Jewish Folk Art: From Biblical Days to Modern Times

New York: Summit Books, 1986. First printing. Hardcover. near fine. Folio. 283, [1]pp. Indices, glossary and bibliography. Original pictorial dust-jacket over blue cloth, with gold lettering on spine, and blind-stamped lettering on front cover. Lavishly illustrated in full color.

"Jewish Folk Art" authoritatively examines the role that this art has played in Jewish culture, from birth to death, during the Sabbath and the other holy days, at home and in the synagogue. Taken from the best collections in the world, here are beautiful examples of marriage contracts, Torah binders, Esther scrolls, Seder plates, noise makers, mezzuzahs, amulets, paintings and other objects of wood, metal and embroidery used in custom and practice and created over a two-thousand-year period, wherever Jews have lived.

Contents: Preface - From the Beginning. Jewish art and the Second Commandment - Marriage. The art of the ketubbah -- The Home. "And upon they gates" -- Birth. "Be fruitful and multiply" -- Sabbath. "Desire of all days" -- Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. "Days of awe, days of rejoicing" -- Chanukkah. "The miracle that happened there" -- Purim. "Cursed be Haman and blessed be Mordecai" -- Passover. "Remember the day you went forth from Egypt" -- The Synagogue. "In the house of assembly" -- Glossary - Bibliography.

Previous owner's bookplate on rear endpaper, otherwise near fine copy.