Description
Kamson, Ya’akov David. Hatunah ba-ya’ar / haruzim me-et Y. D. Kamson; tsiyurim me-et Elzah Vents-Vitar. Ivrit Menorah, Berlin-Vinah [Vienna]: [1924]. Presumed first Hebrew edition of the German children’s classic, Hochzeit im Walde, (The Wedding in the Forest) by Adolf Holst, here with a Hebrew title and Hebrew captions under the illustrations of an all-insect cast. Each page has a multi-colored illustration and rhyming captions done in Hebrew by Lithuanian poet Ya’akov David Kamson (1907 – 1980) on the recto only. 14 pages, color illustrations.
The illustrations are the same as they are in the German edition, by Elsa Wenns Viëtor (initialed in one plate the double “wedding” plate on page 10 as “E.W.V.”). The coloring of the plates was done by a photomechanical process, probably a silk screen half-tone process, with some slight additional coloring with chalk and crayon, possibly done by a juvenile, now reduced by the cleaning. This small book (12.3 cm x 10.1 cm) has a printed title-page dedication in Hebrew, from Ya’akov David Kamson to his sister in Hebrew, “Mukdash la-ahoti Sarah Miryam Y.D.K.,” “my sister, Sara Miriam.” A Leporello binding in paper-covered boards, with contiguous accordion folds. The original accordion pleats have been reconnected in their original order, reverse order to the German edition, as it relates the events from left-to-right, and this Hebrew version relates the events from right-to-left. All fourteen panels were cleaned, which reduced some child’s markings. An amateur repair was undone by removing mends and adhesive. All panels were then buffered to reduce discoloration and acidity. Each panel was then sized and lined because of the extreme fragility of the paper. A stub was left at the end of each panel so the panels could be reassembled in their original order, with the joints receiving another strip of mulberry paper for reinforcement. The warped cover was washed, and the paper of the cover removed to be sized and lined. The insides of the covers were lined with Japanese paper. An expertly restored copy of a very rare surviving German-Hebrew children’s book from the era of the Weimar Republic. Three copies are recorded: one at Harvard College Library and the others at Hebrew Union College and the Library of Congress. Uriel Ofek, Sifrut ha-yeladim ha-‘Ivrit 1900 – 1948, 2 volumes, Tel Aviv : Devi : 1988, p. 552.
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