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F i n e J u d a i C a . printed booKs, manusCripts, autograph Letters, graphiC & CeremoniaL art K e s t e n b au m & C om pa n y thursday, september 22nd, 2016 K est e n bau m & C o m pa ny . Auctioneers of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Fine Art A Lot 132 Catalogue of F i n e J u d a i C a . FEATURING: Fine Art Formerly in the Collections of Lady Charlotte Louise Adela Evelina Rothschild Behrens (1873-1947) & The Late Edmund Traub, Prague-London A Singular Collection of Early Printed Books & Rabbinic Manuscripts Sold by Order of the Execution Office, District High Court, Tel Aviv (Part IV) Property of Bibliophile and Book-Seller The Late Yosef Goldman, Brooklyn, NY Important Soviet, German and Early Zionist Posters Ceremonial Judaica & Folk Art From a Private Collection, Mid-Atlantic Seaboard ——— To be Offered for Sale by Auction, Thursday, 22nd September, 2016 at 3:00 pm precisely ——— Viewing Beforehand: Sunday, 18th September - 12:00 pm - 6:00 pm Monday, 19th September - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Tuesday, 20th September - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Wednesday, 21st September - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm No Viewing on the Day of Sale This Sale may be referred to as: “Yevsektsiya” Sale Number Seventy Illustrated Catalogues: $38 (US) * $45 (Overseas) KESTENBAUM & COMPANY Auctioneers of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Fine Art . 242 West 30th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10001 • Tel: 212 366-1197 • Fax: 212 366-1368 E-mail: [email protected] • World Wide Web Site: www.Kestenbaum.net K est e n bau m & C o m pa ny . Chairman: Daniel E. Kestenbaum Operations Manager: Jackie S. Insel Client Relations: Sandra E. Rapoport, Esq. Printed Books & Manuscripts: Rabbi Eliezer Katzman Rabbi Dovid Kamenetsky (Consultant) Ceremonial & Graphic Art: Abigail H. Meyer Catalogue Art Director and Photographer: Anthony Leonardo Auctioneer: Mark O. Howald (NYCDCA License no: 1460490) For all inquiries relating to this sale please contact: Daniel E. Kestenbaum Order of Sale: Posters: Lots 1 - 27 Fine & Graphic Art: Lots 28 - 54 Ceremonial Objects: Lots 55 - 87 A Singular Collection: Rabbinic Manuscripts: Lots 88 - 118 Hebrew Printed Books: Lots 143 - 201 Other Properties: Manuscripts & Autograph Letters: Lots 119 - 142 Printed Books: Lots 202 - End of Sale Front Cover Illustration: See Lot 29 Back Cover Illustration: See Lot 5 List of prices realized will be posted on our website following the sale www.kestenbaum.net — T WENTIETH C ENTURY P OSTERS — Lot 1 Lot 2 1 (SOVIET UNION). “Vote for the Jewish People’s Party. Vote for Ballot-line 4 for Jewish Co-operation.” Text in Yiddish. Designed by Solomon Yudovin. Framed. 26 x 19 inches. (1917). $5000-7000 ❧ The Yiddishe Folks-Partei (Jewish People’s Party) was founded by the historian Simon Dubnow following the 1905 pogroms. During the period of the Alexander Kerensky-led Socialist coalition - prior to the Bolshevik seizure of power in November 1917, there was a free election in which Jews were able to vote for their own parties. Solomon Yudovin, unlike most other Russian-Jewish artists of that period such as Marc Chagall and El Lissitzky, did not embrace modernism but remained a figurative, realistic artist throughout his life. He likely created this poster while he lived in Vitebsk, a predominantly Jewish city that was an important center for the Russian avant-garde (viz. Justify Your Existence Catalogue). 2 (SOVIET UNION). “Unanimously Vote for the Jewish National List. Free Jews, in a Free Russia, Standing Firm and United, Can Build their Own National Life.” Text in Yiddish. Framed. 28.5 x 19 inches. (1917). $5000-7000 ❧ At center, Jewish man holding flag bearing Hebrew adage: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” (Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14). 1 Lot 3 3 (SOVIET UNION). “Only in Russia do Jews have the Right to Work the Land.” Yiddish text by Y. Slonim. Framed. 39 x 25 inches. Moscow, 1928. $5000-7000 ❧ Graphic poster with panels captioned in rhyme, depicting: The economic shortcomings of Jewish life before the rise of the Soviet Union, the sufferings of Jews in pogroms, the Soviet authorities deciding to give the Jews land to improve their situation (central oval), Jews being settled on farming colonies and calling upon all luft-mentschen (lit., air-people, those without a fixed occupation) to work the land “in the free air.” Issued by OZET - The All-Union Association for the Agricultural Settlement of Jewish Workers in the USSR (“Vsesoiuznoe Obshchestvo po Zemel’nomu Ustroistvu Trudiashchikhsia Evreev v SSSR.”). 2 Lot 4 4 (SOVIET UNION). “Remember The War… Be Vigilant.” Text in Yiddish. Detailed tally of loss of life and of treasure by many countries. Framed. 41.5 x 27.5 inches. c. 1939. $10,000-15,000 ❧ A highly scarce poster warning against further imperialistic military machinations, following the tremendous losses suffered by so many nations as a result of the First World War. Propagandizes against becoming victim of another war. Likely issued as a result of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet-German non-aggression agreement, signed in Moscow, 23rd August, 1939. 3 Lot 5 5 (SOVIET UNION). “Who is an Anti-Semite?” Text in Russian. Designed by Nikolai Denisovski. Framed. 38.5 x 26 inches to mat. c. 1927. $7000-9000 ❧ The poster associates anti-Semitism with pre-revolutionary elements, such as capitalists, the bourgeoisie and supporters of the Czar. In the split-image design, it then contrats the state of affairs in the past with the present opportunities for freedom that Jews can now experience under the new Communist regime. 4 6 (SOVIET UNION). “Such is How Life is by the Polish Ruling Class.” Text in Yiddish. Framed. 23 x 27 inches. Odessa, 1920. $2000-3000 ❧ As workers exit the factory, they pass the bourgeoisie idling their time in a cafe. An example of Soviet propaganda seeking to spread Communism into neighboring Poland, and in particular, influence its Jews. 7 (SOVIET UNION). Birobidzhan Lottery Ticket Lot 6 Advertisement. Text in Russian. Designed by Mikhail Dlugach. Matted. 20.5 x 30 inches. $5000-7000 ❧ Issued by OZET (1925-38) the Soviet organization that sought to improve the socio- economic status of disenfranchised Russian Jews by, resettling them from their traditional shtetls, and onto agricultural communes established on land provided by the State. The best known OZET- sponsored project was the creation of the Jewish Autonomous Region of Birobidzhan, located in the Russian Far East. At its height in the 1930’s, OZET membership had reached 300,000 members. In addition to membership dues, OZET relied on support from donations raised overseas, as well as funds raised through lotteries - held five times between 1928 and 1933. Overall, OZET sponsored the resettlement of 126,000 Jews to the new communes. Lot 7 8 (SOVIET UNION). “Religion Holds Back the Five Year Plan… Religion is a Tool to Enslave the Workers … Join the Organization of Militant Atheists (Apikorsim).” Yiddish text. Framed. 29.5 x 41 inches. Moscow, c. 1928. $4000-6000 ❧ The five-year plan was designed for the rapid economic development of the Soviet Union. Lot 8 5 9 (SOVIET UNION). “The 24 March 1940 - Vote for the Leadership of the USSR.” Text in Yiddish. With detailed instructions on how to cast a ballot. Framed. 36 x 24 inches. 1940. $2000-3000 10 (SOVIET UNION). “Literacy is the Road to Communism.” Text in Yiddish and Russian. Published by Gosizdat. Framed. 27 x 20 inches. Moscow, c. 1917-20. $3000-5000 ❧ In its early years, the Soviet regime conscripted thousands of teachers and organized extensive campaigns to combat illiteracy. This poster uses the classical symbol of the winged horse Pegasus as a distributor of knowledge. The text in the book reads: “Proletarians of all countries…” 11 (SOVIET UNION). (Movie poster). David Gorelik. Russian Text. Linen- backed. 38 x 28 inches. 1928. $3000-4000 ❧ Avant-garde poster for a SovFilm in which David Gorelik, a poor Jewish boy from the Shtetl is drafted into the Czar’s Imperial Army during the First World War. On the battlefield, David captures a German-Jewish soldier and together, they desert and join the Red Army. Lot 9 Lot 10 Lot 11 6 Lot 12 12 (SOVIET UNION). (Movie poster). Granitza [“The Border.”] Text in Russian. Framed. 25.5 x 37.5 inches to mat. 1935. $3000-4000 ❧ Film by Mikhail Dubson set in an impoverished Jewish village along the border of Soviet Russia and bourgeois Poland. The proximity to the Communist heartland being an incitement to class consciousness by the Jews. Unknown for decades, today this film is regarded as one of the best works of Jewish cinema made under the Soviet regime. 13 (SOVIET UNION). (Movie poster). Durch Treren [“Through Tears.”] Text in Russian and Yiddish. Framed. 31.5 x 43 inches. 1928. $2000-3000 ❧ This Ukrainian film was based on Sholem Aleichem’s theatrical novel “Wandering Stars” and depicts the Shtetl as an ideological landscape in a struggle for existence. However it was withdrawn from circulation for “idealizing the pathological decadent mood of the decaying bourgeoisie.” Lot 13 7 Lot 14 14 (HOLOCAUST). Kunstavond [“Art Evening.”] Text in Dutch. Designed by Samuel Levi Schwarz. Single word in Hebrew: “Save us.” Framed. 33.5 x 26 inches. Amsterdam, L.V. Leer & Co., 1933. $5000-7000 ❧ Promoting a benefit concert for German-Jewish refugees to be held at the Municipal Theater of Amsterdam, May 29th, 1933. See, A Mirror of Jewish Life: A Selection from The Moldovan Family Collection (Tel Aviv, 1999) no. 88. 8 Lot 15 15 (HOLOCAUST). Bonzen und Herrenklub mit dem Juden.