The Haggadah.

a masterpiece... that should increase the happiness of every one of its possessors

'The book is a masterpiece, one that should increase the happiness of every one of its possessors, who will find new interest and new delight every time he opens its pages' (The Jewish Chronicle).

This copy was given as a Rosh Hashanah present by Mr Cyril Joshua Ross (1891-1973) to Prof. Samson Wright (a renowned British medical physiologist). Both men were leading Zionist figures in London's Jewish community during the mid-20th century. The short typed letter inserted in the book reads: 'Dear Professor Wright, /
will you accept this gift (I can think of no more appropriate one to send you) as a token of my regard for you and your work in the community. I know in sending it that you will treasure it and add it to your library of outstanding works. / I take this opportunity of wishing you and your family a very happy New Year, in which Mrs. Ross joins me. /
Yours sincerely, Cyril.'

Arthur Szyk (1894-1951), a Polish-Jewish artist, produced works characterised by social and political comment, and in their formal aspect - by the rejection of modernism and drawing on the traditions of medieval and renaissance painting, especially illuminated manuscripts from those periods. Unlike most caricaturists, Szyk always showed great attention to the colour effects and details in his works.

Szyk's drawings and paintings became even more politically engaged when Hitler took power in Germany in 1933. Szyk started drawing Führer's caricatures as early as 1933; probably, the first work of the artist directed against the leader of the Third Reich was a drawing of Hitler, made in pencil, in which he was shown as a new pharaoh. These drawings anticipated the present great series of Szyk's arts – The Haggadah, his magnum opus. Szyk illustrated it in 48 drawings in the years 1932-1938, and the development of the political situation in Germany at that time made him introduce some contemporary elements to it. These referred to, in particular, the parable of the four sons, in which the 'wicked son' was portrayed as a man wearing German clothes, with a Hitler-like moustache. The expression of the series was even stronger in its original version: the drawings showed snakes with swastikas, there were also heads of Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels.

In 1937, Arthur Szyk went to London to supervise the publication of The Haggadah. However, the artist had to agree to many compromises during the work which lasted three years, including painting over all of the swastikas. It is not clear whether he did it as a result of the pressure by his publisher or the British politicians, who pursued the policy of appeasement in relation to Germany.

Finally, The Haggadah was published in London in late 1940 (and not 1939, which is the date of Szyk's opening words; see Roth); the artist dedicated it to King George VI. The work was widely acclaimed by critics; according to The Times, it was 'worthy to be placed among the most beautiful of books that the hand of man has ever produced'.

Number 101 of 125 copies printed on vellum, signed by both Szyk & Roth; large 4to; comprising 118 french-fold leaves; original blue morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, spine with raised bands, compartments framed in gilt enclosing gilt lettering and crown tools, triple gilt fillet border to covers, large illustration of High Priest holding the matzoh and Passover wine as centrepiece, board edges and turn-ins tooled in gilt, doublures of cream silk satin illustrated with Moses supporting the Ten Commandments, housed in the original velvet-lined blue half morocco solander box, blue morocco label with lion's head design in gilt to front board; text in Hebrew and English, printed in black, purple, blue, red, and green on vellum; with 14 full-page plates and numerous vignettes and border decorations printed in colour, all by Szyk; the box with couple of spots of wear at extremities, some marks and toning to cloth; with a typed letter signed, dated 18 September 1947; a fine copy in the handsome original binding.