Auction 61 - Rare and Important Items
Parchment Ketubah - Elaborate Engraved Frame - Hague, Netherlands, 1771 - Franco Mendes and Teixeira Families
Opening: $2,500
Sold for: $4,500
Including buyer's premium
Ketubah recording the marriage of David di Yitzchak Franco Mendes with Sarah, daughter of David Teixeira. Hague, Netherlands, March 1771.
Dutch-Sephardi ketubah, handwritten on parchment, adorned with a high-quality copper engraving: In the right and left margins are two vases with large bouquets, on which various birds and animals are perched. These are topped by images of a bride and groom in contemporary attire (on the right) and a mother with two children (on the left; allegory to Caritas [charity]). The text is written in Sephardi script and appears between two rounded pillars entwined with branches, crowned with an arch. On both sides of the arch are two Cherubs holding a drapery bearing the inscription "B'Siman Tov". At the bottom of the engraving is a large Rococo cartouche in which the tena'im were written.
The inspiration for this copper-engraving was the design of two Dutch ketubot created in 1648 and in 1654 by the artist and engraver Shalom Mordechai Italia. Shalom Italia, who arrived in Holland from Mantua, was also known for creating two Scrolls of Esther and portraits of Jacob Judah Leon Templo and of Menasseh ben Israel.
The ornamentation of this ketubah and the inscription printed at the bottom vary slightly from those which appear on other ketubot of this type (for example, see previous item): the attire of the bride and groom which appear in the upper right corner has been updated reflecting changes of fashion. A medallion with the image of a phoenix has been added to the bottom of the cartouche and the inscription referring to R. Yitzchak Aboab is replaced with the inscription: "Pertenece ao K. K. de T. T. de Amsterdam Roshodes Kislef A° 5499 D = M" - "Belongs to the Amsterdam Talmud Torah community, Rosh Chodesh Kislev 1739". One hundred years previously, in 1639, the three Jewish communities in Amsterdam of Sephardi and Portuguese origin, Beit Ya'akov, Neve Shalom and Beit Yisrael merged into one community named Talmud Torah. According to Prof. Shalom Sabar, the text and the additions and changes to this ketubah were created in 1739 in commemoration of the centennial of the unification of the communities.
Below the text are the signatures of the groom (in Latin letters) and of the witnesses: Shlomo Sruk (in Hebrew) and "Mor. / Mos. Baruch ---" (in Latin letters). The same signatures also appear at the end of the tena'im written on the bottom cartouche. The name of the attorney, "The famous attorney in the capital named Lambert Zeithof" who drew up the agreement is mentioned both in the text of the ketubah and the tena'im.
Shlomo Sruk whose signature appears twice on this ketubah was the Sephardi rabbi of Hague from 1789-1852 and the text of the ketubah also seems to have been written by Rabbi Sruk.
The groom, Ya'akov Franco-Mendes, is evidently a relative of David Franco-Mendes (David Chofshee, 1713-1792), a Dutch Jewish poet and Hebrew playwright, a descendant of a family of Anusim, disciple of the Ramchal, author of several books and copier of many manuscripts.
The NLI collection (Ms. Heb. 4°901.442) contains a ketubah from 1766 which records the marriage of Aharon son of David son of Yitzchak Franco-Mendes (brother of the abovementioned groom) with the bride Rachel daughter of David Teixeira (sister of the aforementioned bride).
34.5X42 cm. Stains to both sides of the ketubah (primarily to the bottom third). Few creases. The date which appears before the name of the attorney was amended.
Literature:
1. Ketubbah: Jewish marriage contracts of the Hebrew Union College Skirball Museum and Klau Library, Shalom Sabar (NY, 1990), pp. 265-270, no. 171.
2. The Oeuvre of the Jewish Engraver Salom Italia, by Mordechai Narkis, in: Tarbiz, Vol. 25, Issue 4, Tamuz 1957, pp. 441-451; Vol. 26, Issue 1, Tishrei 1957, pp. 87-101.
3. HaKetubah B'Iturim, David Davidowitz. Published by A. Levine-Epstein, Tel Aviv, 1979, pp. 21-24.
Dutch-Sephardi ketubah, handwritten on parchment, adorned with a high-quality copper engraving: In the right and left margins are two vases with large bouquets, on which various birds and animals are perched. These are topped by images of a bride and groom in contemporary attire (on the right) and a mother with two children (on the left; allegory to Caritas [charity]). The text is written in Sephardi script and appears between two rounded pillars entwined with branches, crowned with an arch. On both sides of the arch are two Cherubs holding a drapery bearing the inscription "B'Siman Tov". At the bottom of the engraving is a large Rococo cartouche in which the tena'im were written.
The inspiration for this copper-engraving was the design of two Dutch ketubot created in 1648 and in 1654 by the artist and engraver Shalom Mordechai Italia. Shalom Italia, who arrived in Holland from Mantua, was also known for creating two Scrolls of Esther and portraits of Jacob Judah Leon Templo and of Menasseh ben Israel.
The ornamentation of this ketubah and the inscription printed at the bottom vary slightly from those which appear on other ketubot of this type (for example, see previous item): the attire of the bride and groom which appear in the upper right corner has been updated reflecting changes of fashion. A medallion with the image of a phoenix has been added to the bottom of the cartouche and the inscription referring to R. Yitzchak Aboab is replaced with the inscription: "Pertenece ao K. K. de T. T. de Amsterdam Roshodes Kislef A° 5499 D = M" - "Belongs to the Amsterdam Talmud Torah community, Rosh Chodesh Kislev 1739". One hundred years previously, in 1639, the three Jewish communities in Amsterdam of Sephardi and Portuguese origin, Beit Ya'akov, Neve Shalom and Beit Yisrael merged into one community named Talmud Torah. According to Prof. Shalom Sabar, the text and the additions and changes to this ketubah were created in 1739 in commemoration of the centennial of the unification of the communities.
Below the text are the signatures of the groom (in Latin letters) and of the witnesses: Shlomo Sruk (in Hebrew) and "Mor. / Mos. Baruch ---" (in Latin letters). The same signatures also appear at the end of the tena'im written on the bottom cartouche. The name of the attorney, "The famous attorney in the capital named Lambert Zeithof" who drew up the agreement is mentioned both in the text of the ketubah and the tena'im.
Shlomo Sruk whose signature appears twice on this ketubah was the Sephardi rabbi of Hague from 1789-1852 and the text of the ketubah also seems to have been written by Rabbi Sruk.
The groom, Ya'akov Franco-Mendes, is evidently a relative of David Franco-Mendes (David Chofshee, 1713-1792), a Dutch Jewish poet and Hebrew playwright, a descendant of a family of Anusim, disciple of the Ramchal, author of several books and copier of many manuscripts.
The NLI collection (Ms. Heb. 4°901.442) contains a ketubah from 1766 which records the marriage of Aharon son of David son of Yitzchak Franco-Mendes (brother of the abovementioned groom) with the bride Rachel daughter of David Teixeira (sister of the aforementioned bride).
34.5X42 cm. Stains to both sides of the ketubah (primarily to the bottom third). Few creases. The date which appears before the name of the attorney was amended.
Literature:
1. Ketubbah: Jewish marriage contracts of the Hebrew Union College Skirball Museum and Klau Library, Shalom Sabar (NY, 1990), pp. 265-270, no. 171.
2. The Oeuvre of the Jewish Engraver Salom Italia, by Mordechai Narkis, in: Tarbiz, Vol. 25, Issue 4, Tamuz 1957, pp. 441-451; Vol. 26, Issue 1, Tishrei 1957, pp. 87-101.
3. HaKetubah B'Iturim, David Davidowitz. Published by A. Levine-Epstein, Tel Aviv, 1979, pp. 21-24.