Auction 91 Part 1 Jewish and Israeli History, Culture and Art
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1. The Tomb of Absalom. Signed in the plate: Bonfils.
2. Photograph of the Jerusalem train station. Signed in the plate: Bonfils (presumably Adrien Bonfils); numbered and captioned in the plate (in French).
3. The Mount of Olives. Unsigned and undated.
Three photographs, approx. 21.5X28.5 cm (photograph no. 2 smaller). Condition varies. Some stains, creases and blemishes. Photograph of the Mount of Olives slightly faded, with traces of adhesive to verso. Photograph of the Tomb of Absalom mounted on card.
1-5. Five sets of stereographic photographs, three of them with accompanying books, offering a "guided tour" of the Holy Land.
Three sets published by Underwood & Underwood (some 300 stereographs; New York, London and elsewhere; late 19th century and early 20th century) and a set published by T. W. Ingersoll (100 color stereographs; USA, 1904). All four sets are presumably complete. Original cases.
6. Wooden folding tabletop stereoscope, E & H. T. Anthony & Co., New York.
Length: 48 cm. Width: 25 cm. Maximal height: 48 cm.
Condition varies. Stereoscope missing two latches and magnifying lens.
Approx. 8.5X17.5 cm. Condition varies.
Most of the slides depict the Jewish hospital in Safed and the English Mission Hospital in Jerusalem – patients, doctors and nurses; the various rooms; the pharmacies; and more. Several slides depict views of Palestine – The Dome of the Rock, the Mar Saba Monastery, a school in Safed, an armed guard at an orange orchard, and more.
Few slides hand-colored.
Publishers include: E. G. Wood, Newton & co., J.W.B., T. Mason.
Approx. 8X8 cm. Condition varies. Cracks and breaks to some slides. Slides placed in a wooden box.
The slides depict Jerusalem as seen from the Mount of Olives, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Mar Saba Monastery, the Dead Sea, local residents in traditional attire, and more. Most of the slides are captiones. Some were published by American Colony.
Approx. 8X8 cm. Condition varies. Cracks and breaks to some slides. Slides placed in a wooden box.
Photographs of the Western Wall, the Tower of David, the Dome of the Rock, Mount of Olives, Bedouin tent encampment, Jaffa as seen from the sea, and more. Captioned and numbered in the plate; three captions indicate the location of the Lehnert & Landrock studio – Tunis (the photographic studio run by Rudolf Franz Lehnert and Ernst Heinrich Landrock was active in Tunis until WWI; following the war, it moved to Cairo).
12 photographs, approx. 12.5X16.5 cm. Good condition. Abrasions and blemishes to edges. Creases. Open tear to corner of one photograph. Stains.
Provenance: Estate of Nehemia Bedarshi.
Group photograph of Menachem Ussishkin, Eliezever Ben Yehuda, David Yellin, Aaron Aaronsohn, Yechiel Michel Pines, and other members of the Eretz Israel Assembly. Captioned and dated in the plate (Hebrew).
Mounted on thin card, with an inked stamp of the Haifa-based photographer Joseph Rosio. Inscribed on verso to "Dr. Veis" of Zichron Yaakov.
The Eretz Israel Assembly ("HaKenessiya HaEretzYisraelit") was the first attempt to establish a Jewish parliament in Palestine. The organization was founded by Menachem Ussishkin in 1903, as opposition to Theodore Herzl and the Zionist Congress. However, it did not gain recognition, and was dissolved two years after its establishment.
Photograph: approx. 23.5X17.5 cm (mount: 33X27 cm). Good condition. Minor blemishes. Card mount slightly stained. Marginal tears to mount (one tear mended with adhesive tape); loss to upper left corner.
Provenance: The Rimon Family Collection.
Four photographs taken during the inauguration ceremony of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In two photographs, a speaker is seen at the podium (apparently, Chaim Weizmann). Two photographs are ink-stamped on verso by photographer Zadok Bassan.
Approx. 17X11.5 cm. Good condition. Minor creases. Minor tears and blemishes to edges. Stain to verso.
Enclosed is a photograph of a different, unrecognized, assembly (printed on a postcard).
Provenance: Estate of Nechemia Bedarshi.
Album containing 25 photographs by the photographer Abraham Soskin of the Hovevei Zion (Yechiely) Girls School in Neve Tzedek (Jaffa), and its activities. [1910s or 1920s].
The photographs in this depict the Hovevei Zion Girls School – the interior and exterior of the building, and the school's activities – and attest to the richness, diversity, and progressiveness of the school's curriculum. Included among the photographs: Façade of the school building, showing the (Hebrew) sign "Municipal School for Girls – the Hovevei Zion Institute"; the schoolyard; classes in sewing and embroidery; art class; nature studies; French class; music class; choir; gym class with juggling clubs; painting class; and the nurse's room and teaching staff room.
The photographs are fastened at the corners to the album pages. A handwritten inscription in Hebrew appears on the first page: "A. Soskin – Photographer, Jaffa, Palestine."
Several of the photographs appearing here are documented in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art exhibition catalogue: Guy Raz, editor and curator, "Abraham Soskin – A Retrospective: Photographs, 1905–1945," 2003, pp. 121-35. One of the photographs in the above catalogue which also appears in the present album was identified by Raz as representing the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium.
Album: approx. 28X21 cm (thick cardboard leaves). Photographs: Size varies, approx. 17X13 cm. Overall good condition. Foxing, mostly to album leaves. Minor blemishes. Several photographs partly detached from album leaves. Remnants of adhesive tape on several leaves. Hardcover binding with leather spine and corners. Stains and blemishes to binding. Minor peeling and abrasions to edges of binding boards and spine.
The Municipal School for Girls was founded in Jaffa, in the 1890s, on the initiative of three prominent members of the Bnei Moshe Zionist association (a chapter of the Hovevei Zion organization), Joshua Barzilai (Eisenstadt), Yehuda Gur (Grozovski), and Dr. Hillel Yaffe. For the purpose of establishing the school, the three men joined forces with the Alliance Israélite Universelle. With the sponsorship and financial support of the AIU, as well as the Diaspora branches of the Hovevei Zion organization and various other donors, they established a school for "Hebrew education in the Hebrew spirit." The language of instruction was Hebrew; at the time this was considered a revolutionary innovation. (For Hannah Ram's characterization of the school's struggle to promote and maintain an agenda that was both Zionistic and progressive, please refer to the Hebrew text.)
The school's founders found themselves waging an ongoing battle against the Alliance Israélite Universelle, with the latter insisting that the language of instruction be French. But thanks to the steadfast determination of the school principal, Rosa (Shoshana) Yaffe, Hebrew remained the primary language of instruction. In 1909, the school moved to its new building in the Neve Tzedek neighborhood on the outskirts of Old Jaffa, and it is this incarnation of the Hovevei Zion Girls School that is documented in Abraham Soskin's photographs. This building is preserved today as part of the complex of the renowned Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance and Theatre.
The photographer Abraham Soskin (1881-1963) was born in Russia and immigrated to Palestine in 1905. He settled in Jaffa's German Colony, where he opened a photographic studio named "Fotografia Progress". In 1914, Soskin took up residence with his family in a new studio in Tel Aviv. This studio, known as "Fotografia A. Soskin, " was in active use for 19 years, finally closing in 1933. Soskin was often referred to as "the Photographer of Tel Aviv". He is considered to be among the most important of the photographers of the era of the early Jewish Yishuv in Palestine, renowned first and foremost for his photographs that document the first two decades in the annals of Tel Aviv, the world's first "Hebrew City."
The portfolio comprises 70 photogravures of photographs by Shlomo Narinsky, out of a series of 118 photos published in 1921 under the same name by the Jamal Brothers. Introduction by Tim Gidal. Copy no. 101 out of 220. [Israel; ca, 1980].
Photos include: portrait of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda; portrait of Sarah Aaronsohn; Jewish and Arab figures; Jerusalem and the holy places; cities, important sites and views in Palestine.
Shlomo Narinsky (1885-1960), native of Russia, studied photography in Berlin and immigrated to Palestine in 1905. Settling in Jerusalem, he worked as a photographer and opened his own studio. In WWI he left to Egypt, returning afterwards to Palestine, which he later left again for France. In 1940 he and his wife were arrested and held in concentration camps until 1940, when they were exchanged for a German POW and returned to Palestine. Narinsky passed away in 1960.
Photogravures: approx. 14X9 cm; on 28X22 cm mounts, with tissue guards. Matching box. Good condition.
The photographs depict: soldiers of the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers in Bir Salem; a tent camp next to the fortress of Antipatris (Ras al-Ayn); soldiers boxing; reception for Colonel Eliezer Margolin, Commander of the 39th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, in Ben Shemen (photograph printed on postcard); and more.
Ten photographs are dated and captioned by hand on verso, in English (probably by a soldier in the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, stationed in Bir Salem in 1919).
Size and condition vary. Notations on verso.
Enclosed: Official postcard issued by the Palestine Office of the World Zionist Organization in 1914: "due to the present political situation, we are not able to provide any information…" (printed form; not filled-in).
Provenance: The Rimon Family Collection.
Photographs from various places in Palestine depicting routine work and training: • Photographs of formations. • A group photograph beside an armored vehicle. • A photograph of Tegart's wall worker camp in the north in 1938. The photograph depicts David Hacohen, one of the leaders of the Yishuv and a "Solel Boneh" executive. • A photograph of two ghaffirs (watchmen) in a guard tower. • Photograph of two officers of the Palestine Police Force, captioned on verso in handwriting: "Sheindler, in charge of police force" [possibly, one of the officers is Max Sheindler, of the Palestine Police Force Jewish department]. • And more.
Five of the photographs were taken by Zvi Orushkes (Oron) and are stamped on verso with the stamp of his studio in Jerusalem. Several of the photographs are stamped on verso with stamps of "Studio Alexander", "Photo Teva" and "Photo studio … N. Ben-Noam" (all in Hebrew).
Size and condition vary. Overall good condition. Stains, tears and blemishes to some of the photographs.
Provenance: The Rimon Family Collection.