MANUSCRIPT CIRCUMCISION RECORD-BOOK. Bound with Sefer Sod Hashem (Vienna, 1814)
AUCTION 17 |
Tuesday, November 12th,
2002 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts and Works of Graphic and Ceremonial Art From Various Owners
Lot 24
(AMERICAN JUDAICA).
MANUSCRIPT CIRCUMCISION RECORD-BOOK. Bound with Sefer Sod Hashem (Vienna, 1814)
New Orleans: 1836-1850
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
PRICE REALIZED $7,000
One of the Earliest American Circumcision-Book of the Jews of the South. An important genealogical record.
Contains registry of circumcisions performed in New Orleans, Louisiana; Mobile, Alabama; Columbia, South Carolina; New York and Philadelphia.
In addition to the Hebrew and family names of each child, the Mohel stated the age of the child at the time of circumcision, ranging from the traditional eight days to two hundred and one days.
Many of the Family-names recorded were among the most prominent of the South, including: Benjamin, Levine, Dalsheimer, De Jonge, Jefferson, Harris and Levy. The majority of entries relate to Jewish families of New Orleans. See B.W. Korn, The Early Jews of New Orleans (1969)
A similar manuscript initiated in the New York area a decade later (1846) was sold by Kestenbaum & Company, March 12th, 2002, Lot 21.