JEWISH WORK PERMIT FOR 1912 CZARIST RUSSIA, WITH IDENTIFICATION PHOTOGRAPH

(JUDAICA-RUSSIAN JUDAICA). Partially Printed Ethnic [Jewish] Work Permits. Berdichev, Ukraine: Berdichev Trade Administration, 1912. Broadside (measures 20 by 27 inches), partially printed and completed in manuscript, embellished with gilt border, with carte-de-visite identification photograph of permit holder affixed with string as issued. $2500.

Large 1912 work permit for Russian Jews of the important agricultural city of Berdichev, Ukraine, issued during the reign of Czar Nicholas II, partially printed and completed in manuscript in Cyrillic, ornately decorated with portraits of Nicholas and Alexandra and notable Russian landmarks.

Long oppressed, the Jewish tradespeople, even under the Romanov rule, were banished from working within the major cities in Czarist Russia without these particular certifications. Thus these permits document the Russian Jewish working class just before the Revolution. The document reads in part: “This Certificate was given to Eliza Gosesgelich Sliberu to certify that he… according to 285, 415 and 469 clause 11th book 2nd Trade Industrial law of 1893 was qualified by the experts of Berdichev Trade Administration as a metal engraver. He is according to descriptions 28 years old, of average height, hair and eyebrows light brown, eyes brown, nose and mouth moderate, face clean… an individual example has been given.” The document bears approval signatures of Berdichev Trade Administration officials “N. Zukovski,” “A. Visevski” and “S. Berlin,” a cancelled tax stamp and the most unusual addition of a carte-de-visite photograph of the bearer of this permit stitched to the left lower margin.

Document folded into eighths; some light edge-wear and splits along folds, strictly marginal. Scarce.