Spice container, designed as a three-tiered tower ornamented with miniature figures depicting the customs of the Havdalah ceremony. Galicia or Austro-Hungary, [ca. 1800].
Silver; filigree, cast and parcel-gilt.
Spice container, composed of a hexagonal base resting on claw and ball feet. The main part of the container, also hexagonal, opens with a hinged-door and bolt. The container is surrounded by a balcony manned by six figures: two figures of guards (one of them holding the chain of the door in its left hand), and four figures depicting the customs of the Havdalah ceremony: a figure holding a goblet of wine, a figure holding a spice container (tower-shaped, with a pointed top), a figure with its hand stretched forward (to study its nails during the blessing over the fire) and an additional figure, which presumably originally held a Havdalah candle (ornament lacking). Six small flags fly from the six upper corners. The two upper tiers are designed as a bell-tower, topped with an onion dome surmounted by a knop with a flag on a mast.
Tower-shaped spice containers were often inspired by the town hall tower in their city of origin; evidence of such containers date back to the 16th century. Once spice containers took an architectural form, artists started using other elements associated with actual European towers in their designs: flags, clocks, tile roofs, domes, gates and armed guards (who manned these edifices). In time, figures with Jewish characteristics joined these guards, and so, beside guards armed with rifles, shields or clubs, spice containers would also feature figures with Jewish characteristics, such as musicians with blowing horns, men holding attributes associated with the Shabbat or other festivals, or, as in the present tower, figures representing the customs of the Havdalah ceremony.
Filigree spice containers of similar architectural design are found in several museum collections, such as the Jewish Museum London (no. JM 413; without figures) and the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam (no. M000144; with musicians).
As for the miniature figures on the spice containers, while they were usually dressed to match contemporary conventions, their quality of craftsmanship varies; in this aspect, the Jewish figures featured in the present spice container are similar to their counterparts on a German 18th century spice container, made by Hamburg silversmith Johann Friedrich Wiese (see Gutmann no. 32). The guard figures resemble one such figure in another German container, dating to the 16th century, which was held in the Kassel museum collection but has since been lost (see Towers of Spices, image V). A slightly taller container, the figures on which are identical to those on the present container, is found in the New York Jewish Museum collection (no. JM 19-57).
Height: 28 cm. Overall good condition. Slightly tilted. One figure lacking ornament. A bell may be missing from the top tier. Minor damage. Soldering repairs.
For similar items, see:
• Towers of Spices: The Tower-shape Tradition in Havdalah Spice-boxes (The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1982), nos. 65-68. V, XIX.
• Joseph Gutmann, Jewish Ceremonial Art (New York, 1964), nos. 32-33.
• Paul Spiegel, Eine gute Woche!, Jüdische Türme aus Schwäbisch Gmünd (Schwäbisch Gmünd, 2001), no. 46.
• The Jewish Museum London, nos. JM 413, C1985.1.2.
• The Stieglitz Collection: masterpieces of Jewish art (The Israel Museum, 1987), nos. 60-61, 68.