Auction 79 - Judaica from the Finkelstein Family Collection
Esther Scroll in Exquisite Case – China, Late 19th Century
Opening: $25,000
Estimate: $40,000 - $60,000
Sold for: $87,500
Including buyer's premium
Esther scroll in elaborate, fine case. Hong Kong, China, [late 19th century].
Scroll in Sephardic script (ink on thin parchment); silver case (marked; maker: Whang Hing, Rao J. workshop) turned and engraved, gilt, enamel.
The elaborately decorated case comprises three parts: a handle with horizontal grooves (reminiscent of a bamboo), a hexagonal compartment for the scroll, and a foliate coronet encircling a dome surmounted by a knob. The case is decorated with blue and green enamel bamboo leaves and flowers reminiscent of cherry or almond blossoms.
The scroll and case were presumably commissioned in China by Ezra Ezekiel Ezra, a Jewish-Iraqi silk and spice merchant from Baghdad, who was active in China in the second half of the 19th century.
Height of case: 17.5 cm. Height of parchment: 5.5 cm, width of parchment: 146 cm. Stains and tears to parchment.
Provenance:
1. Collection of Ezra Ezekiel Ezra (Elias, ca. 1858-1920), a member of the Baghdadi Jewish community in Hong Kong.
2. Purchased at Christie's Amsterdam, Silver, Judaica, Russian Works of Art and Objects of Vertu, December 20, 2005, lot no. 431.
Scroll in Sephardic script (ink on thin parchment); silver case (marked; maker: Whang Hing, Rao J. workshop) turned and engraved, gilt, enamel.
The elaborately decorated case comprises three parts: a handle with horizontal grooves (reminiscent of a bamboo), a hexagonal compartment for the scroll, and a foliate coronet encircling a dome surmounted by a knob. The case is decorated with blue and green enamel bamboo leaves and flowers reminiscent of cherry or almond blossoms.
The scroll and case were presumably commissioned in China by Ezra Ezekiel Ezra, a Jewish-Iraqi silk and spice merchant from Baghdad, who was active in China in the second half of the 19th century.
Height of case: 17.5 cm. Height of parchment: 5.5 cm, width of parchment: 146 cm. Stains and tears to parchment.
Provenance:
1. Collection of Ezra Ezekiel Ezra (Elias, ca. 1858-1920), a member of the Baghdadi Jewish community in Hong Kong.
2. Purchased at Christie's Amsterdam, Silver, Judaica, Russian Works of Art and Objects of Vertu, December 20, 2005, lot no. 431.