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Sacred Splendor: Judaica from the Arthur and Gitel Marx Collection

New York | 20 November
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The Judaica collection of Arthur and Gitel Marx began as one of Judaica silver and paintings and gradually expanded to Hebrew Books and Manuscripts. Their choices were guided by a search for quality and the countries of origin were secondary to the uniqueness and rarity of the item. For Mr. and Mrs. Marx, the book collection not only connected them to their earliest education but added knowledge and a deeper understanding of the heritage that meant so much to them. Hand in hand with collecting silver and books, the couple collected paintings by the greatest masters of Jewish Art, including Isidor Kaufmann and Edouard Brandon. Click ahead for a closer look at the breadth of the Arthur and Gitel Marx Collection and some of its most important objects which come to auction on 20 November in New York.

Past Auction
Sacred Splendor: Judaica from the Arthur and Gitel Marx Collection
20 November 2019 | 10:00 AM EST | New York

Sacred Splendor: Judaica from the Arthur and Gitel Marx Collection

  • Isidor Kaufmann, The Son of the Miracle-Working Rabbi of Belz. Estimate $550,000–750,000.
    This magnificent painting of the young son of the Belzer Rebbe has become an icon of the work of Isidor Kaufmann, who is justly considered the greatest Jewish painter of the 19th Century. As much as he is beloved for his portraits of elderly Jewish sages, which exude dignity and stature, so too is he revered for his ability to portray young children, upon whose shoulders rest the hopes and dreams of their parents and the entire Jewish community. This particular child is one of the youngest ever portrayed by Kaufmann, and his innocence and radiance are without parallel. The uniqueness of this work is also emphasized by the fact that the artist titled the painting in his own hand in the upper left: Sohn der Wunderrabbi von Belz.
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  • A Rare and Large German Parcel-Gilt Silver Hevra Kadisha Beaker, Martin Breuer, Augsburg, 1711-15. Estimate $100,000–150,000.
    The Jewish community in Darmstadt, in Hesse, was granted permission to assemble for prayers in 1695. A cemetery was established in 1709 and a synagogue erected in 1737. The community numbered 200 in 1771 (Encyclopedia Judaica). According to the Marx family, there were originally four of these cups and three were purchased by the dealer Pappenheim for the Frankfurt Museum before the Second World War.
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  • Meshal Ha-Kadmoni (Fables), Isaac Ibn Sahula, [Venice]: Meir Ben Jacob Parenzo, [Ca. 1546-1547]. Estimate $35,000–50,000.
    Meshal ha-kadmoni, by Rabbi Isaac Ibn Sahula (b. 1244), is an illustrated collection of moral fables and animal stories in rhymed prose interspersed with verse. Ibn Sahula, a scholar, physician, and kabbalist, writes that his material is original but based on the Talmud and midrashim and that in style he has followed the example of the prophets who presented moral lessons in allegorical form. In composing this work, one of his goals was to demonstrate that Hebrew was as suitable a vehicle for conveying ethical teachings as Arabic. The stories themselves betray both kabbalistic and Indian influence. Eighty woodcut illustrations (some of them repeats) grace the leaves of this book, with an average of one or two captioned images per folio. Though modeled on the program of illustration of the incunable editions (Brescia, ca. 1491; Italy, ca. 1497), the present imprint, issued by Meir ben Jacob Parenzo, features an entirely new series of woodcuts providing greater detail and artistic sophistication.
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  • A Rare German Silver Synagogue-Form Charity Box, Maker's Mark BM Possibly for Berthold Muller, Frankfurt, Signed Heun Fec., circa 1907. Estimate $20,000–30,000.
    The scene of the synagogue is a reduced version of Reinhold Heun’s large plaque struck to mark the completion of the new additions to the synagogue by the firm of Jurgensen and Bachman of Charlottenburg. The building was formally dedicated 29 August 1907. This plaque was described in the American Journal of Numismatics, vol. 42-43, p.76, 1908. The author notes “its artistic treatment, unusually high relief and its excellent workmanship.” Impressions were struck in silver and bronze and put on sale at Leo Hamburger, Scheffelstrasse 24, Frankfurt.
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  • Ilya Schor, Hassidic Figures, “Dig, Dance, And Daven”. Estimate $20,000–30,000.
    According to the previous owner, this work was executed for close friends of the artist whose coat-of-arms were "Dig, Dance and Daven." This motto reflected their love of gardening, dancing and prayer and is the subject of the central panel. The border is comprised of cut-out flowers, birds and dancing Hassidic men. Additionally, there are roundels throughout the border depicting synagogue scenes, dancers, musicians and gardeners. The delicately rendered cut-out is made more brilliant by the underlying gold background.
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  • An American Silver Kiddush Cup, Ilya Schor, New York, circa 1960. Estimate$10,000–15,000.
    The body of the cup engraved with the first stanza of Kol Me Kaddesh Shevii, the stem with a verse from the Book of Esther for Havdalah, Chap. 8, Verse 16, and the foot engraved with the blessing over wine.
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  • An Exquisitely Decorated Early English Translation of The Siddur (Daily Prayer Book) According to the Sephardic Rite, [London: Ca. 1730-1750]. Estimate $200,000–300,000.
    This siddur is a remarkable document that tells a rich and complex tale of linguistic assimilation, religious devotion, and communal censorship. Together with two other codices held by the John Rylands Library in Manchester and the London Metropolitan Archives, it forms a small family of manuscripts rendering the principal daily, Sabbath, New Moon, and festival prayers into English. Its beautiful decorative program, excellent state of preservation, and historical significance as an early witness to the “Englishing” of British Jewry make it a valuable resource for understanding the religious life of English Sephardim as they sought to negotiate the perennial struggle between tradition and modernity in a rapidly-changing society.
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  • Isidor Kaufmann, Portrait of a Rabbi. Estimate $200,000–300,000.
    With his slightly parted lips and direct gaze, the sitter seems about to speak. Wisdom and solemnity are exemplified in his delicately rendered face and in his direct gaze. He embodies the nobility of the elderly Jewish sage, devoted to the Torah and a Jewish way of life that was fast disappearing from the villages of Eastern Europe and Russia to which Kaufmann travelled each summer in the early 1900s.
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  • Minhogim (Yiddish Custumal), Simeon Ha-Levi Günzburg, Amsterdam: Elijah Aboab [and Menasseh Ben Israel], 1645. Estimate $70,000–100,000.
    The present Minhogim is the very first illustrated book printed in Hebrew characters to appear in the Northern Netherlands. The twenty-six large and twelve small images used here are modeled on those of the Venice edition of 1593, newly cut with bold, sharp features. Some scholars have suggested that these illustrations were intended to help instruct young children who were not yet literate, or were just beginning to learn to read, in the performance of Jewish rituals. With time, the figures became emblematic of Ashkenazic folklore and practice and would reappear in dozens of editions of Minhogim, Passover Haggadot, and other titles, particularly (although not exclusively) those in which Yiddish text was a prominent component. The present copy of this handsome work is distinguished not only by its beautiful condition but by its having once belonged to the library of Karl Philipp Theodor (1724-1799), eventual Elector of Bavaria, as evidenced by the gilt coats of arms on the upper and lower boards.
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  • An Israeli Silver Standing Esther Scroll Case, with an Esther Scroll Hand Written on Parchment, the Silver by Yaacov Yemini, Jerusalem, circa 2000. Estimate $25,000–35,000.
    An Israeli silver standing Esther scroll case, with an Esther scroll hand written on parchment, the silver by Yaacov Yemini, Jerusalem, circa 2000, of cylindrical form, etched with grapevine and applied with a disc of six concentric menorahs about a bas relief of scene for the story of Esther, applied with borders of filigree roundels, set with cabochon jewels, detached cover in the form of an open crown set with turquoises between filigree fleur de lys, fitted with boldly handwritten parchment scroll by the scribe Rabbi Holzberg.
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  • The Occident and American Jewish Advocate, Philadelphia: Isaac Leeser, 1843-1869. Estimate $100,000–200,000.
    Isaac Leeser's greatest legacy to those who study American Jewish history is undoubtedly The Occident and American Jewish Advocate, the periodical of which he was the founder, editor, a frequent contributor, and occasional typesetter. The Occident, which ran from 1843-1869, was the first successful Jewish serial periodical in America, and helped mold American Jewry into a culturally independent group with a communal consciousness. It is, arguably, the single most important historical record of Jewish life in the Western Hemisphere in the mid-nineteenth century. As editor of The Occident, Leeser was able to give voice to his belief in, and defense of, observant Judaism and fiercely resisted many proposed changes to traditional Jewish rituals. Leeser's editorials also document his many public battles to defend religious freedom—such as his effort to revoke Sunday closing laws and his resistance to widespread missionizing activity. Finally, through the agency of The Occident, Leeser sought to accomplish in print what he never succeeded in doing in practice: to bring together in one common forum the many American Jewish communities that were otherwise divided—by either geography or ideology.
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  • Jacques-Emile-Édouard Brandon, Bar Mitzvah. Estimate $50,000–70,000.
    Jacques-Emile-Édouard Brandon, who was also known as Jacob Émile Édouard Péreira Brandon, was born to a wealthy Sephardic Jewish family. Like his German contemporary Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, Brandon reached the highest level of academic training and was able to undertake an extended trip to Italy, both of which eased his path into the established artistic circles of the day. By publicly establishing himself as a major Jewish painter in France, Brandon opened the doors for a younger generation of Jewish artists who followed.
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  • An American Bronze Statue of Liberty Hanukah Lamp, Manfred Anson, New Jersey, 1986. Estimate $10,000 –15,000.
    Just before the Second World War, Manfred Anson, born Germany 1922, was one of twenty boys saved by the Jewish Welfare Guardian Society of Australia. In 1963 he came to America, and in 1986 created this design, the sconces cast from souvenirs for the Centennial. He gave the original to the Statue of Liberty National Monument, another is in the National Museum of American History. One is in the Skirball Museum, illustrated on the cover of the catalogue, New Beginnings; The Skirball Museum Collections and Inaugural Exhibition, 1996.
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