Bidspirit auction | Passover Haggadah – Jacob Steinhardt

Passover Haggadah – Jacob Steinhardt – First Edition, Berlin, 1921 – Twenty Woodcuts Signed by the Artist - Passover Haggadah, illustrated by Jacob Steinhardt. [Berlin: Erich Goeritz (”lithographs by H. Birkholz”), 1921]. Elegant Haggadah, written in calligraphic letters designed by Franzisca Baruch, and accompanied by twenty woodcuts by Jacob Steinhardt – all signed by the artist. The colophon leaf is also signed by Steinhardt. Rare copy of the original edition, printed in Berlin in 1921 in 218 copies (including 15 copies printed on high-quality Japanese paper and 3 on parchment; the present copy is unnumbered, but is one of the 200 copies printed on paper). The Stam Typeface of the Steinhardt Haggadah   In 1918, Jacob Steinhardt approached Franzisca Baruch (1901-1989), graphic designer, and requested her assistance in designing a bibliophile edition of the Passover Haggadah. Baruch, then a seventeen-year-old student in the Berlin Art Academy and totally unacquainted with Hebrew characters, examined early manuscripts and printed books in the Berlin Royal Library (presently the State library) and gradually taught herself the Hebrew alphabet (her studies and drafts are documented in a sketch book, held today in the Israel Museum). She chose to print the Haggadah in a new type she herself designed, inspired by the Prague Haggadah – the first printed illustrated Haggadah. The font she designed for the Haggadah was so beautiful that it was cast in lead and became a new Hebrew print font – the Stam type. [48] pages. Printed on one side of uncut double leaves. 38 cm. Top edges gilt. Good condition. Light stains. High-quality leather binding, with inscribed decorations (signed: ”Heyne-Ballmüller”). Defects to binding (part of top of spine missing, with marginal tears). Provenance: Mozes Heiman Gans. Reference: 1. Otzar HaHaggadot 2813. 2. Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Haggadah and History, Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1975, plates 134-136.