June 27, 2000

FINE JUDAICA: Printed Books,
Manuscripts and Works of Art

The Property of Various Owners
Including:
Selections from a Private Collection in The Delaware River Valley
The Final Offering from a Distinguished European Collection of Hebrew Printed Books
The Late Herman Winter Library of Responsa Literature
A Private Collector of Significant Hebrew Manuscripts

On the 27th of June the Auction Room at the Doral Park Avenue Hotel in New York City was filled to capacity whilst numerous phone and order bidders joined in participating in the most recent highly anticipated sale. Most every important figure in the close-knit segment of the rare book market was involved as noted figures from private, academic, museum and library collections around the world vied to outbid each other for the prestigious volumes new to the market.

The collection of items comprised the property of a number of owners including; the Halacha and Responsa Library of the Late Herman Winter, scholar, teacher and passionate collector of Classical Halachah and Responsa Literature. A highly important private collection of Hebrew Manuscripts by Rabbi Akiva Eger (1761-1837) of Posen and his son-in-law Rabbi Moses Sofer (1762-1839) of Pressburg (The “Chatham Sofer”). Selections from a Private Collection in The Delaware River Valley and the final offering from a Distinguished European Collection of Hebrew Printed Books.

88% of the lots offered sold; the highest sale rate of our Judaica sales to date.

Highlights of the sale:
(Note: all prices include buyers premium)

• The 1695 Amsterdam Hagadah, the first Hagadah illustrated with copperplate engravings complete with a fine folding engraved Hebrew map of the Holy Land indicating the travels in the Wilderness and the division of the Land among the Tribes of Israel, estimated to sell between $5,000 and $7,000; fetched $19,550, an astounding world record price.
• Four 16th Century first edition works by Judah Loewe, the famous MaHaRa”L of Prague (creator of the legendary Golem of Prague), bound in one volume with an attractive contemporary blind-tooled vellum binding, estimated to sell between $2,000 and $4,000; fetched $21,850 — more than ten times the estimated price.
• A 20th-century limited edition Hagadah designed by Arthur Szyk and edited by Cecil Roth, featuring 12 full page illustrations, sold for $17,250. The second copy sold by Kestenbaum & Company for more than $15,000, in less than six months.
• An early 16th Century first edition of the Spanish rabbi, philosopher and preacher, Isaac Arama’s Akeidath Yitzchak; a fundamental work of Jewish homiletics, sold for $29,900.
• A rare copy of astronomer Eliezer Beilin’s manual for calculations of intercalation and the Jewish calender, Sepher Ivronoth, complete with all the volvelles fully assembled in their original state and in fine condition, sold for $4,600.
• An autograph letter of great historical importance written and signed in Hebrew, by Rabbi Akiva Eger 1761-1837) of Posen to the Community of Warsaw concerning secular education and the synthesis of Torah study with vocational training, complete with manuscript envelope bearing a wax seal of Akiva b. Moshe Günz of Eisenstadt, sold for $18,400.
• An autograph letter in Hebrew, written and signed Akiva b. R. Moshe Günz to Rabbi Eliezer Fleckeles of Prague containing halachic notes and comments to Fleckeles’ work of responsa, Teshuvah Me’ahavah, sold for $14,950.

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