Wondrous treasure troves: the Jewish country houses of Europe

The words ‘country houses’ immediately make one think of England, yet only five of the 15 featured in this hefty, impressively illustrated book are in Britain. It is a compilation of essays: part histories of various Jewish families, part architectural descriptions and part stories of the chateaux, mansions, villas and, of course, country houses all over Europe, owned and sometimes built by these families. Each chapter is by a different author.

These homes had different functions. Some, like that of the German-born painter Max Liebermann, were built as traditional country retreats – his palatial town house was next to Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. Others were inherited: the beautiful Frances Braham, daughter of a distinguished tenor, acquired Horace Walpole’s gothic masterpiece Strawberry Hill through the second of her four husbands. She first married the illegitimate son of the sixth Earl Waldegrave; then, widowed within a year, she married his younger (legitimate) brother, on whose death she inherited the Waldegrave estate, which included Strawberry Hill.