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Fine Judaica t K ESTENBAUM FINE JUDAICA . & C PRINTED BOOKS, MANUSCRIPTS, GRAPHIC & CEREMONIAL ART OMPANY F INE J UDAICA : P RINTED B OOKS , M ANUSCRIPTS , G RAPHIC & C & EREMONIAL A RT • T HURSDAY , N OVEMBER 12 TH , 2020 K ESTENBAUM & C OMPANY THURSDAY, NOV EMBER 12TH 2020 K ESTENBAUM & C OMPANY . Auctioneers of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Fine Art Lot 115 Catalogue of FINE JUDAICA . Printed Books, Manuscripts, Graphic & Ceremonial Art Featuring Distinguished Chassidic & Rabbinic Autograph Letters ❧ Significant Americana from the Collection of a Gentleman, including Colonial-era Manuscripts ❧ To be Offered for Sale by Auction, Thursday, 12th November, 2020 at 1:00 pm precisely This auction will be conducted only via online bidding through Bidspirit or Live Auctioneers, and by pre-arranged telephone or absentee bids. See our website to register (mandatory). Exhibition is by Appointment ONLY. This Sale may be referred to as: “Shinov” Sale Number Ninety-One . KESTENBAUM & COMPANY The Brooklyn Navy Yard Building 77, Suite 1108 141 Flushing Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11205 Tel: 212 366-1197 • Fax: 212 366-1368 www.Kestenbaum.net K ESTENBAUM & C OMPANY . Chairman: Daniel E. Kestenbaum Operations Manager: Zushye L.J. Kestenbaum Client Relations: Sandra E. Rapoport, Esq. Judaica & Hebraica: Rabbi Eliezer Katzman Shimon Steinmetz (consultant) Fine Musical Instruments (Specialist): David Bonsey Israel Office: Massye H. Kestenbaum ❧ Order of Sale Manuscripts: Lot 1-17 Autograph Letters: Lot 18 - 112 American-Judaica: Lot 113 - 143 Printed Books: Lot 144 - 194 Graphic Art: Lot 195-210 Ceremonial Objects: Lot 211 - End of Sale Front Cover Illustration: See Lot 96 Back Cover Illustration: See Lot 4 List of prices realized will be posted on our website following the sale www.kestenbaum.net — M ANUSCRIPTS — 1 (BIBLE). Cesare Barzi. Decisiones almae Rotae Bononiensis. First edition. ff. (52), 418, (1). Venice, Damianum Zenarium, 1603. BINDING INCORPORATING A 15TH-CENTURY HEBREW BIBLE FRAGMENT. Folio. 1603. $500 - $700 ❧ The vellum binding is a Masoretic manuscript (note the masorah gedolah that is visible on the bottom), and the text on the side of the attached image is the Book of Kings I, chap. 8. The other side is from the Book of Chronicles II, Chap. 2:1-13. Both leaves appear to be in the same hand. 2 (CHEVRA KADISHA). Derech Eitz HaChaim [regulations and procedures for a Burial Society]. Hebrew manuscript written (mostly) by Yisroel Fa'sh (the town rabbi?) in square and cursive calligraphic Aschkenazic hands on paper. pp. 45. Stained and worn from use. Contemporary boards, loose, lacking spine. 4to. Kiskőrös (Korosch), Hungary, 7th Adar, 1825. $1200 - $1800 ❧ Written in a fine Hebrew prose, this manuscript is interspersed with prayers and recitals for the dying, along with original poetry. The manuscript commences with a prayer for the raising of a gravestone; then by an original double acrostic poem forming the names Yisrael and Korisch, bearing the title Mizkereth Ahavah ("A Memento of Love"); following which is a Yiddish introduction; a well organized Table of Contents; and 18 Burial Society regulations. The introduction is most sensitive, containing such sentiments as "May every person proceed in peace and rest with tranquility." The regulations (takanot) range from protocols for visiting the sick, the method for ablution for a body, to how to appropriately treat the bereaved during shiva. Kiskőrös, a town situated in Hungary's wine region, had a Jewish community numbering 400 in 1900. For details see https://www.jewishgen.org/ yizkor/pinkas_hungary/hun506.html. Aside from its aesthetic elegance, this manuscript offers an impressive look at the workings and aspirations of an important communal institution in an otherwise unremarkable Jewish community two centuries ago. - For even amidst obscurity, treasure is found. 1 3 CHAGALL, MARC. Group of eleven Autograph Letters Signed by Marc Chagall, all written in Yiddish to David Giladi. All with corresponding autographed envelopes. * WITH: One typed letter in French to Giladi from Mrs. Chagall. ALSO: An invitation to an exhibition, inscribed by Chagall; ACCOMPANIED BY: Sibir (Siberia). Poetry by Abraham Sutzkever. Illustrated by Marc Chagall. Jerusalem, 1952. WARMLY INSCRIBED ON TITLE PAGE, BY BOTH AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR. ALL SEVEN TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS SIGNED BY CHAGALL IN BLUE INK. Further details concerning these letters available upon request. Vence, 1970's. $2000 - $3000 ❧ A moving collection of letters by Chagall in which tension is clearly discerned between the artist's universalist tendencies, his deep and abiding Jewish ethos, and his fervent love for the youthful State of Israel. David Giladi (1908-2009) was one of the founders of Israel's Ma'ariv daily newspaper and editor of its literary magazine. He later served as Israel's ambassador to Hungary. The title page of this book of poems bears warm inscriptions from both Sutzkever and Chagall, with whom Giladi maintained an ongoing correspondence throughout the 1970s. Giladi's biography of Chagall appeared the year following the artist's death in 1985. 2 4 (GERMANY). Sepher Takanoth of the Chevra Kadishah of Bamberg. Hebrew manuscript written in square and cursive calligraphic Ashkenazic hands. Principally prepared by Moshe Glick. Title-page very finely composed in pen-and-ink by Abraham ben Joel Schmanz in Bamberg (see below). Attached: German notes describing the manuscript by the historian Dr. Adolf Abraham Eckstein (1857 -1935) who served as rabbi in Bamberg from 1888-1926. ff. 25. Few light stains. Contemporary boards, rubbed. 4to. Bamberg, 1778-91. $7000 - $10,000 ❧ This Pinkas records the statutes of the Bamberg Burial Society. The regulations ensured decorum and close bonds among members. For example, the first regulation states that gentlemen must gather each Sabbath and Festival day one hour before Mincha to study Torah: Pirkei Avoth in the summer, and in winter, the Haftarah with commentary. Includes notations and signature of Landesrabbiner Juda Katz (1770-1788) and resolutions to make certain changes, confirmed and signed by Landesrabbiner Löb Berlin (1789-1794). On an individually attached sheet are the minutes containing a decision to employ a teacher to give daily shiur. At the end, some notes (Gedachts-Chronik) of a former book owner. The BEAUTIFULLY EXECUTED TITLE PAGE features a large crown adorning an oval with the title and subtitle of the Pinkas, with a young man and a lion alongside. Below are animals at pasture with a Hebrew motto allusive of Jeremiah 50:17 "A reward for assembling/ the scattered sheep, gathering." See A.A. Eckstein, Geschichte der Juden im ehemaligen Fürstbistum Bamberg, bearbeitet auf Grund von Archivalien, nebst urkundlichen Beilagen (Bamberg, 1898) pp. 95-97; and his article in Monatsschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums (1924) pp. 307-16. The title page of this manuscript was reproduced in the Bayerische Israelitische Gemeindezeitung (1928) p. 163. See also R. Hanemann (Ed.) Jüdisches in Bamberg: Schriften der Museen der Stadt Bamberg 51. (Petersberg: Imhof, 2013). Rabbi Adolf Abraham Eckstein was a representative of liberal Reform Judaism in Germany. As an historian he wrote numerous monographs and essays on the history of the Jews in Franconia (see https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Adolf_Eckstein). There had been a Jewish presence in Bamberg since the Middle Ages, with alternating phases of settlement and persecution (First Crusade (1096), Rintfleisch massacre (1298), pogroms after the Black Death (1348), various mob attacks (between the 14th and 17th century). In 1633, the Jewish community in Bamberg numbered ten families, whose right of residence was recognized in 1644. The Jewish community in Bamberg numbered about 1,270 in 1880 (4.3% of the total population). The city of Bamberg is renowned for a medieval cathedral whose chief ceremonial entryway (Fürstenportal) shows a lavish group of sculptures representing the Last Judgment. Flanking this ensemble are monumental sculpted female personifications of the Church (Ecclesia) and Synagogue (Synagoga). 3 5 (GERMANY). Fürth Memorbuch. A Yizkor - Memorial Volume, 1650-1828. Hebrew Manuscript written ON VELLUM in square and cursive calligraphic in various Ashkenazic hands. WITH SEVERAL HUNDRED ENTRIES OF NAMES. pp. 152. Lightly stained in places. Later calf retaining earlier covers, rubbed. 4to. Fürth, 1650-1828. $30,000 - $50,000 ❧ This wonderful manuscript is the Memorbuch used by the community of Fürth on Sabbaths and Festivals when the Yizkor memorial service was recited. IT IS RIPE WITH GENEALOGICAL, ONOMASTIC, AND HISTORICAL INFORMATION OF GENERATIONS OF JEWS FROM THIS BAVARIAN CITY AND ITS SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES. The volume begins with the prayers following the reading of the Torah and then provides a list of names of Ashkenazic sages and communal leaders from centuries past. The second entry is for Rabbeinu Gershom Me'or HaGolah of the 11th century, the fourth is for Rashi ("for he enlightened the eyes of those in the exile with his commentaries"), and the fifth, his grandsons the Tosafists Rabbeinu Tam and Rashba'm. Earliest is a prayer for Rabbi Shlomo and Madam Rachel, "for they acquired the cemetery of Mayence, toiled for the communities, and annulled [unfavorable] decrees." 4 Following this are hundreds of entries for rabbis, communal leaders, philanthropists, scholars, men and women of high standing and renown in Fürth. These entries are written in a variety of handsome hands over a period of nearly two centuries. Many of the entries
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