Bidspirit auction | (MICROGRAPHY). LEVI DAVID VAN GELDER.

(MICROGRAPHY). LEVI DAVID VAN GELDER. “Our Creator, Our Former, Almighty Redeemer…” LARGE SINGLE SHEET LITHOGRAPH. Dense English calligraphic text, headers HIGHLIGHTED IN GILT. Featuring texts and micro-texts in striking decorative patterns extracted from Psalms, the Jewish liturgy, Ethics of the Fathers, Midrash and Talmud. Illustrated with numerous Biblical scenes as well as Masonic imagery. (Detailed information listing the scores of historiated scenes that appear in this engraving, is available upon request). Expert paper restoration. 36 x 46 inches. (New York), c., 1865. EXTRAORDINARY ARTISTIC WORK BY A JEWISH ARTIST IN AMERICA. Dutch-Jewish artist Levi David van Gelder (1816-78) was born in Amsterdam where he worked as a printer and lithographer. In 1864 Van Gelder and his family immigrated to the United States, where he continued to create elaborate panels of ornamental penwork. His distinctive style combined with dense micrographic text resulted in at least four differing large-scale panels, all utilizing Dutch as the dominant language. THE PRESENT EXAMPLE IS THE FIRST VAN GELDER PRODUCED THAT INCORPORATED THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. A fully hand-colored version of this particular lithograph was sold by Kestenbaum & Company (see K Sale 57, lot 310). For another example produced by van Gelder presently in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society (AAS), see https://www.americanantiquarian.org/judaic-resources. See also Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam, acc. no. M013071.