What auction house owners come across daily, in their quest for the rare finds they’re happy to pass on
Fast stats: Depending on inventory, we have about six auctions per year. Three of those are “big ticket” auctions, but even at the “cheap” auctions, where everything starts at $25, some items will sell for thousands.
How I got started: My father’s been an antique dealer for 25 years. As a teenager, I used to go with him to customers and libraries and watched as he grew his collection. I later worked for an auction house. Most Jewish auctions are in Israel, but the customer base is in the United States and Europe. I opened my own auction house here in New York so Americans could come in, inspect a piece personally, and take it home without waiting for their finds to cross the ocean.
Fascinating finds: We once had the original document that appointed Rabbi Yitzchak of Radvil, the son of the Maggid of Zlotshov, as rabbi of the city in 1819. It sold for $50,000. In our last auction we had a letter inviting the Satmar Rebbe to England after the war, signed by all the European rabbanim. We put it up for $4,000 but it went for close to $30,000.
In our next auction, there’s a first edition of the Frankfurt Sefer Tiferes Shmuel from 1696. It contains many signatures, and the inscription: “I got this from my chavrusa, son of the author…” This was the personal copy of the Tiferes Shmuel’s only son, Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kaidanover (1648–1712), author of the Kav Hayashar, one of the most popular works of mussar in the last three hundred years.
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