Very Early Portrait of the Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson the "Tzemach Tzedek" - Lithograph - Berlin ...

Very Early Portrait of the Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson the "Tzemach Tzedek" - Lithograph - Berlin, Circa. 1886
"Tzemach Tzedek" - The Tzaddik will be eternally remembered! A Picture of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch". "Портретъ Либавичскаго раввина Менделя Шнеерсоа" ["Portrait of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Mendel Schneersohn"]. Lithographic print. Printed by Mordechai Katzenellenbogen in Vilna. Berlin. No note of year of printing.
In the picture the Rebbe is seen in his house, on the background of his library, wearing white Shabbat clothes. A book is on his knees, and on it are his glasses. The portrait was done based on an oil painting which was painted towards the end of the "Tzemach Tzedek's" life.
This is what is related about the painting in issue 96 of the Journal "Di Yiddishe Heim" (page 15):
"An anonymous artist, non-Jewish, desired to paint the Tzemach Tzedek, but, knowing that he would not succeed in the regular fashion - for the Rebbe would not agree - he had an idea: he came on Shabbat to the Tzemach Tzedek, looked at him very intently until he managed to engrave his holy features deep into his memory. In order for the short encounter to stay fresh in his memory, the painter hurried home with his eyes almost shut, and immediately when he arrived he took his painting equipment and started to paint what he had seen - on the cloth. Later, when the Tzemach Tzedek was shown the painting, he was very upset, as it was done on Shabbat (therefore the Tzemach Tzedek appears in the picture clothed in Shabbat clothes), however he was "comforted" by the fact that the painter made several mistakes:
a. The non-Jewish painter painted the Tzemach Tzedek's outer garment with the left edge on top of the right edge - as the non-Jews dress, for the Jews act the opposite way, that the right hand side of the outer garment is on top of the left hand side.
b. In the picture the Tzemach Tzedek is seen holding a book. However, as holy books are written and read from right to left, they open from the right, the non-Jewish painter painted the book as if it was one of the non-Jews' books, which open from the left".
This painting served as the source for many printings. The lithograph before us is one of the first prints which was done from the painting. In the later prints (of Karnei Hod Torah and others), the print is turned upside down, so that the book in the hands of the Tzemach Tzedek opens from the right, and the right hand edge of his garment is on top of the left.
We know of another lithograph, slightly different, which was sold as the first lithograph. The picture before us is from approximately the same time. We have no means of establishing which of the two was first, but in an any case, both lithographs are without a doubt extremely early and valuable.
51x38.5 cm.
Framed.
Condition: Small stains and tears on the edges, with almost no damage to the picture. Not checked outside the frame.