Ben Shahn - Haggadah for Passover. Limited, Numbered, Signed Edition - 1966

"Haggadah for Passover" copied and illustrated by Ben Shahn

A very beautiful large limited folio Ben Shahn's "Haggadah for Passover", number 132 of only 228 copies (out of a total edition of 292) on Arches Vergé paper. Signed and stamped with the artist's cypher on the frontispiece.

Frontispiece and title page (double page) original signed lithograph, titled "Haggadah".

80 leaves. 135 pages loose as issued, XXIV pages of preface by Stephan S. Kayser, with translation and notes by Cecil Roth.

Printed in 1966 by Trianon Press (Paris & London) on pure rag Arches Verge paper specially manufactured to match the paper used by the artist.

Hebrew and English, Hebrew section titles and select other texts printed in Shahn’s distinctive Hebrew typeface. Unsewn sheets, as issued, folded into original stiff wrappers in the grand luxe style, with the deckle-edges of the paper left untrimmed. Frontispiece and title page original multicoloured signed lithograph. Twelve full-page collotype and pochoir plates after Shahn’s original watercolors, ten collotype deep brick red plates after drawings of the scenes of "An Only Kid", floral decorations on pages 8 and 90.

Folio housed in a parchment-covered handmade folding case, title gilt on upper and lower boards and on spine (together with press and artist name) and two intact silver-gilt clasps on fore-edge. Title gilt in Hebrew and English on respective covers. Original glassine overwrap, wrapped in tissue paper. Loosely inserted foam cushion at back of box.

The folding case with faults on upper end edges (please see detailed photos) that do not affect the overall aesthetics of the item. The covers of the case with signs of age. The folios in very good condition, with slight scattered staining.

Overall a very fine, healthy collector's item.

Dimensions - height: 43 cm, length: 33 cm, width: 7.5 cm.

Inspired by the tradition of medieval illuminated Hebrew manuscripts, Lithuanian-born American graphic artist Ben Shahn (1898-1969) originally created eleven of the twelve full-page color plates for this Haggadah over the course of six months circa 1930. The illustrations, like those executed for his secular works, highlight the struggle against oppression, a theme central to the Passover story. The figures depicted were modeled after the Jews of Djerba, whom Shahn had encountered during a year-long journey through North Africa.

After an unsuccessful attempt to print the Haggadah in color, the completed plates entered in 1947 into the permanent collection of The Jewish Museum (New York). In 1958, Shahn met a publisher of art books and facsimiles and the two agreed to partner in publishing the Haggadah project through.

Shahn completed the twelfth illustration, added drawings of the scenes of the "An Only Kid" song and designed a frontispiece and title page, while commissioning British scholar Cecil Roth to compose an introduction and notes and to reuse his 1934 English translation of the Haggadah text. It was described at the time as “perhaps the most beautiful book ever designed and illustrated by an American artist”.

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