Auction 94 Rare & Excellent Hebrew Printed Books: From the Library of Arthur A. Marx
By Kestenbaum & Company
Jun 17, 2021
The Brooklyn Navy Yard, 141 Flushing Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11205, United States

Post-Auction Report: Sale 94, June 17, 2021


    Kestenbaum & Company was privileged to again offer an auction comprising of premier Hebrew printed books. As it comprised of an especially remarkable single-owner collection of Hebrew printed books, this sale garnered high levels of interest and activity from hundreds of participants and spectators.

 Interest was spread across all categories of the literary categories on offer.


    In Biblical works, the beloved First Edition commentary to the Pentateuch, Kli Yakar, brought in $6,000 (Lot 140), beating its initial estimate of $3,000-4,000. A Zhitomir edition of Psalms garnered $7,500 (Lot 460) and the Vilna Gaon’s commentary to Mishlei fetched $7,500 (Lot 119). Midrashic works fared just as well, with a First Edition Mechilta realizing $12,000 (Lot 349) and a Second Edition Sifra- Torath Kohanim accomplishing $5,500 against an estimate of $1,000-$1,500 (Lot 353).


    Medieval Pietistic compositions proved exceedingly popular in this sale. The First Edition of Rabbeinu Yonah’s Sha’arei Teshuvah was hammered in at $40,000 (Lot 168) while the First Edition of Sepher HaChassidim achieved $16,000, against its estimate of $4,000-6,000 (Lot 226). The First Edition of Orchoth Tzaddikim sold for $6,500 (Lot 386) and two copies of Chovoth HaLevavoth both sold for more than twice their estimates (Lot 42 and Lot 43) testifying to the notable interest in this field.


    Liturgical works also fared well. An immaculate Basle prayerbook dating to 1579 brought in $50,000 (Lot 261) and a miniature set of Festival Prayers printed in Jerusalem fetched $11,000 (Lot 306). Perhaps the most impressive lot in the sale, the First Edition incunable of Abudarham, printed in Lisbon, 1489, was hammered in at $90,000 (Lot 7). Finally, a Selichoth printed at Slavita garnered $9,500- nine times more than its original estimate of $1,000-1,500 (Lot 301).


    Competitive bidding was also seen for classic Halakhic texts. The Bomberg Edition of Alfasi’s Rif- Sepher Halachoth sold for $34,000 (Lot 14) while Maimonides’ Mishnah Torah, printed with Joseph Karo’s Keseph Mishnah for the first time, achieved $15,000 (Lot 373). The First Editions of Israel Isserlein’s Terumath Hadeshen and Pesakim U’Kethavim brought in $5,500 (Lot 213). The First Edition of Solomon Luria’s Yam Shel Shlomo to Bava Kama garnered $3,400 (Lot 328) and Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller’s Ma’adnei Yom-Tov fetched $3,600 (Lot 194).


    In Kabbalah, the First Edition of the Zohar accomplished $20,000- five times its initial estimate (Lot 414). Likewise, the First Edition of Moses Cordovero’s Tomer Devorah realized $12,000 (Lot 101) and the esoteric Megaleh Amukoth was hammered in at $9,500 (Lot 425).


    More broadly focused works of Jewish Philosophy saw the First Edition of Shnei Luchot Haberith achieve $10,000 (Lot 195). The entirety of the Maharal of Prague’s First Edition works were snatched up (Lots 317-324), while RaMBaN’s Torat Ha’Adam brought in $13,000 (Lot 374). Both major historiographical texts in this sale were also accounted for- Moses Zacuto’s Sepher Yuchasin was sold for $32,000 (Lot 474) and Joseph Cohen’s Divrei Hayamim garnered $20,000 (Lot 475).


    We look forward to our next sale of Fine Judaica, which will take place in late July 2021. For further information, or any other queries, please contact us at 212-366-1197 or Info@Kestenbaum.net.


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LOT 219:

JAFFE, MORDECHAI.
Levush Ohr Yekaroth [commentary to Chumash].
* Levush Adar HaYakar [commentary to ...

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Start price:
$ 30,000
Estimated price :
$30,000 - $40,000
Buyer's Premium: 25%
sales tax: 8.875% On the full lot's price and commission
tags:

JAFFE, MORDECHAI.
Levush Ohr Yekaroth [commentary to Chumash].



* Levush Adar HaYakar [commentary to the Laws of Sanctification of the New Month]. * Biurei Yafeh [commentary to “Tzurath Eretz” by Avraham b’r Hiya]. * Levush Pinath Yekarith [additional commentary to Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed]. FIRST EDITION. Four parts in one volume. Various owner’s marks and early marginal notations (extensive in places), including signatures of R. Yair Chaim Bacharach, and R. Shmuel ben Naphtali Hertz. Title within woodcut architectural border. Three divisional titles. Numerous woodcut astrological diagrams.
ff. (2), 189, 30, 30, 5. Lightly foxed, few neat marginal repairs, outer margin of f.18 worn. Modern calf. Folio. Vinograd, Lublin 53 (recording only the first part); Mehlman 829.
Lublin: Kalonymus ben Mordechai Jaffe 1594


Two signatures on a singularly important work that collectively spans the Ashkenazic experience over three centuries. The author, R. Mordechai Jaffe (c. 1535-1612) a native of Prague, studied in his youth in Poland under the greatest Rabbinic scholars of the day: R. Solomon Luria (Maharsha”l) and R. Moses Isserles (RaM”A). In subsequent years, he would sojourn in Italy and once again in Poland before finally returning to his native Prague in 1592, at which time he succeeded the famed R. Judah Loew (Mahara”l) as Av Beth Din. The first signatory, R. Yair Chaim Bacharach (1638-1702), was an outstanding Worms-based rabbinic scholar known for his systematic approach to Talmudic literature and Halacha based on his exhaustive knowledge of all branches of Jewish scholarship and the sciences. The second signatory, R. Shmuel ben Naphtali Hertz was the Av Beth Din of Warka, Poland. A colleague of R. Akiva Eiger, he studied Chassidism under the Maggid of Kozhnitz and the Chozeh of Lublin. This work comprises the last three “Atires” (Levushim), for a total of ten, which comprise R. Mordechai Jaffe’s monumental Levush Malchuth, including commentaries on classic meta-halachic works. As a whole, “the Levush Malchuth is thus not only a code of law which sums up the Halachic scholarship of the day, but rather an entire summa of rabbinic Judaism both halachic and non-halachic.” See L. Kaplan, Jewish Thought in the Sixteenth Century (1983) p. 274.

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