The Seforim Blog

December is nearly here and that means that it is the height of Judaica Auction season. Following strong showings by Kestenbaum (Nov 13th), Greenstein (Nov. 24th), Kedem (Nov. 25th), the season reaches its culmination with an exceptionally rich offering of over 170 lots of Important Judaica by Sotheby’s New York. The auction will be held on December 4th, with public viewing, for four days only, from Sunday Nov. 30 through Wednesday, Dec 3. Sotheby’s annual auction features an outstanding array…

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Kestenbaum & Co. will be holding an auction this Thursday, June 23. The catalog is available online at the Kestenbaum site (link). This auction includes the second part of the Alfonso Cassuto collection which is heavily focused on books originating or relating to the Iberian Peninsula. One can read more about that collection at the website or see the last auction catalog. In addition, there are a few controversial books of note. First, lot 136 is the exceedingly rare first…

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Next week, Oct. 27, Kestenbaum & Co. is having an auction, and the catalog is availalbe online. Obviously, there are many items worth highlighting but I want to focus upon one general topic and select those lots that are relevant. The focus of this post is on translations and the vernacular. Lot 7 is the first book using Hebrew fonts to teach Hebrew to an American audience. This book, Grammar of the Hebrew Tongue, written by Judah Monis, was a…

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There are few upcoming events that we wanted to highlight.  First, on the auction front.  There are two auctions, one Baranovich is having its auction on the 23rd of June.  Kedem is having its auction the next day on the 24th.  Additionally, Kedem now offers online bidding so those unable to make it to auction don't have to rely upon either phone bidding or absentee bidding. For those in the Washington, D.C. area next Tuesday, there will be a talk…

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