The Salomons Museum

David Lionel Salomons once wrote of the 'microbe of the disease "to Collect" [which] cannot be eradicated from the party so afflicted'*. He himself was so afflicted, but he was not alone: his grandfather, Levy Salomons; his father, Philip Salomons; and his uncle, the first David Salomons, were all collectors.

Collectors collect for a variety of reasons. There is the collecting that is associated with connoisseurship, that celebrates the wealth, knowledge and taste of the collector. It is a public activity, and, in the case of the Salomons, a means, perhaps, of establishing / confirming a social position. There are other, more personal, collections, created by an individual's need to analyse, understand, and dominate a particular subject. This was David Lionel's particular affliction. And then there is the simple urge to preserve keepsakes, mementoes, of happy times, and of friends and family.

There were collections of all three types at Broomhill. One of them, David Lionel's collection of watches, was world-class. Most of them are long gone (mainly to good homes elsewhere); but a brief look at what was there can say much about the people and the place.

* In the preface to his library catalogue (4th edition, 1915/6).

When the first David Salomons rebuilt Broomhill in 1850 one of his aims was to provide a display space for his art. His previous country house, Burrswood, had seen the Salomons living as landed gentry, at the heart of a working agricultural estate. The new Broomhill was different, more metropolitan, cosmopolitan even: a statement of Salomons' position as Alderman of the City of London and Member of Parliament.

There was a sculpture room (see below), which survives as part of the present museum. There was also a picture gallery - now known as the Leighton Room. It was lit from above to enhance the viewing of the paintings. The picture gallery, drawing room (now the Gold Room) and sculpture room, all on the south side of the house, were inter-connected, with exhibits carefully positioned to be visible through doorways of the adjacent rooms.

Paintings

The first David Salomons had acquired some 200 paintings before he died. In his will he asked that they be kept together as a collection.

He supported contemporary artists, including Jewish ones. He owned paintings by Abraham Solomon (1823-1862) whose 'Doubtful Fortune' (see here) remains in the collection*, and by Solomon's sister, Rebecca (1832-1886), and his brother, Simeon (1840-1905), who was associated with the Pre-Raphaelites.

Solomon Alexander Hart (1806-1881), the first Jewish member of the RA, also figured prominently - there were seven of his works in the collection. The large picture on the north wall of the picture gallery is probably by him, and the smaller ones too, around the doorway into the drawing room. Hart was a friend of the family and appears in family photograph albums. See another painting by Hart here.

* Solomon's portrait of Salomons in aldermanic robes (see *here*), which is currently on long-term loan to the museum from the North London Synagogue, was not part of the original collection.

Family portraits

David Lionel Salomons added to the family art collection, at Broomhill and in his London home in Grosvenor Street. The catalogues that he produced in 1877, 1881, 1890 and 1900 show the collection growing to nearly 600 pieces. This included items that the first David Salomons had left to Cecilia, his second wife, which David Lionel bought back after her death.

There were also pictures left to Laura, David Lionel's wife, on her mother's death in 1899. These included a painting of Laura herself, aged about 14, by James Sant RA (1820-1916).

Most of the paintings were sold after Laura's death, leaving mainly family portraits. Vera (David Lionel's daughter, who created the museum) may have added further pictures of the family, such as the Leighton portrait of Mrs Francis Lucas (née Alice de Stern, Laura's first cousin) (DSH.M.00534).

There is a second portrait by Sant in the collection. It is of Laura's elder sister, Emily see, later Lady Sherborne, also painted in about 1869. (Sant and his wife Elizabeth visited Broomhill in October 1890 though the occasion is not known.)

Sculpture

The first David Salomons' collection also included thirteen sculptures. Some of them can be identified in these photographs of the scuplture room taken in the 1890s. John Carew's Whittington is in the centre see, flanked by busts of Homer and David. (Dick Whittington, Lord Mayor of London three times in the early 15th century, was obviously highly symbolic to Salomons.) To the left must be 'Boy and Swan', attributed to 'Conti di Brazza', and a Cupid by van der Kerckhove. To the right is probably 'Grief' by 'Carusi di Carrara'. In the second picture of the room see, looking north, the dominant piece is 'Clotho' by Giuseppe (Jozsef) Engel (1815-1902) (see next panel). The bust of David was also by Engel and is now on display in the hall at Salomons see.

Over the next fifty years David Lionel Salomons doubled the size of his uncle's sculpture collection, but most of it was sold at the Broomhill auction in 1936.

Sculpture and photography

David Lionel Salomons was interested in photography from an early age (see *here*). In 1873, aged 22, he produced thirty photographs of his uncle's art collection for display at the Annual International Exhibition in South Kensington*. The photographs, developed with nitro-ammonia, were intended to imitate engravings.

Seven of the photographs were of sculptures, including:

• a second bust of David Salomons, by William Behnes (1795-1864), which is no longer in the collection**.
• 'Clotho' by Jozsef Engel see. A version of this statue was given to Queen Victoria by Prince Albert in 1861 (and is on display in Buckingham Palace).
• 'Pity' and 'Tender Care' (also known as 'Boy with bird's nest' and 'Girl feeding bird') see - a pair of statues by an unidentified artist.

* These exhibitions of 'fine arts, industries and inventions' were a development from the Great Exhibition of 1851. David Lionel supported international exhibitions throughout his life, especially in France. In 1900 he provided a steam locomotive for display (see *here*), and in 1923 part of his watch collection (see *here*).
** The Guildhall Art Gallery lists a Behnes bust of David Salomons in its catalogue, but it may actually be an earlier piece by Edward Lewis.

The first David Salomons has been described as a 'modest collector' of books, though he built a sizeable library on the ground floor of Broomhill to house them.

David Lionel greatly increased this collection, starting in the late 1880s. His interests were threefold: books and prints celebrating achievements in transport (see below); illustrated works produced in England in the early 19th century (by Cruikshank, Alken, Leech, Bewick, etc); and, his primary love, illustrated works from 18th century France.

In 1912/3 he had a new library built see - on the site of the winter garden. It is now the Drawing Room. The ornate windows along its western side overlook the upper grounds, though they were originally concealed behind ceiling-height bookcases. Only the bookcase at the far end survives.

The library catalogues

David Lionel instinctively classified and documented his collections. Between 1903 and 1916 he produced four editions of the Broomhill library catalogue. The third edition, he claimed, took two years to produce. He was proud that the collection contained only books bought from dealers of the highest integrity; and he delighted not only in the increase in the number in the each edition, but that the rate of acquisition was itself increasing. By 1916 he had some 12,000 volumes worth £73,200.

After his death the books went to Vera, who shared his interest, particularly in 18th century French illustrators. In 1911 and 1912 she published illustrated studies of the works of Hubert Francois Gravelot and Pierre-Philippe Choffard see, and another on Charles Eisen after World War I*.

A large proportion of the French book collection was destroyed in a fire at a Belgravia warehouse in 1939. Vera donated much of what remained to the LA Mayer Institute in Jerusalem who auctioned them in the 1980s.

Very few of the books survive in the Broomhill collection today, though the four catalogues remain as a record of what was once there.

* The Eisen study had been prepared for printing in 1914, but was not issued until 1921.
** Vera's books are not in the collection but the Choffard can be read on-line here. And there is a copy in the Local Studies collection of the Amelia Scott Centre (in Tunbridge Wells) which was given by Vera to a friend see.

When David Lionel Salomons was 14 he developed a fascination for watches: making and mending them. Many years later he started collecting them, focussing on the work of the Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823). The collection eventually numbered more than 120 but its centrepiece was the 'Marie Antoinette', commissioned as a gift for her but not completed until many years after her death. Salomons saw it in a shop just off Regent Street on a wet day in May 1917, persuaded himself that he could afford it (it is said to be worth $30,000,000 today), and spent the rest of his life studying Breguet's work*.

In 1921 he published a 230-page study of Breguet**. In 1923 he loaned his collection to the Musée Galliera in Paris for a centenary exhibition. After his death his daughter Vera inherited the watches. She sold some at Christie's in 1964/5, and later gave the core of the collection to the LA Mayer Institute in Jerusalem (see below).

* According to Salomons: 'To carry a fine Breguet watch is to feel that you have the brains of a genius in your pocket.'
** A facsimile version of Salomons' Breguet book was published in 2015. The original is available on-line at: http://www.archive.org/details/breguet01salo

Watches - loss and recovery

In 1983 the LA Mayer Institute published a catalogue of the items in the 'Sir David Salomons Collection of Watches and Clocks'. On April 16th that year 101 items from the collection were stolen, including the Marie Antoinette. The items disappeared without trace for over twenty years, until 2006 when most (88 items) were recovered.

In 2009 the Institute republished the catalogue in a sumptuous coloured edition*. It demonstrates that David Lionel's collection was not limited to just Breguet watches. There were watches and clocks by other watchmakers, scientific instruments, automata and enamel boxes. For example:

• A double-dialed 'Revolutionary' timepiece, 1797 see. One side has a traditional dial with twelve hours and sixty minutes. The reverse uses the French revolutionary decimal system with ten hours and one hundred minutes. Breguet, no. 6.
• A musical snuff box with a watch in the left-hand compartment and an automaton in the right see. Isaac-Daniel Piguet, Geneva, c. 1820.

NB Awaiting permission from the LA Mayer Museum for Islamic Art.

* G. Daniels, & O. Markarian, The Art of Time: The Sir David Salomons Collection of Watches and Clocks (Jerusalem, 2009)

Philip Salomons, the father of David Lionel Salomons, who died when David Lionel was sixteen, was an observant Jew who had a prayer room in his home in Brighton. He invested in some beautiful objects for the performance of Jewish ritual. Most of Philip's Judaica was sold to another Victorian Jewish collector, Reuben Sassoon, but a few items have been preserved at the museum.They include:

• Ten Commandments in Hebrew: mahogany and ormolu (237 x 207 mm). DSH.M.00078.
• Embroideries, silver and gold thread on dark red velvet see. Probably 'bimah cloths' (covers for a reading desk). DSH.M.00079.
• Hebrew Pentateuch, Geneva, 1617 see. Previously owned by Isaac Carrion de Paiba (diamond broker, d.1753). DSH.M.00307.

In 1847 Philip gave over four hundred volumes of Hebrew / Rabbinical works that had been collected by his father, Levy Salomons, to the Guildhall Library. An illuminated memorial thanking him is in the collection: DSH.M.00057. Philip also collected art - twenty or so of the Broomhill paintings in 1881 had come from his collection.

The collection also includes a number of Jewish bibles, prayer books, etc. (see Family Memorabilia below).

The Palestine experience

As far as we know, Philip Salomons never visited Palestine, but his collection included two items from those who had made the journey:

• A fragment of stone from the West Wall of the Temple in Jerusalem, given to Philip by his friend, the artist David Roberts. DSH.M.00077.
• A bottle of water from 'Rebekah's Well' at Harran. (Rebekah showed herself to be a worthy wife for Isaac by offering to draw water from the well for Abraham's camels. Gen. xxiv, 10-20.) The well was re-discovered in 1861. DSH.M.00080.

The museum has a further souvenir of Palestine which was acquired on a visit by Moses Montefiore. It is made of paper, cut and folded in the shape of a fan see, with a series of etchings: historical sites and holy places of Palestine on one side, and views of Jerusalem on the other see. DSH.M.121.*

* Produced by Yoel Moshe Salomon (1838-1912), and thought to be the earliest lithographic print made in Palestine/Eretz Yisrael. Salomon's family were part of the mid-19th century resettlement. The item is called a 'shoshanata' from the Hebrew word for rose. It was based on earlier European souvenirs known in German as 'rosenbouquett'.

Given his interest in all forms of transport it is not surprising that David Lionel Salomons collected transport memorabilia: prints, books, medals and objets d'art.

He left the bulk of his print collection to the Bibliotheque Nationale, 'in memory of the kindness and courtesy that I have always received in [France]'. Over 5,000 items were transferred there in 1935. Other parts of the collection were sold at auction in the 1930s.

The museum, however, retains a collection of 'ballooniana'; one of medals relating to the early development of railways; and a series of badges, magazines and other ephemera relating to Salomons' own involvement in early motoring.

Ballooniana

The museum has a collection of about fifty items of 'ballooniana'. These were catalogued by Malcolm Brown in his 1971 'Catalogue of Ballooniana'. Many of them are on display, including:

• Decorative box (77mm diam) with pen and watercolour miniature on the lid depicting a balloon ascent on 1.2.1783, after an etching by de Launay. DSH.B.032
• Etui (sewing case) (125mm high) see, containing writing tablet, scissors, button hook, etc. The cover shows an ascent of 3.12.1804, after an aquatint by Marchand. DSH.B.042
• Ivory fan of 30 leaves, 212mm high see, showing four ascents in France in the 1780s, with panels of birds and flowers. Reverse includes a panel showing the Porte St.Denis, and part of the Rue St.Denis. DSH.B.043.

Railway medals

The collection also includes a hundred souvenir medals. They relate mainly to the development of railways, in Britain and around the world, but also record major ceremonial events. It is not clear whether they were collected by David or David Lionel Salomons - both had an interest in railways.

They include the following:

• Sankey Viaduct (Liverpool & Manchester Railway 1830). DSH.D.002.
• Thames (Rotherhithe) Tunnel 1843 see. DSH.D.003.
• Paris to Spain Railway 1855 see. DSH.D.046.
• Central Trans-Andean Railway 1870 see. DSH.D.068.

The medals are not on permanent display but may be seen on request to the curator.

Early motoring

There is a less formal collection of badges and other items relating to early motoring. David Lionel Salomons was an early member, and often a founding member, of motoring associations in Britain and on the continent.

They include:

• Early lapel badge of the Automobile Club de France. DSH.M.00185.
• Life member's badge of the Automobile Club Suisse see. DSH.M.00209.
• Lapel badge for the 1904 Gordon Bennett Race see. DSH.M.00213.
• Souvenir programme for the 1905 Gordon Bennett Race see. DSH.M.00554b.

(Gordon Bennett was the wealthy proprietor of the 'New York Herald'. He sponsored annual motor races between 1900 and 1905.)

There are also badges recording David Lionel's membership of 'aero' clubs.

Most of the collections considered above were intended at some stage for public display - at Broomhill or on loan to exhibitions. The items in this last section: photograph albums, scrapbooks, postcards, etc. were for more private use.

That is not completely true for all of them - photograph albums were clearly meant for sharing, as the ornate albums on the table in the picture gallery show. And photograph albums were not just used to record family events and holidays. The examples below include one used as a family record of births and marriages, and one that is simply a collection of 'celebrity' portraits.

Photograph albums

The museum has over thirty photograph albums of various types. They include:

• A collection of celebrity 'carte de visite' portraits in an elaborate album given to David Lionel Salomons as a 21st birthday present. The pictures include members of the royal family, writers, scientists and politicians. DSH.M.00507.
• An album with ornate mounts used to record births and marriages of David Lionel and Laura Salomons and their children see see. DSH.M.00514.1.
• A more traditional collection of pictures of family and friends, but in an unusual art nouveau album with floral pages see. DSH.M.00499.

The picture of David Lionel and guests in fancy dress (see here) is from another album dedicated to that event.

Hebraica

Unlike his father, David Lionel Salomons was not rigorous in his religious beliefs/practices. His children, for example, received presents from 'Santa Claus' at Christmas. The collection, nevertheless, contains religious items from his time, though they represent memories of parents and childhood, rather than evidence of current faith.

• Biblia Hebraica (bible in English and Hebrew). Given to David Lionel Salomons by his father, Philip. DSH.M.00312.
• Hand-written book of prayers and Book of Psalms presented to the young Emma Salomons (David Lionel's mother) by her father, Jacob Montefiore see. DSH.M.00315/318.
• 'Jewish Family Bible' presented to Frances Goldsmid (Laura Salomons' aunt) by Moses Montefiore in 1885. He was then aged 100. The occasion of the gift is not known see. DSH.M.00343.

Scrapbooks

The museum has a wide collection of scrapbooks and similar items. Most relate to the specific interests of family members, such as David Lionel and early motoring, or David Reginald and the Territorial Army. Vera, between 1900 and 1913, made a collection of postcards showing works of art. They are held in two albums: DSH.M.00490/496*. She also made small calendars each year, to give as gifts see. And there is the occasional unexpected item, such as:

• An autograph of Wilkie Collins, Broomhill, Christmas 1866** see. DSH.M.00347.
• Small Japanese painting (one of three) of a crane see. DSH.M.00882.

Generally speaking, these items are not on display, but can be seen on request to the curator.

* The subject of a recent MA dissertation by Caroline Auckland (Birkbeck, 2016).
** See A. Gasson, & W. Baker, 'Forgotten Terrain: Wilkie Collins's Jewish explorations', Jewish Historical Studies, Vol.48, No.1, Dec 2016.