Silver and Gold (Bindings)
The big news at Sotheby's forthcoming Judaica sale on December 20 may be the 14th-century illuminated Hebrew Bible from Spain, estimated to sell in excess of $3.5 million, but there are some other sterling (pun intended) lots in the sale, including more than two dozen silver (and gold) bookbindings, from the 17th-19th centuries, mostly of Italian or German make. Almost all come from the collection of Jack Lunzer, the late diamond merchant and creator/custodian of the Valmadonna Trust Library. Here are a few highlights: 
Lot 83: A German silver small bookbinding from the late 17th century by Christiana and Magdalena Küslin (the granddaughters of Mathias Merian, whose engravings were the basis of the famous Amsterdam Haggadah of 1695), and fitted with a book of prints from the Old Testament. The estimate is $7,000-10,000. 
Lot 90: A rare gold binding, c. 1780-1800, of either Dutch or German make, fitted with Sefer Keritut, printed by Francesco Rossi, Verona, 1647. The estimate is $12,000-18,000. 
Lot 92: An ornate mid-18th-century Italian silver binding, crafted by either Giovanni or Bendeto Teoli and fitted with a 1742 Venetian prayer book containing the bookplate of the late Iowa book collector Oliver Henry Perkins. The estimate is $20,000-30,000.
Images courtesy of Sotheby's
