Amulet with Coat of Arms

Artist Unknown

ca. 1750

Silver amulet with designs around edge and lion in center.
Silver amulet typical of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Italian Jewish homes. This example from Venice is unusual in that it contains an unidentified family coat of arms whose main feature is a rampant lion holding a stalk of some sort of grain. Most often these amulets contained a piece of parchment inscribed with the same inscription as the parchment in a mezuzah. However, the inscribed parchment is missing from this amulet.

Credits

Courtesy GFC Trust / William L. Gross. Photo by Ardon bar Hama.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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