Micrographic Portrait of Sir Moses Montefiore. Comprising the Fifth Book of Moses (Sepher Devarim).

A scarce American tribute to Anglo-Jewish banker, philanthropist and social reformer Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1885) in honor of the 100th anniversary of his birthday October 24th, 1884 with the wish that “his name flourish forever!” Surrounding the large, central three-quarter portrait of an elderly Sir Moses are vignettes of Jerusalem, invoking his philanthropic activities in the land of Israel. Also features portraits of four leaders with whom Sir Moses encountered in his dealings on behalf of Jews: Queen Victoria of England; Czar Nicholas I of Russia; the Sultan of Morocco; and Abdul Medji, Sultan of the Turkish Empire. At base is a Hebrew poem composed by Kolbe. The artist, Joseph Kolbe, was born in 1807 in Poland and was in New York by 1877. An 1889 advertisement identifies him as an artist of Judaica on New York’s Lower East Side, Additionally, he published research on the First and Second Temples. He died in Jerusalem in 1920. See Goldman, Hebrew Printing in America, p. 514. For another of Kolbe’s artistic works “The Russo-Turkish War,” see Jewish Museum Catalogue, The Jewish Heritage in American Folk Art (1984) no. 52.