Three Yiddish Booklets with Covers and Illustrations by Joseph Chaikov:

1. שול און לעבן [School and Life], journal of the "Union of Democratic Jewish Teachers". First year, issue no. 1. Kiev: "Kultur-lige", 1918. Yiddish. 80, [1] pages.

2. זילבער-האר [Silver Hair], poems by Menashe Halperin. Moscow: "Khaver", 1918. Yiddish. 20, 29-78 [2] pages. Pages 21-28 are missing.

3. קנאקניסל און מויזנקייסער [The Nutcracker and the Mouse King], a story in German by E.T.A. Hoffmann, translated into Yiddish by L. [Lipa] Reznik. Kiev: "Kultur-lige", 1922. Yiddish. 82, [1] pages.

Three booklets: 22.5-25.5 cm. Overall good to good-fair condition. Some pages have stains and wear, creases and tears, inscriptions and stamps.

Joseph Tchaikov (Иосиф Моисеевич Чайков; 1888-1979) – a Jewish sculptor, graphic designer, painter and theoretician, born in Kiev.

Tchaikov studied in Paris during the years 1910-1914 and participated in the Parisian Salon d'Automne exhibition in 1913. After World War I, he was one of the founders of Kultur Lige in Kiev, taught sculpture and illustrated books – mostly children's books – and in the years after the revolution, also designed propaganda banners and posters. In 1921, the Melukhe-farlag publishing house in Kiev published his treatise "Sculpture", which is considered the first Yiddish book on sculpture and focuses on avant-garde in sculpture and the place of sculpture in Jewish art.

During the years 1923-1930 he taught cubist sculpture inspired by Russian futurism in Moscow, at the Vkhutemas – Higher Art and Technical Studios (alongside Alexander Rodchenko and El Lissitzky) and was also appointed the head of the union of Russian sculptors.

During the next decades, Tchaikov continued to work in a variety of artistic styles and media, moving away from the style that characterized his early work. The booklets and books featured in this catalog, published between 1919 and 1923, all represent his part in Constructivism and the Russian avant-garde movement and document his early works of art as a cubo-futurist