Joseph Süß Oppenheimer… Engraving by Ioh. [Iohann?] Gustav Kleckler, hand–colored. Publisher, place and year not indicated. [Germany, ca. 1738]. German.

High–quality, hand–colored engraving, printed on thick paper, portraying the life of Joseph Süßkind Oppenheimer, accompanied with illustrations and verses describing his life story. This engraving is presumably part of a group of publications circulated shortly after his execution.

Joseph Süßkind Oppenheimer (1698–1738) was a court Jew, banker and financial advisor to Duke Karl Alexander of Würtemberg. After the Duke's sudden death, Oppenheimer was charged for a variety of offenses: treason, abusing his position and authority for his personal gain, embezzlement of public funds and licentious lifestyle; he was hanged and his body left in a suspended cage for six years (this cage is featured in most engravings depicting his story). See also items 232 and 233.
Compare: Institut für Stadtgeschichte Frankfurt am Main (ISG FFM) Best. S7Z (Zeitbilder) No. 1614-4.

Engraving: 29.5X21.5 cm; leaf: 32.5X23.5 cm. Good condition. Some stains. Minor tears, professionally restored. Minor creases. Paper residue on verso.

Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, 117.011.019.
Rare.

Entdeckter Jüdischer Baldober, oder Sachsen–Coburgische acta criminalia, [by Paul Nicolaus Einert]. Coburg: Georg Otto, 1758. German.
"Jewish Bandleader Captured", book by Paul Nicolaus Einert (published anonymously). The book Includes three engraved plates, two of which show handcuffed Jewish criminals: Mendel Carbe and Hoyum Moyses.
The author Einert headed the investigation leading to the arrest of a band of robbers, most of whose members were Jews, captured in the 1730s in Coburg, Bavaria (Germany).

The bandleader ("Baldober") was the Jew Mendel Garbe or Carben, following whose arrest many other band members were captured, almost all of them Jewish. The band was responsible for a long series of robberies in various parts of the country. After the investigation was completed and the band members convicted, Einert published this book with the aim of "exposing many heretofore unknown crimes and robberies carried out by Jews". Einert used the affair to disseminate a book of anti–Semitic accusations based on two assumptions: first, that solidarity exists between all Jews, whether criminal or not, making the entire Jewish people accomplices to crime; second, that the motivation of Jewish criminals to commit crimes is not just greed and the desire for profit, but also the desire to harm Christians and Christianity.

[7] leaves, 600 pages + [3] engraved plates. Approx. 21.5 cm. Good condition. Stains, including minor ink stains. Title–page and frontispiece attached with non–acidic tape. Pen inscription inside front board. Card binding, with parchment corners and spine. Stains, wear and abrasions to binding. Open tear to bottom of spine. Pen inscription on spine. Remnants of card spine pasted on spine. 

Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, NHB.169.

Isidor Kaufmann, portfolio comprising 16 high–quality color reproductions of paintings by Isidor Kaufmann. Vienna, 1926.
The present portfolio comprises 16 reproductions of paintings by Kaufmann, depicting various Jewish figures, scenes from the Jewish life cycle, and the Jewish Shtetl – most of which are in color (matted), and a booklet with an introduction by Rabbi Zwi Perez Chajes, and a foreword by art critic Hermann Menkes. The portfolio cover features a small reproduction of Kaufmann's portrait, by Hans Temple.

[16] plates. Approx. 22.5X27.5-44X56 cm (mat: 58X45.5 cm); booklet: [5] leaves, 49.5 cm. In the original folder,   59.5X46.5 cm. Good condition.

Isidor Kaufmann (1853–1921) was a Jewish–Hungarian artist renowned for his remarkable portrayal of Jewish life. Initially working as a bank teller, Kaufmann simultaneously pursued private studies in painting. Eventually, he gained admission to the Academy of Art in Vienna. He journeyed through Poland, Galicia, and Ukraine, and the indelible impressions of the journey left their marks on his work, which eloquently captured the vibrant tapestry of Jewish life in Eastern Europe.

Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, ALE.42.

Еврейская графика [Jewish Graphics], a volume of lithographs by Nathan Altman. Berlin: Petropolis, 1923. Russian.
Ten lithographs by Natan Altman, printed on gilt background, with an introduction by Max Osborn. Unnumbered copy, of a limited edition.

21, [1] pages (pages 11–14 bound upside down) + 10 plates (lithographs). 48 cm. Good condition. Minor stains. Minor marginal tears to several leaves and plates. Some leaves and plates detached or partly detached. Wear, tears, inscriptions and minor stains to binding. Spine torn, and partly missing.

Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, ALE.16.

Portfolio, with 19 illustrations made by Joseph Budko for the anniversary edition of the writings of Hayim Nahman Bialik. [Berlin? 1923?].
Nine woodcuts, all signed in margins by Joseph Budko, matted. The names of the poems are written in Budko's handwriting (on margins or Passepartout); the last woodcut is dated "1923".
Bialik's Jubilee Edition was designed by Budko. It was published in four volumes in 1923 and is considered to be one of the finest achievements of modern Hebrew publishing. The present portfolio was presumably created in the same period, it was bound with vellum similar to the binding of the four-volume edition, with a different impression on the front cover – the Hebrew letter "Beit", within a decorative frame, illustrated with animals and flowers.

[19] woodcuts. Size varies. Good condition. Portfolio: approx. 31 cm. Good condition. Some stains and Paint smears.

Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, ALE. 43.