Bidspirit auction | Magnificent Masterpiece. Bordeaux Haggadah. Written

Magnificent Masterpiece. Bordeaux Haggadah. Written and Illustrated by Yaakov Tzoref. Bordeaux, Southern France, 1812 * A handwritten Haggadah, richly illustrated and adorned in exceptionally fine script, with more than thirty colorful illustrations in red, yellow, and blue, unusually large opening letters, initials and decorations, and folded maps, all executed with remarkable accuracy and artistic brilliance. A beautiful and exceedingly rare work of art. Almost no creations of this kind are known from nineteenth-century France. The Haggadah and maps were written and illustrated by Yaakov Tzoref, the community scribe of Bordeaux, an artist-scribe whose additional works grace the collections of the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem and the Israel Museum. This Haggadah stands as a model and exemplar of a group of manuscripts privately commissioned by families of nobility in Europe, reflecting the stature and prosperity of the Jews of France in the nineteenth century. From the supplements added to the Haggadah — the blessing for Sheva Brachos, Parshas “Ve’Avraham Zaken, ” and the blessings for Sukkos — makes it apparent that the volume was presented as a gift to a chassan whose wedding took place close to Sukkos (the date on the title leaf is the sixth of Tishrei). *** The Scribe and Artist Yaakov Tzoref of Bordeaux The Tzoref family were part of the Sephardic community of Bordeaux in southwestern France. The parents, Shlomo and Rivkah Tzoref, whose family originated in Portugal, were merchants with two sons and two daughters — the elder, Yaakov, and the younger, Yitzchak (according to archival documents in Bordeaux). Both brothers were skilled scribes, but Yaakov was also an artist who excelled in drawing. Besides the present Haggadah, several other works of his are known. He illustrated the Haggadah written by his brother in 1813 (Moldovan Collection, Israel Museum; see below), as well as an illustrated and decorated Machzor for the Three Festivals (National Library Manuscript No. 34°1113). The Jewish-Sephardic community of Bordeaux was large and affluent, founded in the late fifteenth century and composed mainly of descendants of exiles from Spain and Portugal. At the time this Haggadah was written, more than two thousand Jews lived in Bordeaux, most of them members of the Sephardic community. One of the well-known Jews of that period was Abraham Furtado (1756–1817), a banker, shipping magnate, and French statesman who served as deputy mayor and as secretary-general of the Assembly of Jewish Notables in Paris during the Napoleonic era. Contents: The text follows the order of the Pesach Haggadah according to both Sephardic and Ashkenazic custom, including two versions of Birkas HaMazon — Sephardic and Ashkenazic — and concluding with Ashkenazic piyutim. At the end of the Haggadah are several appendices: Blessings of the Sukkah and Kiddush for Sukkos and Shemini Atzeres (leaves 52–54); The order of Birkas Eirusin and Sheva Brachos (55–57); Parshas “Ve’Avraham Zaken” with Targum Onkelos, traditionally read to a chassan called to the Torah in Sephardic communities (leaf 58). Instructions for conducting the Seder appear in French, and some are also in Hebrew and Ladino. Description of the Haggadah: [1], 58 leaves + [2] folded maps. Height: 31.5 cm. Width: 23.5 cm. Leaf 4 is a large folded sheet (31 × 43 cm) containing a chart of the simanim of the Seder night in large letters — a unique panel with no parallel in illustrated handwritten Haggados . To view the full gallery, click here Thick, high-quality paper with a slight greenish tinge. Every page has a colored border. Gilt edges. Good condition, with a few wine stains. Original leather binding with gilt ornaments (rubbing to the binding). At the center of the picture, embossed in gold letters on a red background, are the words: HAGADA DE PAQUE. Preserved in a new English leather case. *** Script The Haggadah is written in fine script with large letters. Headings, special texts, and initials appear in large letters — some reaching 109 mm — in red, yellow, and blue. Illustrations There are thirty splendid illustrations of varying sizes, some spanning more than half a page, plus ten miniature depictions of the Ten Plagues (leaf 18). Decorated letters, including eleven adorned opening initials. The illustrations are based on the copper engravings of the famed Amsterdam Haggadah, though several scenes appear here that do not exist in the Amsterdam edition. Maps Attached to the Haggadah are two large, folded, beautifully illustrated maps, one in Hebrew and one in French. They are works of exceptional artistry, also executed by Tzoref, as noted in the French colophon on Map 2. Map 1: A map of Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Egypt and Goshen, and the travels of Bnei Yisrael in the Sinai Desert, according to the Amsterdam Haggadah of 1695 (31 × 47 cm).