Provenance: Ex Adolph Koeppel Collection, guaranteeing elite specialized pedigree.
Contract: A typed, original 1924 legal Power of Attorney executed by a Saul Levy
The Historical Figures: "M. Dizengoff" is undeniably Meir Dizengoff, the founding father and first Mayor of Tel Aviv. Furthermore, the appointed attorney "Bernard Joseph" later Hebraized his name to Dov Yosef, becoming a prominent Israeli statesman and Minister of Justice.
The Franking: The contract features a beautiful mixed-franking of British Mandate provisional revenues
O.P.D.A. Overprint: A high-value blue 10 Piastres E.E.F. postage stamp, heavily overprinted with O.P.D.A. 10 P.T. (Ottoman Public Debt Administration)
H.J.Z. Overprints: A pair of green 5 Mil E.E.F. stamps, overprinted H.J.Z. for the Hejaz Railway tax
Historical Significance
Finding a surviving legal contract from the early 1920s Mandate period that explicitly names Meir Dizengoff as the target of civil or criminal litigation is extraordinary. During this exact period, Dizengoff was fiercely navigating Tel Aviv's transition from a neighborhood of Jaffa into an independent township. The fact that the court cachet literally reads "Jaffa (Tel-Aviv)" physically embodies this geopolitical transition, while the stamps demonstrate the lingering Ottoman tax infrastructure (OPDA and Hejaz Railway) still being enforced by the British.
We start all our auction lots at 99p with no reserve.