Chamishah Chumshei Torah

AUCTION 1 | Thursday, November 14th, 1996 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Books, Manuscripts and Works of Art

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Lot 69

(BIBLE, Hebrew. PENTATEUCH).

Chamishah Chumshei Torah

ONE OF 850 COPIES on Van Gelder hand-laid paper. Woodcut decorative title page in blue, brown and black, initial word of each of the Five Books surrounded by arabesques and printed in brown and black, few lines and words printed in red. Subscriber’s prospectus laid in Original linen boards lettered in red, folio

Berlin: Officina Serpentis for the Soncino Gesellschaft 1931-33

Est: $500 - $700

PRICE REALIZED $800

The most ambitious undertaking of the Soncino Gesellschaft der Freunde des juedischen Buches. The Bible was printed with a new typeface designed by Marcus Behmer and styled on the Prague Hagadah of Gershom Kohen. “It ranks among the most beautiful Hebrew books ever printed.” See A.J. Karp, Library of Congress Catalogue pp. 31-34 (illustrated); L. Avrin, The Art of the Hebrew Book in the Twentieth Century, in: New York Public Library Catalogue, A Sign and a Witness (1988) p.135 (illustrated). The intended completion of the entire Bible was aborted due to the rise of Nazism