Showing Results 1 - 10 of 43
In Ashkenazic communities, circumcision benches with two seats were sometimes used from the nineteenth century on, one for the sandek, the godfather on whose lap the baby boy is circumcised, and one…
This ewer and basin from Turkey were used to wash hands ritually during the Passover seder. Owned by the Benguiat family, a large and prominent Sephardic family in the Ottoman Empire, the objects…
This silver Torah crown from Padua, Italy, is decorated with images of the tablets of law, incense utensils, the ark of the covenant,
and the headdress of the high priest.
These silver Torah finials are from Corfu and were made between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, by an artist whose initials were A.Z. They were used in the Scuola Greca Synagogue, which…
This lacquered, cylindrical case for a Torah scroll was made from a combination of wood, bronze, and iron in Kaifeng, China. (The hard-sided Torah case was a Sephardic tradition. It offered more…
This silver circumcision set was crafted in Salonika in the Ottoman Empire. The cylindrical silver casket holds a circumcision knife; its handle is made from agate. A similarly shaped powder box and…
These small Torah finials, decorated with silver repoussé and dark and light blue enamel, originated in Persia. They are further adorned with slender flowers and graceful geometric patterns.
These richly decorated Torah finials (rimonim), cast in silver and partly gilt, and adorned with many bells and topped with crowns, were created in London. The non-Jewish silversmith William Spackman…
This silver, repoussé, punched, engraved, and cast Torah shield, decorated with flowers and bunches of grapes, from Metz, France, is inscribed in Hebrew: C[rown of] T[orah]; Festival of Shavuot.
The chalice, covered with red slip (a thin mixture of red clay and water), consists of a tall, hollow stand and a separate bowl; both parts are decorated with downturned petals. Together they stand…
