Auction 7 · June 22, 1999

Fine Judaica: Books, Manuscripts and Works of Art The Property of Various Owners

Read the sale report

Fine Judaica: Books, Manuscripts and Works of Art
The Property of Various Owners including:
The Late Bernard & Francis Lustig Collection of Judaica
The Property of H.E. Prince Nicolai Callimachi of Moldavia
A Large Collection of Hagadoth — The Property of a Gentleman

“A mammoth sale and a mammoth success” was how one illustrious bidder described the most recent, highly anticipated auction of Kestenbaum & Co which took place on June 22.

Over 250 people filled the auction room at the Doral Park Avenue Hotel in New York City, and close to 100 phone and order bidders participated in what was, to date, Kestenbaum & Company’s largest and most extensive sale. 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 prestigious volumes new to the market. The sale also boasted an impressive collection of ceremonial and graphic art.

The collection of items comprised the property of a number of owners including the Late Bernard and Frances Lustig Collection of Hebrew Books and Judaica with its 200 volumes of rare Hebrew printed books, select North African manuscripts and wonderful assortment of Jewish ceremonial objects. Also on offer was an extensive collection of Hagadoth spanning four centuries of Hebrew printing, featuring the first American Hagadah, published in New York, 1837, as well as a number of other fascinating firsts.

Highlights of the sale included:

A large cast bronze, eighteenth century Hannukah lamp which sold for $8000.
A silver hanging Sabbath lamp from Venice 1800, which sold for $10,000.
A Hebrew prayer book, in fine Italian binding, ca 1770, from the collection of HE Prince Nicolai Callimachi of Moldovia, estimated to sell for $6000 - $9000 which sold for $27,000.
A signed and titled painting of Saul Raskin “Hassidic Song Without Words” which sold for $2000.
A collection of etchings an lithographs all signed and dated by the artist Herman Struck sold for $850.
A single volume of the exceedingly rare vellum issue of the Plantion Polyglot, printed on personal commission of King Phillip II of Spain, which sold for $27,000.
The infamous papal bill of Clement VIII, 1593, beginning with the significant phrase Caeca et Obdurata (‘Blind & Obdurate’) sold for $10,000.
A first Bomberg edition of one volume of the Mishna, Venice, 1522, estimated to sell for $1,200 - $1,800 sold for $4,250.
A book of Kabbalistic sermons to the Pentateuch , 1605, the first and to date only Hebrew book printed in Damascus sold for $23,000.
A rich, enthralling and historic archive relating to the first and subseqent Zionist Congresses estimated to sell for $12,000 - $18,000 fetched $23,000.

Lots in this auction

On four ball feet, a rectangular box with lock; hinged lid. with gadrooned edge. Overall engraved with foliate pattern; lid engraved “Rabbi Moses Isaac Spektor.” Marked inside lid. H: 90mm. Lacking key.

SILVER ETHROG CONTAINER. Eley, Fearn and Chewner, London, 1810.

On four cast foliate feet, rectangular box with rounded corners and domed lid; overall engraved checkerboard pattern; beaded rows at lower and upper edges of box; shield engraved on lid; pushbotton closure. Marked on base. H: 90mm. Some wear of gilding.

IVORY ETHROG CONTAINER. Probably Palestine, before 1948.

Cast oval box on four cast feet, foliate motifs; lid bears raised image of Ethrog with appropriate Biblical verse; gilt interior. Marked: Sterling; Maker: I.B.D. H: 156mm.

Cast fruit form oval box on three cast feet, with appropriate Biblical quotation, and depiction of fruit at top. Marked “Sterling.” W: 165mm.. Biblical inscription relating to Sukkot. “Sterling”

Rectanguar box on four ball feet, with fruit and floral embossing and engraving on sides, and Sukkoth scene embossed on lid; with lock, gilt interior. Marked on back. H: 112mm. Lock presently inoperable

BRONZE SYNAGOGUE HANUKKAH LAMP Poland, 19th century.

LARGE CAST BRONZE SYNAGOGUE HANUKKAH LAMP Germany or Poland, probably 18th century.

BRASS HANUKKAH LAMP WITH SABBATH CANDLEHOLDERS Probably Poland, late19th - early 20th century.

FINE BRONZE HANUKKAH LAMP Probably Dutch, 18th century.

SILVER HANUKKAH LAMP Probably Germany, 19th century, with later elements

SILVERPLATE HANUKKAH LAMP. Norblin Silversmiths, Warsaw, Poland, 19th - 20th century.

TWO SILVER HANUKKAH LAMPS A: Berlin, 19th century. * B: Continental, 19th - 20th century.

COPPER HANUKKAH LAMP Continental, 20th century.

SILVER HANUKKAH LAMP Western Europe, 20th century.

PEWTER HANUKKAH LAMP Probably Germany, 19th century.

TWO SILVER HANUKKAH LAMPS A: Continental, 20th century. * B: American, 20th century

Back wall depicts lyre at center, topped by trefoil; two different side pieces, the one on the left topped by a candleholder with bobeche; no servant light. H: 155mm.

Domed lobed weighted base supports two curved branches, each rising to central foliate element and terminating in four small tubular candleholders. Servant light fits into tube above base. Marked on base. H: 198mm.

SILVER HANUKKAH LAMP Austria (made for export), ca. 1925

Bench type; stepped rectangular base on four swirled feet;

Brass, bench type, scalloped outline, engraved wtih flowers, pierced with hole for hanging at top; cast oil row; servant light slides into slot at top right. H:193mm. Engraving worn; oil row probably not original.

BRASS HANUKKAH LAMP New York, 1926 - 1941.

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