Collection of "Shana Tovah" Cards by Zionist Organizations, Institutions and Persons of Note – 1930s-1940s

Collection of "Shana Tovah" Cards by Zionist Organizations, Institutions and Persons of Note – 1930s-1940s

Some 50 "shana tovah" cards sent by Zionist and other organizations, societies and institutions and by prominent persons. Palestine and elsewhere, ca. 1930s-1940s.
The collection comprises cards issued for and sent by organizations such as The Colonies' Popular Sick Fund, Yesud Hamaala town committee, Zichron Yaakov town committee, the Tel Aviv Women's Charity Society, Popular Hebrew Women's Association, Hapoel Motorcycle Riders' League, Palestine General Watchmen Association, the Education Fund by the Agudat Israel Youth Central Committee in Lithuania, Keren HaYesod and others; businesses such as the Lifschitz Hotel, Safed, HaGalil Press, Safed, and the Shemen oil factory; persons such as Abraham Moses Luncz, Heinrich Loewe and Rabbi Shmuel Binyamin Sonenfeld; and so on.
Including an improvised greeting card by the Shamir Brothers, consisting of a photograph of the emblem of the State of Israel, designed by them, with greetings inscribed on verso.
Size and condition vary. A number of original envelopes enclosed.
Provenance: The Dr. Haim Grossman collection.

Dr. Chaim Grossman's Israeliana collection is exceptional in size, quality and variety. Grossman, an educator, historian and folklorist, was a methodical, knowledgeable and meticulous collector, and his deep understanding of Palestinian-Yishuv and Israeli material culture set the ground for a one-of-a-kind collection of mundane and less than mundane objects – from the ephemeral, the negligible, the widely available to the rare and singular.
The "shana tovah" collection left by Grossman – a considerable part of which is offered in the present auction – comprises thousands of postcards, cards, letters and other paper items made and sent year after year in, by and for Jewish communities: in Eastern and Western Europe, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, North Africa, North and South America, as part of the tradition of sending hand-written, hand-drawn or printed new year’s greetings, which originated in German Jewry but with the rise of postcards spread to most communities. The earliest items in the collection date to the 1860s; the latest were made in the late 20th century. It includes both beautifully designed, rare, early and singular postcards and cards, and mass-made, highly popular items sold in large quantities, in varying production quality and in dozens of repeating versions, each according to the technical abilities achieved by the local publication industry.
The collector's devotion to his collection is evident in the sheer number of items, in the wealth of techniques, visuals and themes, and in the thorough, intersectional categorization by period, origin, motif, technique and material. Glitter and relief embossing, scraps, lace and golden ink, lithography and celluloid transparencies, plastic, textile and metal decorations; Yiddish, Hebrew, English, Russian, French, Polish, German greetings; children, angels, families, pets, immigrants, travelers, professionals; portraits and tinted reproductions; Judaism, Zionism, the state, the army; the ritual and the mundane; any new year's greeting, in any form whatsoever, had a place in Grossman's collection and was honored as a historical testimony, as a timeless, invaluable treasure.