‎NN - The Agricultural Relief of Allies Committee ( dedicatee ) - Vlaamse Boeren uit de Westhoek - Ieper - Nieuwpoort - Diksmuide - Veurne :‎
‎A L' Agricultural Relief of Allies Committee - Les Cultivateurs Belges Reconnaissants. 8th May 1920 . ( manuscript album of gratitude presented by the Flemish Westhoek farmers to the Agricultural Relief Committee).‎

‎" Ieper - Nieuwpoort - Veurne - Diksmuide , ''les cultivateurs belges reconnaissants '', 8 th May 1920, in-4° album, 34 x 25 cm, pictorial title page ( drawn and coloured by F. Offenberg ) + original portrait of King Albert I + original portrait of Baron Ruzette (agricultural minister) + 17 pp (manuscript explanatory text, signed by minister Ruzette, J. Boereboom-Bruges) + 1 map + 89 pp ( title + list of villages & towns which received aid, with the signatures of the aid receivers) + 24 leaves (23 with 2 original photographs ; 1 with 6 smaller photographs). Bound in green buckram, red leather title label on smooth spine, all edges gilt. ( Rebound by the previous English owner, the original bookblock untouched). Unique album of gratitude composed by the Flemish farmers whose land, farms and livestock were destroyed by the First World war. In an area of 5 kms at either side of the frontline hardly any building or cultivable land remained. The 46 original photographs (size 116 x 168 mm) picture the farmers in front of the ramshackle remains of their farm together with one of the cattle specimen ( boars, bulls, goats, sheep...) which they received as aid. All the farmers signed this album. Their signatures are arranged per village. 88 Villages are listed ; Middelkerke , Wilskerke , Leffinghe-Mannekensvere , Snaeskerke, Lombartzyde-Westende....Neuve Eglise, Ploegsteert. We estimate the total of signatories to be ca. 1600. Collecting them must have been a huge job.Provenance; the album was kept in the library of the Royal Agricultural Society in London. They disposed of it in 2014. Unique testimony of the reconstruction efforts which were necessary in Flanders at the end of the First World War."‎

Reference : 46543

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