Portraits of the Gaon of Vilna and R. Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor Rabbi of Kovno - color lithograph. [Germany, early 20th century].
The portraits are set in two medallions surrounded by vegetal ornaments, menorot, a Star of David, lions and crowns, with captions stating their names and other details.
52X39 cm. Good-fair condition. Creases, minor damage. Marginal abrasions and tears. Stamp. Mounted on paper.

Mizrach poster in color lithograph. Published by Samuel W. [Wolf] Pascheles, bookseller in Prague. Prague: Ignaz Fuchs, [last quarter of 19th century, ca. 1870s-1890s]. Hebrew and German.
Elaborate Mizrach poster, printed in bright colors and gold ink. The center is occupied by the Ark of the Covenant depicted beneath snow-covered mountains, and the Western Wall. Moshe and Aharon are portrayed on the sides, together with the symbols of the twelve tribes and various verses in Hebrew and German.
55.5X38 cm. Very good condition. Some stains.

East wall of the great synagogue in Kisvárda (Kleinwardein), Hungary, 1901.
Watercolor on canvas, mounted on paper. Signed and dated. Legend (in Hungarian) on the card backing the drawing.
The drawing presents the east wall of the Kisvárda great synagogue, with an elaborate Torah ark surmounted by a stained glass rose window.
The Jewish community of Kisvárda, a town in north-east Hungary, was documented already in the 1730s. The community was large in relation to the town, and flourished from a financial viewpoint. Its members were merchants, industrialists and farmers; the community managed numerous institutions, including a bank and a Jewish hospital. Prior to WWII, the Jews made up about a third of the town's population. The magnificent and large synagogue, whose east wall is depicted in this drawing, and which still stands today, was built in 1901. The building was designed by Ferenc Szabolcsi (Grósz). The rose window on the east wall of the structure, which serves nowadays as a museum, is slightly different from the one depicted in the drawing. Most of the Kisvárda Jewish community perished in the Holocaust.
34X23 cm. Mounted on 41.5X29 cm card. Good condition. Stains.

Torah scroll on gevil. [Morocco or Algiers, second half of 19th century].
Ink on brown gevil, using the method of tanning widespread in North Africa. Neat Sephardic script, characteristic of Morocco or Algiers. Vavei HaAmudim scroll, corresponding with a Tikkun Sofrim published in the second half of the 19th century. Engraved and carved rollers characteristic of Moroccan communities, decorated with Stars of David (presumably from the 20th century).
Height of membranes: approx. 54 cm. Height of rollers: 100 cm. Fair condition. Stains. Tears and wear. Many repairs on added pieces of parchment.
Expert report enclosed.

Mehudar Esther scroll on parchment, 11 lines, large letters and exceptionally wide margins. [Jerusalem, late 19th century].
Ink on parchment. Particularly neat Ashkenazic Beit Yosef Stam script. Large script (height of letters: approx. 7-12 mm). 11 lines per column. 47 columns. Exceptionally wide margins - upper margin approx. 5 cm and lower margin approx. 7.5 cm.
The handwriting was identified by Stam experts as that of the famous Sofer of Vilkomir, R. Yekutiel HaSofer, a leading and skilled Sofer in Jerusalem in the times of the Maharil Diskin and R. Shmuel Salant. In 1883, R. Shmuel Salant ordered a Torah scroll from R. Yekutiel HaSofer, and they drew up a contract between them for an exceptionally mehudar scroll, scribed to the highest standards of perfection.
The script of R. Yekutiel HaSofer of Vilkomir stands out for its beauty and precision, and for the special nuances in the form of the letters. The form of the letters scribed by the Sofer of Vilkomir became a model for others, and served also as proof in halachic studies of the laws of the shapes of the letters and the Masoret of Stam script.
The ink in which the scroll was written did not fade over time; the letters remained in all their beauty, in strong black color. This is typical of the Stam products of the Sofer of Vilkomir and of his colleague R. Netanel Sofer of Jerusalem, who both used special ink they produced themselves.
R. Yekutiel David son of R. Eliyahu Sofer - The Sofer of Vilkomir (d. Tammuz 1901, buried on the Mount of Olives), immigrated to Jerusalem, ca. 1880. The Sofer of Vilkomir and his younger colleague R. Netanel Sofer Tefillinski are considered the progenitors of the Jerusalemite Stam tradition (see Hebrew sidebar).
Height of parchment: 27-27.5 cm. Good condition. Stains and creases. Mounted on a wooden roller. Height of roller: 37 cm.
Expert report enclosed.