Kestenbaum & Company, Auctioneers of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Fine Art

March 28, 2000

Fine Judaica: Books, Manuscripts and Works of Art
The Property of Various Owners Including:
The Solicitor General, Republic of Kiribati

On the 28th of March 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 a 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 sale also boasted a large and extensive collection of Ceremonial and Graphic Art.

Highlights of the sale included:

• A incunabula edition of the Arbah Turim, an important collection of Jewish law codified by Jacob ben Asher of Toledo, printed by the Soncino family in Spain in 1490, sold for $80,000.
• A 20th-century limited edition Hagadah designed by Arthur Szyk and edited by Cecil Roth, featuring 12 full page illustrations and 34 pages with smaller graphic, estimated to sell between $8,000 and $10,000 fetched $19,550.
• Ten anti-Semitic posters issued by the German Military Administration in Serbia during World War II sold for $17,250.
• “Exile,” an expressionist portrayal of Jewish wandering painted by Bezalel School of Art instructor Adolph Behrmann in 1905, brought in $26,450.
• A 15th-century Latin edition of a book of astronomy written by the Sephardic biblical commentator Abraham Ibn Ezra, estimated to sell between $10,000 and $12,000, fetched $21,850.
• An important 19th century Alsatian
  charity box made of bronze , featuring an outstretched hand requesting coins, sold for $12,650.

(Note: all prices include buyers premium)

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