Le Livre d’Esther.

AUCTION 64 | Thursday, March 19th, 2015 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters, Ceremonial Objects, Maps and Graphic Art

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Lot 206

SZYK, ARTHUR.

Le Livre d’Esther.

<<One of 175 numbered copies>> in this state. Exquisite color plates, calligraphy and many historiated initials and head- and tail-pieces by Szyk. Text in Hebrew and French. With additional suite of plates in black-and-white at end of text. Finely bound in later full red calf with detailed blind-tooled covers, original printed wrappers bound in. Slipcase. Previous owner’s signature on opening blank. 4to.

Paris: H. Piazza (1926)

Est: $1,000 - $1,500

PRICE REALIZED $1,300

Arthur Szyk’s vibrant illustrations depict the story of Purim in an Assyrian context, consistent with contemporary Parisan art forms. J. P. Ansell notes that as with so many of Szyk’s works, Le Livre d’Esther is a “political statement on anti-Semitism: In the story, the beautiful Queen Esther saves her co-religionists from persecution by a government official; for Szyk and his contemporaries, the story was an allegorical commentary on the state of religious freedom in Poland.” See Arthur Szyk: Artist, Jew, Pole (2004) pp. 33-7; see also I. Ungar, Justice Illuminated: The Art of Arthur Szyk (1998) p. 74.