It’s certainly a possibility that I hadn’t considered—and one that makes sense. And Michelle, I agree that the stamps can’t go back farther then the early/mid 20th century. Those Kiev stamps (top left corner) were placed between 1945 and 1969 and are already fading more quickly than the “printed in” stamps. There is a variant of the phrase—which is, “Purchased in Russia/Poland.” That variant lends some credence to the idea that they were meant to be tax stamps for customs. Reviewing the statute from Cornell Law, (https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/19/1304__;!!KGKeukY!zz1ENS85co9efCUbagMXCrH7LA2y7N0psKWF1MFVsEHINJZoVDWtd7iB1WTkA6E-Zl1tYfa0sA84eM2xBqPvlMRmSA$ ) it appears that the current version of statues were an amendment to the Tariff Act of 1930, which were put into place in 1938 (I’m not a lawyer, so could be mistaken with its exact origins, though it does appear to be in the 1930’s). However, the timing is tricky. If the book was originally published in 1682/1683, then how did it go from Frankfurt am Main to arriving in the United States post-1930? There is only one other stamp on the TP, which I believe is an ownership stamp for: BE בן ציון בלאאמו הרב מהורר יעקב עטטלינגער נרו . Rabbi Yaakov Ettlinger lived between 1798-1871 (https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Ettlinger__;!!KGKeukY!zz1ENS85co9efCUbagMXCrH7LA2y7N0psKWF1MFVsEHINJZoVDWtd7iB1WTkA6E-Zl1tYfa0sA84eM2xBqMcGCYw6A$ ) in Germany. Typically, the preceding name on the stamp is written as בן ציון בלאאמו"ר, though I believe the stamp must not have included the part after the abbreviation marks. So perhaps the book stayed in Germany after its publication until it was sent/brought to the United States sometime after 1930, which would place it nicely in the timeframe we have been looking at (potentially pre-JCR or during JCR).
While that doesn’t answer the question of exactly when and why these stamps exist in some books, but not others, and the timing as to when this stamp was placed, hopefully it does provide some context. Maybe we’ll find out the exact answer soon. Thanks for everyone’s input! David Fasman, MLIS Metadata Technician | Beck Archives at the University of Denver SRMA Membership Coordinator david.fas...@du.edu<mailto:david.fas...@du.edu> | 303.871.2977 From: Michelle Margolis <michm...@gmail.com> Date: Wednesday, October 18, 2023 at 8:25 AM To: Daniel Stuhlman <dstuhl...@gmail.com> Cc: David Fasman <david.fas...@du.edu>, hasafran@lists.osu.edu <hasafran@lists.osu.edu> Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [ha-Safran] Printed in Russia/Poland Stamps in Non-Russian and Polish Books [External Email From]: michm...@gmail.com I wonder how old these statutes are - the stamps on these books are no later than the mid-20th century...and a book printed in Amsterdam in the 18th century was definitely not printed in Poland. Michelle On Wed, Oct 18, 2023 at 10:21 AM Daniel Stuhlman <dstuhl...@gmail.com<mailto:dstuhl...@gmail.com>> wrote: Hi Michelle, I sent an answer directly David. The US Customs requires that all items imported be labeled in English as to the country of manufacture. Just as books published in New York could be printed in China; books published in Frankfort could be printed in Russia. See https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.cbp.gov/trade/rulings/informed-compliance-publications/marking-country-origin-us-imports__;!!KGKeukY!zz1ENS85co9efCUbagMXCrH7LA2y7N0psKWF1MFVsEHINJZoVDWtd7iB1WTkA6E-Zl1tYfa0sA84eM2xBqM3kVg4Gg$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.cbp.gov/trade/rulings/informed-compliance-publications/marking-country-origin-us-imports__;!!NCZxaNi9jForCP_SxBKJCA!XtnhrvMF5Xo0iboFL_QDyJGl5mPDYaBQSD-hQQi-hXPIpFSJ5ZovS9keF_vuTPW0U9DxNd-23TfMUmV70Mc$> for labeling regulations for imports. On Wed, Oct 18, 2023 at 8:42 AM Michelle Margolis via Hasafran <hasafran@lists.osu.edu<mailto:hasafran@lists.osu.edu>> wrote: Hi David, This is a question I've wondered about for years; I've seen it on many books (none of which are from Russia or Poland). My suspicion was similar to your second one - that it may have been used by the army (maybe even prior Hi David, This is a question I've wondered about for years; I've seen it on many books (none of which are from Russia or Poland). My suspicion was similar to your second one - that it may have been used by the army (maybe even prior to JCR, when they were still looking at sending books back to the country of origin). However, I have no proof for this hypothesis. I'd be very curious to hear if anyone has solid information about these stamps! Michelle On Wed, Oct 18, 2023 at 3:38 AM David Fasman via Hasafran <hasafran@lists.osu.edu<mailto:hasafran@lists.osu.edu>> wrote: Hello All, I’ve been doing extensive provenance research recently, and continue to run into books marked as, “Printed in Russia,” or, “Printed in Poland,” though only a few of the hundreds of books we have contain that stamp and actually come Hello All, I’ve been doing extensive provenance research recently, and continue to run into books marked as, “Printed in Russia,” or, “Printed in Poland,” though only a few of the hundreds of books we have contain that stamp and actually come from either location. The attached picture is the TP of Sefer Emunat Shmuel, published in Frankfurt am Main, 1682/1683. On the bottom of the page is the stamp I am talking about. It is always in the same font, though the color varies mostly between red and purple. To my knowledge, Frankfurt was never in Russia or Poland (or Latvia for that matter). I am wondering, and have a few guesses as to why, but wanted to see if any of y’all had a definitive answer. My main guess is that in times of Russian and Polish censorship (late 18th century to early 20th century) Jews may have stamped their own texts in order to avoid censorship or worse. But thinking about it, I don’t know why the stamps would be in English, when other censorship stamps from Poland and Russia were in their native languages. My second guess is that these stamps were perhaps used during Jewish Cultural Reconstruction as identifiers for location—though clearly they didn’t do a great job as evidenced by our collection. Thank you in advance to anyone who knows about the origins of these stamps! 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