Map of Palestine and Images of the First Colonies – Two Booklets with "Shana Tovah" Greetings

Map of Palestine and Images of the First Colonies – Two Booklets with "Shana Tovah" Greetings

Two booklets with "shana tovah" greetings on cover:
1. Souvenir von Jerusalem. Jerusalem: Samuel Bak, [late 19th or early 20th century].
Hardcover accordion-folded leaflet depicting Jerusalem, early colonies and more. Gold-embossed cover, with Hebrew and English new year's greetings on back cover.
Folded sheet (14 pp.), 19.5X14.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Sheet mostly detached from cover (aside from first and last pages, pasted down to covers). Minor tears and damage. Adhesive tape to fold marks (on verso). Blemishes and wear to cover.
2. "Map of Palestine and the Colonies, happy new year" (Hebrew), booklet containing two folding sheets: folding color map of Palestine (Jerusalem: A. Landau); "The Land and The Colonies", containing information about the first Aliyah colonies. Pastedowns consisting of maps of Palestine, one with new year's greetings; sender's and addressee's name, address and date inscribed by hand (sent to Lodz before Rosh HaShana 1919).
[2] folding sheets (map and text) 11.5X14.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Tears to fold lines. Minor worming. Blemishes and wear to cover. Several tears restored with acid-free tape.
Provenance: The Dr. Chaim Grossman Collection.

Dr. Chaim Grossman's Israeliana collection is exceptional in size, quality and variety. Grossman, an educator, historian and folklorist, was a methodical, knowledgeable and meticulous collector, and his deep understanding of Palestinian-Yishuv and Israeli material culture set the ground for a one-of-a-kind collection of mundane and less than mundane objects – from the ephemeral, the negligible, the widely available to the rare and singular.
The "shana tovah" collection left by Grossman – a considerable part of which is offered in the present auction – comprises thousands of postcards, cards, letters and other paper items made and sent year after year in, by and for Jewish communities: in Eastern and Western Europe, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, North Africa, North and South America, as part of the tradition of sending hand-written, hand-drawn or printed new year’s greetings, which originated in German Jewry but with the rise of postcards spread to most communities. The earliest items in the collection date to the 1860s; the latest were made in the late 20th century. It includes both beautifully designed, rare, early and singular postcards and cards, and mass-made, highly popular items sold in large quantities, in varying production quality and in dozens of repeating versions, each according to the technical abilities achieved by the local publication industry.
The collector's devotion to his collection is evident in the sheer number of items, in the wealth of techniques, visuals and themes, and in the thorough, intersectional categorization by period, origin, motif, technique and material. Glitter and relief embossing, scraps, lace and golden ink, lithography and celluloid transparencies, plastic, textile and metal decorations; Yiddish, Hebrew, English, Russian, French, Polish, German greetings; children, angels, families, pets, immigrants, travelers, professionals; portraits and tinted reproductions; Judaism, Zionism, the state, the army; the ritual and the mundane; any new year's greeting, in any form whatsoever, had a place in Grossman's collection and was honored as a historical testimony, as a timeless, invaluable treasure.