Important Judaica

Important Judaica

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 28. A RARE COLLECTION OF VINTAGE JUDAICA WINE AND ALCOHOL LABELS, [EUROPE, LAND OF ISRAEL, NORTH AFRICA, AND NORTH AMERICA: LATE 19TH-20TH CENTURIES].

A RARE COLLECTION OF VINTAGE JUDAICA WINE AND ALCOHOL LABELS, [EUROPE, LAND OF ISRAEL, NORTH AFRICA, AND NORTH AMERICA: LATE 19TH-20TH CENTURIES]

Auction Closed

June 5, 04:47 PM GMT

Estimate

5,000 - 7,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

A RARE COLLECTION OF VINTAGE JUDAICA WINE AND ALCOHOL LABELS, [EUROPE, LAND OF ISRAEL, NORTH AFRICA, AND NORTH AMERICA: LATE 19TH-20TH CENTURIES]


84 labels and 1 pamphlet (ranging in size from 2 3/8 x 3 1/8 in. to 6 x 8 7/8 in.; 60 x 79 mm to 152 x 225 mm) on paper; text in English, Hebrew, German, French, Yiddish, and Polish in Latin and Hebrew scripts; printed in bright colors and featuring a variety of motifs, including clusters of grapes, menorahs, Stars of David, and vineyards or wine cellars; a couple with additional stamps. Most in good condition, some with signs of wear, fold lines, stains, and small tears or holes. Housed in an entirely handmade cedar green SAFE brand (“Favorit Skai”) 14-ring album with a gold trim strip on the front; almost every label (except four) in its own plastic sleeve; the album in a matching green slip case, slightly scuffed.

A rare testament to the Jewish oenophilic tradition.


Jews have been involved in the alcohol trade – as farmers, fermenters, merchants, or tavern keepers – since antiquity. The present lot comprises labels for a range of wines (vermouth, brandy, port, cognac, sherry, etc.) and spirits (arak, slivovitz, whiskey) manufactured under Jewish auspices in such diverse places as Hara Seghira (Djerba, Tunisia); Essaouira (Morocco); Gromnik, Liuboml, and Oświęcim (Poland); and various locations in the United States and the Land of Israel. The latter became an especially significant center of Jewish wine production with the advent of the Zionist movement in the late nineteenth century and the sponsorship of benefactors like Sir Moses Montefiore and Baron Edmond de Rothschild, the second of whom helped found the cellars at Rishon le-Zion and Zikhron Ya‘akov that would eventually form the backbone of the Carmel Wine Company and Carmel Oriental. Indeed, an accompanying Carmel Oriental pamphlet from the late 1920s was meant to promote the high quality of these wines, which “have found a market in all countries of the world.” Other brands represented here – some printed with kosher certifications – include Adloyada, Carmei Dov, Eliadah, Gan-Eden, Ganeles-Lenger, Hadar-Hakarmel, Har Hazeisim, Hersh’s, Le Pegase, Margulis, Mazel, Mitzi, Shor, and Star Wine.


Literature

Ever ha-Dani, Toledot aguddat ha-koremim (Rishon le-Zion: Société coopérative vigneronne des grandes caves Richon le-Zion & Zicron-Jacob Ltd, 1966).


Marni Davis, Jews and Booze: Becoming American in the Age of Prohibition (New York: New York University Press, 2012).


Glenn Dynner, Yankel’s Tavern: Jews, Liquor, and Life in the Kingdom of Poland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).


Adam Montefiore, “Ta‘asiyyat ha-yayin ha-yisre’elit,” in Eliezer Sacks (ed.), Shevil ha-yayin: tiyyul be-yikvei yisra’el (Tel Aviv: Kordinatah, 2007), 10-13.