Shtetl/ Mayn Horever Heym, a Gedekhenish (My Little Town/ My Destroyed Home. A Memory)
Berlin-Charlottenburg: Verlag "Schwellen", [1923]. First edition. Hardcover. Oblong folio (13 1/4 x 19 1/2"). [2], III-XXXI, [1] leaves. Rebound in 3/4 blue buckram, with the retained original illustrated dark blue velvet-covered boards laid down.
Ryback's powerful images were created as a memorial to the Jewish villages ("shtetlekh") - including his hometown - that were destroyed in pogroms in the aftermath of the disastrous WWI campaign and the Russian Civil War. They depict the peaceful daily life of a traditional Jewish shtetl before the upcoming destructions and massacres: a city street, the artisans (including a shoemaker, a tailor and a knife-sharpener), musicians, the market, the synagogue, a wedding, a funeral, the Jewish cemetery, the rabbi and the Hasidic rebbe. The images here show Cubist and Expressionist influences, and are in many instances reminiscent of the work of Marc Chagall, but are more solemn in tone overall.
The images measure 10 3/4 x 15", and are all dated 1917 in the stone. Of the 30 half-tone plates (Title + plates numbered from III-XXXI), four are printed in bistre, and the others in sepia or black.
This book is complete with its original list of plates inserted at rear. Title and captions in Yiddish.
Cover velvet lightly stained, smudged and rubbed, on the the front and back. Interior with sporadic minor smudges and/or stains to the margins. Images throughout clean and vibrant. Minor crease to the top corner of the book block. Rear free endpaper with some rippling. Binding in very good-, interior in very good condition overall. Binding protected in modern mylar. vg- to vg. Item #56080
Yiddish title:
Cover: שטעטל
Title Page: מיין חרובער היים : א געדעכעניש
Author: ריבאק, יששכר בער.
Price: $3,000.00