Auction 75 - Rare and Important Items
- book (73) Apply book filter
- manuscript (73) Apply manuscript filter
- letter (45) Apply letter filter
- gloss (37) Apply gloss filter
- books, (29) Apply books, filter
- librari (29) Apply librari filter
- mosh (29) Apply mosh filter
- rebb (29) Apply rebb filter
- satmar (29) Apply satmar filter
- sighet (29) Apply sighet filter
- teitelbaum (29) Apply teitelbaum filter
- yismach (29) Apply yismach filter
- yoel (29) Apply yoel filter
- chassid (18) Apply chassid filter
- dedic (16) Apply dedic filter
- signatur (16) Apply signatur filter
- chassidut (15) Apply chassidut filter
- print (15) Apply print filter
- chabad (14) Apply chabad filter
- eretz (14) Apply eretz filter
- earli (13) Apply earli filter
- rabbin (11) Apply rabbin filter
- isra (9) Apply isra filter
- israeli, (9) Apply israeli, filter
- maghrebi (9) Apply maghrebi filter
- orient (9) Apply orient filter
- rabbi (9) Apply rabbi filter
- leader (8) Apply leader filter
- own (8) Apply own filter
- signatures, (8) Apply signatures, filter
- art (7) Apply art filter
- ceremoni (7) Apply ceremoni filter
- object (7) Apply object filter
- incunabula (6) Apply incunabula filter
- 19 (5) Apply 19 filter
- 19th (5) Apply 19th filter
- 20 (5) Apply 20 filter
- 20th (5) Apply 20th filter
- centuri (5) Apply centuri filter
- classic (5) Apply classic filter
- communiti (5) Apply communiti filter
- document (5) Apply document filter
- ethic (5) Apply ethic filter
- israel (5) Apply israel filter
- jewish (5) Apply jewish filter
- kabbalah (5) Apply kabbalah filter
- photograph (5) Apply photograph filter
- pinkasim (5) Apply pinkasim filter
- talmud (5) Apply talmud filter
- talmud, (5) Apply talmud, filter
Square cutwork and whitework white tablecloth, with floral border, strewn with small flowers all over. The center embroidered with the Shabbat night Kiddush text, a chronogram and a monogram of the letters "EB". The chronogram, "Shafra alay", translating as "yea, I have a goodly heritage" (Psalms 16:6), may indicate the lady of the household's first name, Shifra.
Approx. 117X117 cm. Fair-good condition. Blemishes. Many stains. Tears to edges, some with minor loss. Tarnished silver thread.
The entire Book of Esther is micrographically inscribed in the center of the work in the form of a wheel, 4.5 cm in diameter. Dated in a chronogram translating as "See you this wheel and observe well my excellent handiwork". The hub of the wheel bears the title "Scroll of Esther", surmounted by a crown. The wheel is framed by a gate, surmounted by an eagle. On either side of the gate are columns, decorated with vases filled with flowers.
Beneath the wheel and gate is an acrostic poem, in elegant script, alluding to the artist's name. The poem concludes with his pen name, "Hillel ben Shahar" (for text of poem, please refer to Hebrew).
Rabbi Yehuda Leib (Judah Leo) Landau (1866-1942), native of Załośce, near Tarnopol, Galicia (today Ternopil, western Ukraine). Descendant of the "Chacham Tzvi" and Yehezkel Landau, author of "Noda BiYehuda". In 1889, the year this micrographic work was created, Yehuda Leib moved to the nearby Galician city of Brody, where he completed his high school education; until then he had been schooled in Torah studies at the batei midrash run by his father and grandfather. He later attended the Rabbinical Seminary in Vienna where he was ordained, and the University of Vienna where he earned a doctorate in philosophy. In 1901, he was appointed Rabbi of the North Manchester Congregation in England, and in 1903, he became the rabbi of the Johannesburg Hebrew Congregation in South Africa. He was made Chief Rabbi of South Africa in 1912. He taught at Witwatersrand University, where he was the first person to hold the chair of Hebrew Literature. He had begun publishing his own writings in Yiddish at the age of 13, and over time, he also published in Hebrew and English. His works included articles, nonfiction books, plays, prose, and poetry. He wrote under a number of different pen names, including "Sofer Ivri" (Hebrew Scribe), "Hillel ben Shahar" (a reference to both his own name and that of his father, Moshe Issakhar), and "Dr. Morgenstern". See enclosed material.
[1] f., 15X17.5 cm. Diam. of micrography: 4.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Browned paper, with stains. Abrasions to paper, slightly affecting decorations and text. Minor worming. Minor tears to edges. Matted and framed; 25X27 cm with frame.
Cotton knot-pile; wool foundation.
The rug, inspired by Tabriz wildlife-motif rugs (of which the Chelsea Carpet at the Victoria and Albert Museum is a famous example), features symmetrical arabesque floral motifs alternating with hunting scenes, game and animals of prey. Signed "Marbadiah" twice on the edge of the central panel.
Approx. 245X210 cm. Good-fair condition. General fading and wear. Slightly misshapen. A few restorations. Some unraveling to edges. 14 cm tear, repaired.
Literature: Jewish Carpets, by Anton Felton. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors' Club, 1997, p. 123.
Provenance: The Anton Felton Collection.
Cotton knot-pile; wool foundation.
This especially large rug features a design of close-knit medallions, each containing an example of Holy Land flora, including stalks of wheat, palm trees, cypresses and vine leaves, the Temple façade, or an amphora. Many of these motifs were inspired by ancient Jewish and Roman coins struck circa the first century AD, in the times of Herod Agrippa, the Great Revolt and the Destruction of the Second Temple. Smaller medallions show Stars of David, the Tablets of the Law and floral designs. The main border depicts an alternating pattern of palm and cypress trees within medallions; the secondary borders depict a continuous braid and repeating amphorae holding flowers in the shape of Stars of David.
Approx. 340X304 cm. Good condition. General fading. Minor damages. Suspension strip sewn along edge on verso.
Literature: Jewish Carpets, by Anton Felton. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors' Club, 1997, p. 120.
Provenance: The Anton Felton Collection.
Watercolor on paper, mounted on cardboard. Signed.
47.5X31.5 cm. Good condition.
Yisakhar Ber Rybak (1897-1935), native of Elisavetgrad, Russia (today Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine), painter, graphic artist, and sculptor; one of the most prominent artists of the Russian-Jewish avant-garde. Studied at the Academy of Art in Kiev and in the studio of Aleksandra Ekster. In 1915-16, he was a member of the ethnographic expedition, headed by Shlomo An-ski, that aimed to document the culture of the Jewish communities of Podolia and Volhynia, and, working side-by-side with El Lissitzky, he produced copy-sketches of tombstones and monuments and documented the popular art he observed in the wooden synagogues of villages in the Pale of Settlement. For Rybak, this experience marked the beginnings of an enduring love affair with themes borrowed from popular Jewish tradition, and these themes and motifs provided the elemental foundations for his future work. He became one of the most active and outspoken artists of the "Kultur Lige" ("Culture League"), and taught drawing in the school that operated under the auspices of its art division. In 1921, he moved to Berlin, where he joined the "November Gruppe" and participated in joint exhibitions with other member artists. Rybak subsequently returned briefly to the Soviet Union and then moved to Paris, where he died in 1935.
The album "Shtetl, Meyn Horever Heiym" ("Shtetl, My House in Ruins"), published in 1923, has been widely regarded as one of the pinnacles of Rybak’s career. The album’s twenty-nine lithographs, documenting life in the shtetl, were created in the immediate aftermath of a horrendous wave of pogroms – in one of which his own father was murdered – that ravaged the towns and villages of the Pale of Settlement following the First World War. The lithographs focus on a typical Jewish shtetl, its houses, and the craftsmen who lived and labored in them. The works capture selected moments in the lives of these shtetls and present a frozen image which serves as a lamentation for the artist’s boyhood environs, documenting scenes that would never again be the same as they once were.
Provenance: The Estate of Yisakhar Ber Rybak.
Yingl Tsingl Khvat [The Mischievous Boy], by Mani Leib [Menachem Leib Brahinsky]. Kiev-St. Petersburg: Yiddisher Folks-Farlag, [1919]. Yiddish. First edition.
Rhymed tale for children by the Yiddish poet Mani Leib – the story of a mischievous boy who succeeds in bringing the first snow of winter to a Jewish town where autumn lingers. The tale is accompanied by black-and-white illustrations by El Lissitzky. Color illustration by Lissitzky on front cover.
[12] pp, 26 cm. Good condition. The leaves are detached from each other (lacking staples). Stamps on several leaves. Stains (the leaves are mostly clean). Tears along the spine. Tears to edges of cover, some open and some restored.
Provenance: The Uriel Kahana Collection (his signature appears on the upper right corner of the front cover).
El (Eliezer Lazar Markovich) Lissitzky (1890-1941), a Jewish-Russian artist, designer, photographer, teacher, typographer and architect, one of the most prominent and important members of the Russian avant-garde.
Lissitzky, an architect by training, contributed much, together with his teacher and friend Kazimir Malevich, to the conceptualization and development of the Suprematism movement – the abstract art focused on geometric forms. He also designed numerous books and journals, exhibitions, and propaganda posters for the communist regime in Russia and influenced the Bauhaus and Constructivist movements in Europe. In his early days, Lissitzky showed much interest in Jewish culture and many of his works integrated Jewish motifs (during the years 1915-1916, he took part in the ethnographic expedition headed by Shlomo An-ski to the Pale of Settlement). Wanting to promote Jewish culture in Russia after the revolution, he became engaged in designing and illustrating Yiddish children's books, creating several children's books which are considered pioneering masterpieces due to their graphics and typography. However, several years later, he abandoned the Jewish motifs in favor of developing a more abstract and universal artistic language.
In 1921, Lissitzky moved to Germany, where he served as the Russian cultural ambassador, engaged in forming connections between Russian and German artists and continued to design books and journals. Lissitzky, who perceived books as immortal artifacts, "monuments of the future" by his definition, used the medium as a tool for spreading the messages of avant-garde and his artistic perception, as indicated by the variety of books in whose design, production or illustration he took part – beginning with children's books and books of poetry and ending with catalogs, guidebooks and research books.
Lissitzky died in Moscow at the age of 51. In his final years, his artistic work was dedicated mainly to soviet propaganda; yet it seems that the same worldview accompanied his works throughout his life – the belief in goal-oriented creation (Zielbewußte Schaffen, the German term he coined) and the power of art to influence and bring about change.
A folio volume, with 25 lithographs by Joseph Nash after sketches by David Wilkie. The lithographs depict figures whom Wilkie met during his visit to the Middle East in the years 1840-1841. Among them – the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Abdülmecid I; Persian Prince Halakoo Mirza; inhabitants of various towns in the Ottoman Empire, including Jews in Jerusalem (woman with a child, group of women reading the scriptures); figures near the Ecce Homo arch; A Turkish courier announcing the occupation of Acre; and more.
The lithographs are titled and signed in the plate; some are dated. Lithographic title page followed by a leaf with the publishers' dedication on one side and a list of plates on the other.
The painter David Wilkie (1785-1841) was born in Scotland and studied art in London where, starting in 1806, he exhibited his works. In 1811 Wilkie was elected an associate of the Royal Academy of Art, and in 1830 was appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary to the King. Wilkie went on a journey to the Middle East in 1840, to make the acquaintance of the Holy Land and gather materials for Biblical-themed works. During his journey Wilkie painted the portrait of the Ottoman Sultan and other portraits. In 1841, while on his way back to London, he fell sick and died on board of a ship near the shores of Gibraltar.
[27] leaves (with protective paper guards between the plates), 53 cm. Half-leather, gilt embossed binding (cover title reads "Sir David Wilkie's Oriental Sketches"). Good-fair condition. Numerous stains. Several browned leaves. Creases. Tears to margins of some leaves. Tears and wear to binding (mainly to corners and spine).
An atlas-folio travelogue documenting the journey of Baron Louis Nicolas Philippe Auguste de Forbin to the Near East – from Greece, along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, throughout Palestine, and finally to Egypt. The first part of the book describes de Forbin’s journey, and the second contains 70 lithographs after paintings by many artists, eight aquatints after watercolor drawings by de Forbin, and two engravings depicting the architectural plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Great Pyramid in Giza, archaeological artifacts, and the Catacombs of Milos.
According to Jacques Charles Brunet, the book was printed in 325 copies.
The aquatints and lithographs depict antiquities, landscapes and scenes from everyday life in cities and various sites throughout the East: the holy sites and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Acre, Jaffa, Ashkelon and Gaza; the pyramids and other antiquities in Egypt; sights in Athens, Constantinople, Alexandria and Cairo; and more. The lithographs, by Godfroy Engelmann, were made after paintings by Carle Vernet, Émile Jean-Horace Vernet, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Claude Thiénon, Jean-Pierre Granger, and others. The aquatints were made by Philibert-Louis Debucourt.
Baron Louis Nicolas Philippe Auguste de Forbin (1779-1841), a neo-Classical painter by training, was appointed Director-General of the Louvre Museum in 1816. Soon afterward, in 1817, de Forbin set out at the head of a delegation to the East in order to purchase antiquities for the museum (including a statue of the goddess Sekhmet that is on exhibit at the Louvre). The delegation included, among others, an engineer, a cartographer, and painters.
[4] leaves, 132 pp; 78, [2] plates, 72 cm. Good-fair condition. Many stains, including foxing and dampstains. Some closed tears and small open tears to margins, some medium tears at margins of plates. Long tear to plate no. 10, restored. A widthwise tear to plate no. 18, mended with tape. Some worming to margins of leaves. Creases. New leather binding.
In 1864, the Duke de Luynes (Honoré Théodore Paul Joseph d'Albert, duc de Luynes, 1802-1867) – a French humanist and collector, and patron of art and photography – led a research expedition to Palestine and its surrounding region. The expedition staff included the geologist Louis Lardet, the physician and naturalist Gustave Combe, and the naval lieutenant and amateur photographer Louis Vignes, who served as the expedition photographer. The expedition conducted measurements and surveys in the Dead Sea region and examined biblical sites. In the course of the study, Vignes used his camera to document the various places. In some cases, these were sites that had never been photographed before.
The sizable amounts of documentation collected by the expedition – one of the most comprehensive of its kind to be conducted in the Dead Sea region in the 19th century – was only published roughly ten years after the mission's return to France. Alongside the three volumes summarizing the expedition's work and its findings, there is an additional volume consisting of high-quality photogravure plates reproducing Vignes's original photographs. These reproductions were created by the French photographer Charles Nègre, a pioneering photogravure artist whose works were distinguished by their quality and precision. Nègre was chosen for this task following a photography competition, initiated by the Duke de Luynes, in which new photo-mechanical techniques for the mass production of photographs intended for publication were presented. Nègre did not win the competition, but the Duke nevertheless preferred his photogravures to the winner's photolithographs. Apart from the historical importance of this volume in the annals of Middle Eastern studies, it is regarded as a milestone in the development of photography and photobooks.
This is the first edition of the book documenting the research expedition of the Duke de Luynes – two volumes of text (comprising three parts) and a volume of plates. Includes 102 plates: 64 photogravure plates, plus maps and lithographs.
The first part of the book gives the Duke's own overview of the findings of his expedition. The second part contains a summary by Louis Vignes, in addition to an account of a separate research expedition funded by the Duke de Luynes and conducted by the architect Christophe-Edouard Mauss and the photographer Henri Sauvaire, from Kerak (Al-Karak) to Shoubak in the present-day Kingdom of Jordan. These parts include three plates: a view of the fortified Crusader castle of Kerak (lithograph after a photograph by Sauvaire), a map of Shoubak, and a (folded) map of the expedition route from Kerak to Shoubak.
The third part is mostly dedicated to the geology and paleontology of the region, and includes 14 lithographic plates: a geological map of the Dead Sea region (double-spread plate, in color), and plates featuring geological cross-sections, fossils, seashells, and more.
The volume of plates includes three unnumbered plates, including a (folded) map of the Dead Sea region; 18 numbered plates – four maps and fourteen lithographs after photographs by Louis Vignes and Henri Sauvaire; and 64 numbered plates – photogravures by Charles Nègre after photographs by Louis Vignes, documenting sites in Sidon, Tyre, Jenin, Nablus, Beth El, Jerusalem, Jericho (double-spread plate, with a view of Mar Saba monastery), the Dead Sea, Iraq Al-Amir, Oyun Musa, Petra, and more.
Three volumes. Vol. I (Parts 1-2): [4] ff., 388 pp; [3] ff., 182 pp., [1] f., 183-222 pp., [3] ff. + [3] plates. Vol. II (Part 3): [2] ff., VI, 326 pp. +14 plates. Vol. III: [3], 18, 64 plates. 36 cm. Overall good condition. Stains (to leaves of text and plates). Dark stains to some leaves and plates. Few tears. Minor blemishes to some plates. One plate (in Vol. III) detached. Minor worming to gutters of some plates (in Vol. III, not affecting prints). Different bindings, with stains and blemishes. Vol. I with quarter-leather red cloth binding (book title stamped in gold on binding); Vol. II with quarter-leather, paper sides binding (spine torn with upper portion detached; back board detached). Vol. III binding entirely restored with leather-like covering.
Literature: Poggi, Isotta. "History Turns Space into Place: A French Voyage to the Dead Sea Basin in 1864". Jerusalem Quarterly, No. 82 (Jerusalem: Institute for Palestine Studies, 2020): 23-37.
A diverse collection of books, mostly written by researchers and travelers who visited Palestine in the 19th century – the Golden Age of travel literature pertaining to this country – and early 20th century, giving wide-ranging documentation of the land and its many faces. Many of the books include maps, illustrations, and photographs of the countryside, the landscapes, and the inhabitants.
Books include: • Journal of a Tour in the Holy Land, in May and June, 1840 – Travel journal of a visit to Palestine by Lady Egerton and her husband, the First Duke of Ellesmere, Francis Egerton, in May and June of 1840 (London, 1841); • The Holy City, or Historical and Topographical Notices of Jerusalem, by George Williams (London, 1845); • A Pilgrimage to The Land of My Fathers, by Moses Margoliouth (London, 1850); • Domestic Life in Palestine, by Mary Eliza Rogers (London, 1863); • "An open letter addressed to Sir Moses Montefiore… Together with a narrative of a forty days' sojourn in the Holy Land" (London, 1877); • Moab, Ammon and Gilead, by Albernon Heber-Percy (London, 1896; inscribed by the author?); • Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statements from years 1869-1900, 1906, 1911-14); • Birds of Arabia, by Richard Meinertzhagen (Edinburgh and London, 1954); • and numerous additional books by academics, explorers, travelers, and pilgrims who journeyed to Palestine.
Approx. 290 volumes. Some books in duplicate copies, some in more than one edition. Size and condition vary.
The books have not been thoroughly inspected and are offered as is.
33 souvenir albums commemorating the conquest of Jerusalem at the hands of British armed forces. Most include photographs of sites throughout Palestine, with emphasis on Jerusalem (photographs and illustrations, some in color); and arrangements of dried flowers, bound in olivewood. The image of the Dome of the Rock is carved on the front board of some of the bindings.
The art of preserving dried flowers began to develop in Jerusalem roughly in the mid-nineteenth century. The assembly of dried flower albums rapidly turned into a lucrative business that represented a source of income for local artists of diverse training and backgrounds, as well as for souvenir merchants. In the beginning, these albums were geared mostly toward Christian tourists and pilgrims; as such, alongside the dried flowers, they included prints showing sites holy to the Christian faithful. The first Hebrew-language album of dried flowers was published by the historian and author Ze'ev Yavetz in the late nineteenth century. Subsequently, similar albums were published by Abraham Moses Luncz.
A significant increase in the number of incoming tourists – and with it, an increased demand for souvenirs – came with the British conquest of Jerusalem in December of 1917. At the time, albums created as souvenirs of the day of the conquest were widely distributed; they were sold to the British soldiers who took part in the campaign in Palestine, and to the numerous tourists. In the years following the First World War, the printing of these albums gradually diminished as an industry, until it finally vanished entirely from both sight and memory.
Included in the collection:
• "Flowers and Views of the Holy Land, Souvenir of the British Occupation, 9th December 1917" – Albums published by "Edition Jsac Chagise" and printed by A. L. Monsohn, featuring a dozen lithographs depicting Mt. Zion, the Western Wall, Rachel's Tomb, and other sites in and around Jerusalem, as well as landscapes of Tiberias, Jaffa, Hebron, Jericho, and other cities. Opposite each of these lithographs, dried flowers, collected at the various sites, were arranged and mounted.
7 albums, approx. 13X8.5 cm., with identical lithographs and different flower arrangements, and 1 album approx. 16.5X10 cm in size. All in olivewood bindings; most carved with the Dome of the Rock. One binding with the Hebrew inscription "Bezalel Jerusalem" and an illustration of the Tower of David.
• "Flowers and Views of the Holy Land" – Album published by Emanuel Friedman & Co. Booksellers and Publishers, Jerusalem. A dozen color paintings and eleven dried flower arrangements. The Rising Sun emblem of the Australian armed forces appears on the back coverboard, with the caption "Australian Commonwealth Military Forces".
• "Album Souvenir Entrance of the British and Allied Troops in Jerusalem" – Three albums, with ten photographs commemorating the day of Jerusalem's conquest (General Watson entering through Jaffa Gate for the first time, General Allenby reading the "Jerusalem Declaration", and more), and nine dried flower arrangements. The albums have different bindings; two are made of olivewood.
• "Palestine by Word and Illustration", edited by Abraham Moses Luncz – Album with photographs depicting sites in Palestine, with information (in English) regarding those sites. The front cover bears the inscription "Souvenir of the Occupation of Jerusalem…".
• And more.
33 albums (including editions with different bindings and flower arrangements, but otherwise identical). Size and condition vary. Overall good-fair condition. Stains, tears, and other blemishes. Three incomplete albums.