestina.

Extremely scarce Russian empire publication detailing the geography and demographics of Palestine with emphasis on its Jewish colonies with a folding map.

The magnificent cover illustration is by Mikhail (Mordechai) Isaakovich Solomonov (1872—1942) a Jewish-Soviet artist, who studied art in Odesa and first exhibited his work in the city in 1897. In the 1900s Solomonov exhibited regularly and illustrated posters and books, among other he illustrated the Jewish journal in Yiddish 'Kadima'. He became especially proficient in illustrating book covers, instantly recognisable by his Art Nouveau style, and was awarded for his drawings by the Odesa Academy of Fine Arts (today known as Grekov Odesa Art School). In Soviet times the artist's explicitly Jewish surname was often omitted from the covers he illustrated. From the 1910s Solomonov lived, worked and taught in Leningrad. For more than three decades he occupied the same room in a communal flat until his death during the 1942 siege of the city.

First edition, 8vo (19.2 x 13.8 cm), restored publisher's illustrated boards, bottom edge closely shaved with some loss to text on the cover, but no loss to pages' text, small marginal tears to map; text in Russian; 40 pp., one folding map.