Spicebox. Venice, Italy, [ca. 1712-16].
Silver, cast, repoussé, engraved, cut and pierced. Marked with the Lion of San Marco (Venice); marks of silversmith / assayer ("Saggiatore di Zecca"): Zuanne Cottini (the letters "Z.C." with a tower or castle between them) and Antonio Poma ("A.P." with an apple between them); additional mark adjacent to Poma's: HON/OR.
Spicebox, used for the "Havdalah" ritual in the synagogue. With a hexagonal pedestal, elongated leg, hexagonal spice container, and stylized lid surmounted by a screw. The spicebox is decorated entirely in vegetal and floral patterns, and bears delicate, meticulously cut leaf-like ornaments characteristic of Italian objects of this period. A (later) inscription (Hebrew) appears on the bottom of the pedestal: "Synagogue of the Sephardi [Jews]."
In contrast to the customary practices in Polish and Ashkenazic communities, the use of special spice containers was decidedly uncommon in Italy, and when spice containers were in fact created there, they were usually modeled after corresponding objects familiar to Polish and Ashkenazic immigrants. Thus, we know of only a handful of spiceboxes in this distinctive Italian style.
Three spiceboxes of this type are documented in the catalogue of the Zagayski Collection (The Jewish Museum, New York, 1963; see below). There, in reference to two of these spiceboxes, it is noted that they had most likely been repurposed, having served earlier as Torah finials (part of a set of Torah accessories which also included a Torah crown). In all likelihood, the present spicebox was also originally created as part of a set of Torah crown and finials, and eventually, once the finials had become obsolete, one of them was repurposed as a Havdalah spicebox. Such sequence of events might explain the peculiar design and morphology of this spicebox, wherein the central shaft extends the entire length of the object, from the leg to the apical screw.
The silversmiths whose marks appear on this spicebox were both active in Venice – Antonio Poma from 1672 to 1716, and Zuanne Cottini from 1712 to 1736. As with other items from this period, it is not entirely clear which of these two silversmiths was the one who created the present object, and which was the assayer ("Saggiatore di Zecca") working on behalf of the guild or workshop. But since Poma's mark appears only once, adjacent to the mark "HONOR", it does appear likely that Poma – apparently the senior of the two – was the assayer, while Cottini was the silversmith who created the object. The fact that Cottini's mark appears in a number of places strengthens this hypothesis. Considering the respective time periods of activity of the two craftsmen intersected in the years 1712 to 1716, we can assume this item was created sometime in that roughly four-year interval.
A Torah pointer dated 1711/12 (Item No. 37314 from the Gross Family Collection), made by Antonio Poma of Venice, is documented at the Center for Jewish Art of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem; and a pair of Torah finials bearing Poma's marks, was offered for auction at Christie's, Geneva, in May, 1994 (lot 160). Evidently, one of the spiceboxes from the Zagayski Collection mentioned above – sold in 2013 as part of the Michael and Judy Steinhardt Judaica Collection, (lot 83, see below) – also bears the marks of Antonio Poma.
We know of two magnificent Torah crowns, which, like the present spicebox, bear the marks of Zuanne Cottini. One is found today in the collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art (Item No. 2017.1). And the other, dated ca. 1700, was first presented in 2013 as part of an exhibition of items of Judaica rediscovered in one of the synagogues of the Ghetto of Venice after being hidden there in 1943 (it appears in a photograph in the 2013 exhibition catalogue and in a photo in the auction catalogue of the Steinhardt Judaica Collection, p. 140).
Height: 25.5 cm. Width at base: 8 cm. Minor fractures, with some loss. Minor bends and old soldering repairs.
For further information and similar items, see:
1. "Treasures of the Jewish Ghetto of Venice restored by Venetian Heritage with the Support of Maison Vhernier, " The Belvedere, Vienna, 2014, pp. 58-59; p. 66.
2. Guido Schoenberger and Tom L. Freudenheim, "The Silver and Judaica Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Michael M. Zagayski, " The Jewish Museum, New York, 1963, items 58, 75, 76 (photographed).
3. "The Michael and Judy Steinhardt Judaica Collection, " Sotheby's, New York, April 29, 2013, lot 83; p. 140.
4. "Important Design, " Bonhams, London, 27 Nov. 2019, lot 100.
5. Sotheby's, New York, May 1986, lot 288; auctioned again at Sotheby's, Tel Aviv, October 1991, lot 206.