Two books with covers illustrated by the artist Joseph Chaikov (or Tchaikov, 1888-1979) – Kiev-born Jewish sculptor, graphic artist, painter, educator, and theoretician.
1. In Shṭurem fun Geshikhṭe: Aroysgerisene Bleṭlakh fun Tog-Bukh, 1914-1921 [In the Storm of History, Pages Torn from a Diary, 1914-21], by David Koigen. Translated from German by Zelig Kalmanovitch. Berlin: Yidisher Liṭerarisher Farlag, 1923. Yiddish. Cover design: Joseph Chaikov.
Excerpts from the personal diary of David Koigen, providing eyewitness accounts of historical events in Eastern Europe in the years 1914-21, including the outbreak of World War I, the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War, the pogroms targeting Ukrainian Jewry, and the author's personal story of his escape from the Soviet Union following the conquest of Ukraine. The front cover features an illustration by Joseph Chaikov.
247, [1] pp., 18.5 cm. Good condition. Few stains to book block. Stains to cover. Minor tears to cover, professionally restored.
2. Bereshis Aleph [Genesis I] (no additional parts published). Moscow-Leningrad, 1926. Berlin: Gutenberg Press. "Title Page Illustration by Joseph Chaikov. Publisher's Logo by B. Schubin."
Literary anthology including works by Isaac Babel, Yocheved Bat-Miriam, Gershon Hanowitz, and others. Front page illustration by Joseph Chaikov.
The contributing authors were unable to find a printing press in the Soviet Union willing to publish a Hebrew book, and the manuscript was therefore sent to Berlin for printing. Of the copies printed, only a handful were legally allowed to be brought into the Soviet Union.
[1], 199, [5] pp., 23 cm. Good condition. Stains. Minor tears and creases to edges of cover. Inked stamps. Pen inscriptions to several pages. Original cover, partly detached.
Provenance: The Uzi Agassi Collection.