The de Menasce family
Baron Yaqub Levi de Menasce
The
de Menasce family is a Sephardic family who arrived in Egypt during the
eighteenth century. The leading member of the family in the nineteenth
century was Yaqub Levi de Menasce (1807–1887). Born in Cairo in 1807,
Yaqub began his career in Cairo as a money changer (Sarraf) and a
banker and gradually emerged as the private banker of the Khedive
Ismail. He was one of the earliest entrepreneurs in Egypt to recognize
the opportunities offered by European trade and, with Jacob Cattaoui,
opened the banking and trading establishment of J. L. Menasce et Fils
with branches in England, France, and Turkey. Beside the Alexandria and
Manchester branches, the Marseille office was run by his son Moise, the
Liverpool by his son Joseph and London by his son Elie. In 1871, he
moved from Cairo to Alexandria, the new and permanent seat of the
family. The 'de' was added in 1876 when he obtained Hungarian
citizenship
together with the title of Baron of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for
promoting trade between the Adriatic and the Levant. His son, Béhor
Levi, continued in the family's financial enterprises, but his grandson,
Jacques Béhor de Menasce (1850–1916), deserted the banking profession
in favour of the cotton and sugar businesses. In 1890, Jacques served as
the president of Alexandria's Jewish Community and remained in that
capacity for about twenty-five years. The family was well known for its
philanthropy, and later generations were prominent in the arts.
Baron Félix de Menasce with his daughters Claire and Denise and his son Jean.
The banking firm of J. L. Menasce passed to Yaqub's four grandsons, among them Baron
Félix Béhor (1865–1943). Alexandria in the 1920s and 1930s was
culturally the most brilliant and sophisticated city in the
Mediterranean, though its true brilliance was to be found not so much at
its opera or theatres but in its great houses, where families presented
exhibitions, lectures, concerts and theatrical entertainments.
Celebrated among these was the house of the Baron Félix de Menasce and
his flamboyant wife Rosette. Here his older son George de Menace, and
Claire's half brother, gave weekly piano concerts, often accompanied by
like-minded friends, and also displayed his remarkable collections of
late Roman ware, Roman and Syrian glass, Mogul jewelled jade, Jaipur
enamel, Persian jewels, coloured diamonds, jewelled watches and
automata, eighteenth century gold snuff boxes, Greek island tapestries
and Turkish embroideries, fine paintings, rare carpets and Fabérgé. Some
of his collections are now in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. His
greatest passion, however, apart from music, was for Chinese works of
art, especially porcelain, in which he built up a collection that was
perhaps the finest and most extensive in private hands anywhere in the
world.
Siegfried
Sassoon, Lord David Cecil and Jean de Menasce in a snapshot taken by
Lady Ottoline Morrell. ln 1922 he made the French translation of a book
by the philosopher Bertrand Russel, whom he knew as a fellow member of
Lady Ottoline Morrell's salon at Oxford.
Here
too Félix de Menasce’s younger son Jean (1902–1973) would stay with his
family on his returns from Europe where he would speak of his
friendships with a wide variety of literary figures. Among them was
Constantine Cavafy, whose work he promoted while he was at Oxford,
publishing four translations in Oxford Outlook in 1924, and also T. S. Eliot, a friend, who called him ‘my best translator’: Jean did The Waste Land and later Ash Wednesday, East Coker
and other of Eliot’s works into French. Jean was born in Alexandria on
24 December 1902. After the local Lycée Français, Jean de Menasce
remained in Cairo studying at its French School of Law. Thereafter he
continued his education at Oxford University, then went to the Sorbonne
to study oriental languages. A cousin of Jean de Menasce was the writer
and diplomat Georges Cattaui.
A second cousin was the composer and pianist Jacques de Menasce.
Claire de Menasce in costume for a 1931 review.
Claire
Vincendon, standing centre, with her husband Jacques at a Finney
carnival party in Alexandria. This is a detail of a photograph in
Michael Haag's book Vintage Alexandria.
Félix
and his wife Rosette's two daughters lived in the house as well, Denise
until she married a barrister and Claire for several years after her
marriage to Jacques Vincendon, who was made secretary general of the
Land Bank of Egypt by Félix who was director. Claire Vincendon's passion
was the theatre, which was how most other people got to know her; she
acted in and designed costumes for the entertainments she staged for
guests at the great rambling house on the corner of the Rue Rassafa and
the Rue Menasce, where her daughter Claude was born in 1925.
Princess
Toussoun whose father-in-law Omar Toussoun was known as the Prince of
Alexandria; Mrs Aly Yehia Pasha, wife of the wealthiest Egyptian cotton
broker and financier; Gina Bachauer, the famous Greek concert pianist
and friend of the Menasces; and Baroness Rosette de Menasce in
Alexandria 1948.
The
wedding of Jimmy Mawas’ parents, Denise de Menasce and Alfred Mawas,
1931. Left to right Miss Polly O’Mara, the bride, Baroness Rosette de
Menasce, the groom, Claire Vincendon (the sister of the bride).
Rose
Larriba, aka Baroness Rosette de Menasce (1875 -1949) was born on 9
February 1875 in Paris. Rosette had arrived in Alexandria in the 1890s,
and had married a financier and one of the city’s wealthiest men, Baron
Félix de Menasce on 17 October 1903. They lived in his palatial
residence at Moharrem Bey neighborhood, then a posh suburb of
Alexandria. It was named after Mohamed Ali’s son in law, who was the
Admiral of the Egyptian fleet, and it was every Alexandrian’s dream to
have a house there. Rosette's father is Cyprien Larriba (1845), a
chauffeur, and her mother is Claudine de Bustos (1853), a boot stitcher.
A ball at the Cecil Hotel, Alexandria, c. 1950
Rose de Menasce (not to be mistaken for Rosette de Menasce) at the Sporting Club, 1914. She was married to Baron Edmund de Menasce, a cousin of Baron Félix de Menasce.
Rose de Menasce (not to be mistaken for Rosette de Menasce) at the Sporting Club, 1914. She was married to Baron Edmund de Menasce, a cousin of Baron Félix de Menasce.
Click on the image to enlarge
1. Jacques Paul, son of Baron Henri; 2. Jacqueline, daughter of Baron Emile; 3. Baron Eugene de Menasce; 4. Robert, son of Baron Emile; 5. Raymond, son of Baron Emile; 6. Baron Henri de Menasce; 7. Baron Jacob Levi de Menasce; 8. Baron Bohor de Menasce; 9. Baron Jacques Levi de Menasce; 10. Baroness de Menasce; 11. Baron Edmund de Menasce; 12. Baron Emile de Menasce; 13. Baron Gaston de Menasce; 14. Baron René de Menasce; 15 and 16. Mrs. Aghion and daughter Simone; 17. Adrienne Aghion, daughter of Mrs. Jacques Aghion.
Baron Elie Jacques Levi de Menasce
Baroness Elie Jacques Levi de Menasce
Baron Jacques Elie de Menasce
Alexandria residence
References and credits: Voices from Cosmopolitan Alexandria, 2006, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Michael Haag and Geneanet.
