Large Collection of "Shanah Tovah" Postcards and Greeting Cards – Biblical Scenes

Large Collection of "Shanah Tovah" Postcards and Greeting Cards – Biblical Scenes

Some 370 "shanah tovah" postcard and greeting cards depicting biblical scenes. Various publishers, Germany, Poland, Austria, USA and elsewhere, [first decades of the 20th century].
The postcards depict various scenes: Abraham returning from Egypt to Canaan, the Binding of Isaac, Jacob and Rachel, Joseph and Potiphar's wife, the parting of the Red Sea, Moses with the Tablets of the Law, Moses and the burning bush, Samson, the Judgement of Solomon, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and many other scenes (in black and white and in color).
Several duplicate copies.
9X14 cm on average. Condition varies. Many of the postcards were used (inscriptions, postmarks and stamps, mostly on verso).

Provenance: The Dr. Haim 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.