Pencil of Rebbe Rayatz – With Letter of Authenticity Signed by His Daughter Rebbetzin Chanah Gurary

Pencil of Rebbe Rayatz – With Letter of Authenticity Signed by His Daughter Rebbetzin Chanah Gurary

Pencil of Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the Rayatz of Lubavitch.
Mechanical pen, gold-filled (engraved: Carter's 1/20 Gold filled pat), presumably United States, late 1920s.
Letter of authenticity enclosed (handwritten note, in English), signed in Hebrew by Rebbetzin Chanah Gurary (1899-1991), eldest daughter of Rebbe Rayatz: "I hereby gift… a gold pencil used by my father". Dated – 12th September 1989.

Letters of the Rayatz
It is difficult to find in Jewish history a Torah leader who wrote as many letters as the Rayatz. During the course of his life, the Rayatz wrote over a hundred thousand letters (an average of three thousand letters a year for the thirty years he served as rebbe – 1920-1950, and thousands of other letters in the twenty-two years prior to his appointment, during the period he ran the various branches of the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva, serving as right hand of his father the Rashab), most of which were never published. Some were printed in the series Igrot Kodesh of the Rayatz. Many of the letters deal in communal matters, the establishment and management of various Chabad institutions, while many others are private, and contain guidance, blessings and advice. The present pencil was used by Rebbe Rayatz for writing his many letters.
]The pencil was presumably purchased during the visit of Rebbe Rayatz to the United States in 1929-1930, and the Rayatz used it during the 1930s – while in Latvia and Poland (for a similar pencil used by the Rayatz in the 1930s, see Kedem Online Auction 32, item 6; and see picture of the Rebbe during his stay in Boston, Sivan 1930, where the Rayatz is seen writing with a pencil very similar in shape and style to the present pencil – enclosed picture)].

Approx. 10 cm. Good condition. Minor defects.