L'Ornement Hébreu. 2 Vols.
Berlin: S. Calvary & Co., 1920. First edition, text second edition. Loose leaf. Folio (Text); Tall Elephant Folio (1 + 26 plates). Original three-quarter ivory leather over tan boards with gilt lettering and decorative ruling on cover, gilt lettering on spine (text). Decorative endpapers. Original three-quarter light blue cloth over textured ivory color boards, with black lettering and gilt ruling on cover. Publisher's device on title page. Both protected by modern mylar. Contains two plates numbered VII with variant motifs. Copies of text from the 1905 pamphlet laid in.
An album of lithographs depicting ornaments from important Hebrew manuscripts from the Firkovich collection at the Imperial Library in St. Petersburg, now National Library of Russia. Compiled by Stassof and Gunzburg and printed by Expédition Impérial it is considered to be a major work on Jewish ornamentation, illustrated with twenty-five plates and an extraordinary title page, all rendered in chromolithography. Pamphlet containing Gunzburg's explanatory notes and descriptive list of plates bound into volume one.
The collection was assembled by Vladimir Stassof and contains ornaments from the Pentateuch with Genesis verses, the Masoretic text, the only fragments of the Hagiographa, etc., some of the finest examples of biblical illumination, including motifs from samples of the textile industry of North Africa and Egyptian architecture. The additional plates A, B, and C represent ornaments borrowed from the National Library in Paris, the British Museum, and C was engraved from a drawing adorning a Yemeni manuscript.
Some minor wear to covers of text volume. Library stamp and brief pencil notes on title page. Lightly age-toned, title page slightly more. Portfolio with some brown staining on ivory covered boards with few pointed discoloration on cloth. Back cover with water staining, mainly on ivory-covered boards, plus two and a half by half inch scuff on blue cloth and some additional minor flaws. Good- to near fine condition. Item #55768
Price: $12,500.00