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Image Advertising & Publishing House, Published [No date: circa 1991]. Hardcover, 382 pp.; 21 cm; text in English and Russian; 202 illustrations, 130 in color, with bilingual captions; photographs by S. Tartakovsky and V. Kravchuk; designed by A. Lev; printed by Novosti, Moscow.
In Very Good condition with a Very Good dust jacket. Black marbled leatherette-effect paper-covered boards with silver lettering on front and spine, color plate of a Torah crown mounted in a recessed panel on front board, spine numbered 3. Mild shelf and edge wear, light bumping to corners. Binding tight. Pictorial endpapers (silver repousse design) mildly toned; otherwise pages clean and unmarked. Pale gray-green marbled dust jacket with the same Torah crown plate on front panel, a few small nicks and light creasing along edges, mild shelf wear, a couple of tiny spots on rear panel. Now in an archival quality (removable) Brodart cover. Third volume of Masterpieces of Jewish Art, "A Pictorial Series of Treasures in the Commonwealth of Independent States," compiled and edited by the Moscow art historian Alexander Kantsedikas with co-sponsorship from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. Seven of the projected fifteen volumes appeared between 1991 and 2003 (Bronze, Artists from Vitebsk, Silver, Jewish Tombstones, Wooden Synagogues, the An-sky Album, Hebrew Manuscript Ornaments), making the set the first systematic publication of the Jewish ceremonial art that survived in Soviet museum storerooms. This volume catalogs 17th to early 20th century silver from the Kiev Museum of Historical Treasures of Ukraine and the Lvov Museum of Ethnography and Crafts: Torah crowns, shields, finials and pointers, Hanukkah lamps, besamim spice towers, kiddush cups, ceremonial belt buckles, and gold wedding rings, largely the work of Jewish silversmiths of Galicia, Podolia, and Poland, with a few pieces from Vilnius and Mogilev. Each entry gives technique, dimensions, origin, date, and holding museum in both languages. Kantsedikas' introductory essay, "Jewish Silver in Russia and Eastern Europe," surveys the guilds and workshops of the Pale of Settlement (5,263 Jewish jewelers in the 1897 census) and the Baroque-influenced style of the region. Dedicated to the memory of the L. Posen Wwe Judaica silver stores of Frankfurt and Berlin, "known to be Geschlossen am Shabbos but finally Geschlossen by the Nazis." Jacket flaps announce the Wooden Synagogues and Tombstones volumes. Series editorial board includes M. Chlenov, D. Goberman, G. Kasovsky, and E. Zingeris.