Auction 58 - Rare and Important Items
Herzliya Gymnasium - Cast Relief - Gift Presented to the Philanthropist Jacob Moser of Bradford, 1919
Opening: $5,000
Sold for: $6,250
Including buyer's premium
Herzliya Gymnasium. [Place of casting unknown - possibly Palestine, 1919].
Cast bronze; engraved brass plaque; wood.
Massive and impressive bronze relief presenting the façade of the Herzliya Gymnasium building in Tel Aviv. As indicated by the dedication plaque, the relief was presented as a gift to the philanthropist Jacob Moser, who had donated funds for the building of the gymnasium: "A gift to Magistrate Mr. Jacob Moser of Bradford on his eightieth birthday, from the Jewish National Fund" [Hebrew].
The Shvedron Collection at the NLI contains a clipping from the journal "The Zionist Review" from 1919, showing a photograph of the philanthropist Jacob Moser holding the relief as he receives it. This photograph, of Moser holding the Gymnasium relief, also appears under the entry "Moser, Jacob" in the Jewish Encyclopedia.
The industrialist, magistrate and advocate Jacob Moser was born in 1893 in Kappeln, Germany, studied at Hamburg and Paris, and later moved to Bradford, England. Following the speech delivered by David Wolffsohn at the Eighth Zionist Congress in The Hague in 1907 regarding the founding of a splendid home for the first Hebrew gymnasium to be established in Tel Aviv, Moser announced he would donate 80 thousand francs for the building's construction, under one condition - that the institution be named after Theodor Herzl. Later, Moser took upon himself all of the expenses of the building's construction, from floor to ceiling, which came to a total of about 99,500 francs, and continued to do so in the following years, in donations reaching a total sum of about one million francs. Among other things, Moser was a member of the JNF board of directors, received honorary citizenship from his city of Bradford, served as the mayor of Bradford (elected in 1911), donated to the building of an old folks' home in his city, and donated major funds to the planting of Herzl Forest. Moser died in Bradford in 1922.
Relief: approx. 38X63 cm, wooden frame: 52X75 cm. Weight: 16 kg. Good overall condition. Some defects and scratches. Missing screws (?) to relief reverse. Breaks and defects to wooden frame, some glued.
Cast bronze; engraved brass plaque; wood.
Massive and impressive bronze relief presenting the façade of the Herzliya Gymnasium building in Tel Aviv. As indicated by the dedication plaque, the relief was presented as a gift to the philanthropist Jacob Moser, who had donated funds for the building of the gymnasium: "A gift to Magistrate Mr. Jacob Moser of Bradford on his eightieth birthday, from the Jewish National Fund" [Hebrew].
The Shvedron Collection at the NLI contains a clipping from the journal "The Zionist Review" from 1919, showing a photograph of the philanthropist Jacob Moser holding the relief as he receives it. This photograph, of Moser holding the Gymnasium relief, also appears under the entry "Moser, Jacob" in the Jewish Encyclopedia.
The industrialist, magistrate and advocate Jacob Moser was born in 1893 in Kappeln, Germany, studied at Hamburg and Paris, and later moved to Bradford, England. Following the speech delivered by David Wolffsohn at the Eighth Zionist Congress in The Hague in 1907 regarding the founding of a splendid home for the first Hebrew gymnasium to be established in Tel Aviv, Moser announced he would donate 80 thousand francs for the building's construction, under one condition - that the institution be named after Theodor Herzl. Later, Moser took upon himself all of the expenses of the building's construction, from floor to ceiling, which came to a total of about 99,500 francs, and continued to do so in the following years, in donations reaching a total sum of about one million francs. Among other things, Moser was a member of the JNF board of directors, received honorary citizenship from his city of Bradford, served as the mayor of Bradford (elected in 1911), donated to the building of an old folks' home in his city, and donated major funds to the planting of Herzl Forest. Moser died in Bradford in 1922.
Relief: approx. 38X63 cm, wooden frame: 52X75 cm. Weight: 16 kg. Good overall condition. Some defects and scratches. Missing screws (?) to relief reverse. Breaks and defects to wooden frame, some glued.