| Kestenbaum & Company’s
sale of Fine Judaica on January 27th offered an extensive selection
of Early Printed & Hebrew Illustrated Books, Manuscripts and
Works of Graphic Art including Photography and Posters.
A handsome first edition of the celebrated prayer-book
Sha’ar Hashamayim with a Kabbalistic commentary by the Holy
SheLa”H, Amsterdam, 1717 was the top lot in the Printed Books
Section selling for $17,250 against estimate of $10,000-15,000.
Other good sellers were a first edition of Samuel ben Isaac Aripol’s
Sar Shalom (commentary to Shir Hashirim), Safed, 1579 that realized
$12,650 and a rare pamphlet of American Judaica, Constitutions
and By-Laws of the Beneficial Hebrew Society of the City of Philadelphia,
1844 that was bought for $8,338, far surpassing its estimate of
$2,000-3,000.
Of particular note in the Illustrated Books Section was Bernard
Picart’s Historie Generale de Ceremonies, Moeurs, et Coutumes
Religieuses de tous les Peuples du Monde, Amsterdam, 1733-46,
which included an invaluable pictorial record of Jewish life in
18th century Holland. This striking 10-volume set sold for $8,050.
In the Manuscripts Section, former Israel Prime Minister Menachem
Begin’s “The Revolt”, a typewritten early draft
of his autobiography with Begin’s comprehensive corrections,
which was offered with a correspondence to the publisher, found
favor with buyers, garnering $7,475. An autographed letter by Theodor
Herzl realized $2,760 and an 18th-19th century manuscript by R.
Ephraim Zalman Margolioth & Others dealing with Halacha and
Ethics brought in $6,038 against an estimate of $800-1,200.
Making an impression on buyers in the Graphic Arts section was the
catalogue cover lot, Alphonse Levy’s colored stone lithograph,
Exposition d’Oeuvres d’Alphonse Levy, Paris,
1897 which made $3,450, two portraits of Shalom-Aleichem, the famed
Yiddish author and humorist which brought in $1,495 against an estimate
of $400-600, and a silver gelatin print by Berenice Abbott, The
Jewish card-player which realized $2,875.
^Back to Top
|
