This is an extraordinary, museum-grade 1930s Mandatory Palestine textile fine art masterpiece titled "The Nargilah Smoker" (The Hookah Smoker) by renowned master artist and Bezalel Academy faculty head Meir Gur-Aryeh (1891–1951). Executed via a traditional stencil and block-printing technique over an unbleached, coarse hand-woven linen canvas fabric sheet, the composition vividly depicts a traditional Ottoman-era or Levantine gentleman seated and smoking an elaborate water pipe. This specimen measures precisely 8.5 inches in height by 13 inches in width.
Crucially, the reverse side of the textile preserves two highly historical, authentic ink stamps proving its pre-1948 pro-Zionist fundraising origin:
1. A rectangular regional export stamp reading: "MADE IN PALESTINE / JERUSALEM".
2. A rare, circular institutional authorization seal from the "PRO PALESTINE ASSOCIATION" showcasing its historic Hebrew movement motto inside the upper crest: "למען ארץ ישראל" (For the Sake of the Land of Israel).
Dating precisely to the 1930s British Mandate timeframe, this textile artifact is a premier, documented survivor with its natural raw fringed borders beautifully intact. It represents an elite acquisition opportunity for specialized institutional collections, major archives, and premier collectors of early modern fine art Judaica, pre-state Zionism ephemera, and Middle Eastern antiquities.
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