Sacred Splendor: Judaica from the Arthur and Gitel Marx Collection
Sacred Splendor: Judaica from the Arthur and Gitel Marx Collection
Auction Closed
November 20, 08:47 PM GMT
Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
SERVICE FOR THE TWO FIRST NIGHTS OF PASSOVER, TRANSLATED BY A. ALEXANDER, LONDON: L. ALEXANDER, 1806
27 folios, 24 pages, 8 copperplate engraving plates (10 5/8 x 8 1/8 in.; 271 x 210 mm) on paper, with 4 foldout maps depicting (1) the Land of Canaan, (2) the journeyings of the Children of Israel from Egypt through the Wilderness to Canaan, (3) the country from Sue[z] to Mount Sinai, and (4) the passage of the Red-Sea, by the Israelites. Staining and foxing; small tears episodically in outer edges; corners rounded; two maps repaired. Contemporary gilt-tooled calf, bumped, worn, and rebacked; title lettered in gilt on spine; contemporary marbled paper flyleaves and pastedowns.
A copy of one of the first “historical” Haggadot and the first Haggadah to feature maps of Jerusalem.
This Ashkenazic-rite Passover Haggadah is the fourth, corrected edition of Alexander Alexander’s pioneering English translation of the traditional Seder liturgy, which appeared originally in London in 1770. In addition to the text of the Haggadah itself, some of whose instructions are given in Yiddish (as are translations of the songs Addir hu, Ehad mi yodea, and Had gadya), the volume includes learned essays in English on the “employments of slaves in the East” and “the passage of the Red Sea,” as well as descriptions of Mount Sinai, the Tabernacle, the Land of Canaan, Jerusalem, and the Temple. These are illustrated via four foldout maps and several copperplate engravings, all of which help to bring the story of the exodus from Egypt to life. One of the previous owners of the present copy, Moses Woolf, may be identified with a resident of Plymouth, England, of that name who immigrated to Indianapolis in 1849 and became one of its first Jewish residents.
Provenance
“A Present from Mr. J. Joseph, of Plymouth to Moses Woolf.” (lettered in gilt on upper board)
Literature
Amir Cahanovitc, “Mappot be-haggadot pesah” (M.Ed. thesis, Achva Academic College, 2015), 125-141.
Jacob Piatt Dunn, Greater Indianapolis: The History, the Industries, the Institutions, and the People of a City of Homes, vol. 1 (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1910), 628.
Cecil Roth, “Ha-defus ha-ivri be-london: nissayon bibli’ogerafi,” Kiryat sefer 14,1-3 (1937): 97-104, 379-387, at p. 100 (no. 17).
Cecil Roth, “Ha-haggadah ha-metsuyyeret she-bi-defus,” Areshet 3 (1961): 7-30, at p. 26.
Vinograd, London 172
Douglas A. Wissing, IN Writing: Uncovering the Unexpected Hoosier State (Bloomington, IN: Quarry Books; Indianapolis, IN: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2016), 68.
Avraham Yaari, Bibli’ogerafyah shel haggadot pesah me-reshit ha-defus ve-ad ha-yom (Jerusalem: Bamberger & Wahrman, 1960), 31 (no. 345).
Isaac Yudlov, Otsar ha-haggadot: bibli’ogerafyah shel haggadot pesah me-reshit ha-defus ha-ivri ad shenat [5]720 (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1997), 42 (no. 498).
