Auction 93 Part 1 - Manuscripts, Prints and Engravings, Objects and Facsimiles, from the Gross Family Collection, and Private Collections

Collection of Jewish Papercuts / Papercuts from the small Ukrainian Town of Uhniv, Early 20th Century

Opening: $400
Sold for: $1,125
Including buyer's premium

10 papercuts, Eastern Europe, two of them from the small
Ukrainian town of Uhniv, [ca. early 20th century; prior to WWII].
Collection of papercuts, all apparently belonging to the type known as “Shavuos’lach” or “Roizelach” – small papercuts typically glued onto windows as decorations for the Shavu’ot holiday. All these papercuts are made from white paper, and all but one bear neither inscriptions nor paint.
The papercuts feature many of the different themes that often characterized Jewish Eastern European papercuts, including pairs of lions, and deer, as well as roosters and other birds, such as the two–headed eagle; the biblical spies carrying the pole with the suspended cluster of grapes; and more. The handwritten inscription “Uhnow / Z Uchnowa” appears on two of the papercuts. Another papercut bears the Hebrew inscription “Chag HaShavu’ot” [“Holiday of Shavu’ot”] in the margin. Three of the papercuts are not mounted on paper. And one papercut is inscribed in pen with a quote (in Hebrew) based on the biblical verse “three branches of the candlestick out of the one side thereof” (Exodus 24:32 and 37:18), and also has decorations drawn in pencil.


Varying sizes, approx. 17X10.5 cm to 34X21 cm. Overall good condition.


See: Riza Frankel, “The Art of the Jewish Paper–Cut, ” Modan, Tel Aviv, 1996, Hebrew–English, pp. 120–23.

Provenance: private collection.

Calendars, Braodsides and Posters – Graphics and Prints
Calendars, Braodsides and Posters – Graphics and Prints