March II 2021 Catalogue

B a u m a n R a r e B o o k s F a i t h 2 0 2 1 61 “A Pen Of Flaming Fire On The Crown Of God”: Signed By Artist Ben Shahn 62. SHAHN, Ben. The Alphabet of Creation. An Ancient Legend from the Zohar. New York, 1954. Tall octavo, original gilt- and red-stamped natural cloth, slipcase. $750. Click for More Info Signed limited first edition of a legend from the Sefer Ha-Zohar, a foundational work of the Jewish Kabbalah, one of only 500 copies signed by Shahn (total of 550), with over 40 illustrations from original drawings including his calligraphic images of the alphabet, in original slipcase. A “masterpiece of the Kabbalah, the Sefer ha-Zohar has amazed and overwhelmed readers since it emerged mysteriously in medieval Spain toward the end of the 13th century” (Daniel C. Matt). This elegant volume, containing a seminal legend from the Sefer ha-Zohar, was conceived and illustrated by Shahn, “one of America’s outstanding Jewish artists,” Alphabet of Creation tells “how the 22 letters of the alphabet are engraved with a pen of flaming fire on the crown of God, whence they descend, one by one and page by page, to stake their claims in the Creation.” Shahn’s bold letters “make up an invented paleography, wrung from the deep as it were… like a swath of weary energy pushed through a hindering medium” ( Commentary ). Printed on Rives paper by Joseph Blumenthal at Spiral Press, this signed limited first edition consists of numbers 1-50 with an original drawing, and 500 numbered 51-500. Without very scarce glassine. Only trace of edge-wear to slipcase. A fine uncut copy.