Auszüge aus dem Buche Jad-Haghasakkah / "Eizeh Hilkhot mi-Yad ha-Chazakah", set of five volumes of the censored Rambam published by the Ministry of Education of Tsarist Russia. St. Petersburg, 1850. Four parts in five volumes. Hebrew and German.
Written on the title pages is that the book was printed "according to the responsa of our rabbis and our sages". Mentioned with the other rabbis: "R. Menachem of Lubavitch" [the Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch].
This edition of Yad HaChazakah L'HaRambam was censored and revised by the Tsarist Russian government as part of its inclination to force inclusion of general studies in the curriculum of the Jewish educational institutes. [Written on some title pages: "To teach the Children of Israel Torah and Derech Eretz in the second-level schools of the first department"]. Besides the German translation, this edition contains "notes on the Rambam" with "commentaries" appropriate for maintaining loyalty to the Tsarist government. Among the sections which were added: "General supervision according to Torah law regarding honor and laws of contemporary nations…", "Honoring the kingdom" - "Regarding our obligation to love and honor His Majesty the Caesar with one's heart and soul", "Note on monetary laws" ["We have presented all these laws only for commemoration of Torah study in the past"], etc. Hilchot Melachim was completely omitted from this edition.
Four parts in five volumes (two volumes for Part 4). Part 2 is lacking both title pages of the German part. Part 4, Vol. 2 is lacking the second Hebrew title page (without pages 923-953 of Hilchot Mamrim, which does not exist in some copies). 18 cm. Good condition. Stains. New bindings.

Hanukkah lamp. Italy, [18th century].
Cast brass; brass sheet, cut and bent.
The back plate is supported by a pair of angels and decorated with curved tendrils interspersed with open-work, fruit and animals. At the top of the back plate is a heraldic shield showing a crowned lion with extruding tongue facing left (apparently a family's coat-of-arms). A row of oil fonts is attached to the base. Each oil font has a small duct for placing the wick.
The plate and the row of oil fonts are made of cast brass and placed above a catch-basin for dripping oil, made of brass sheet. At the left corner of the oil basin is a narrow cylinder, apparently meant for the shamash.
Back plate and row of oil fonts: approx. 15X21.5 cm. Length (including basin): 18.5 cm, width: 25.5 cm. Good overall condition. Pierced holes in the back plate, the heraldic shield and the crown. Some corrosion. Light breaks to basin, and some bends.

Hanukkah lamp. Italy, [18th or 19th century].
Cast brass.
In the center of the back plate is a figure carrying a large jug on her head. She is flanked by two large figures carrying sheets of fabric and blowing into horns of plenty. On the margin of the back plate is a flat column, at the top of which there is room for a shamash (missing).
Length: 15 cm, width: 22 cm. Good condition. Missing shamash. Slight defects.

Hanukkah lamp Made in Posen. Germany, [late 19th or early 20th century].
Silver (marked: Posen 800), cast and embossed.
Upright lamp. The branches are partly wrapped in foliage-like decorations. The central column and the base are decorated with rocailles and acanthus leaves. At the top of the central column is a large decoration in the form of interlaced leaves. The oil fonts are shaped as stylized goblets placed on leaf-shaped discs. Each oil font holds a narrow cylinder for the wick. The shamash (removable) at the top of the central column bulges frontwards.
Length: 37 cm, width: 30 cm. Good overall condition. Five detached oil fonts (defective screwing mechanisms; one is missing a screw); four detached discs.