Small Torah scroll [presumably Germany, 18th century]. Rolled up over a pair of wooden "atzei hayyim" (Torah scroll handles) ornamented with engraved silver, and surmounted by silver Torah finials. Frankfurt am Main, Germany, mid-18th century, [ca. 1740-50].
Ink on vellum; wood; silver, repoussé and engraved (marked, with maker’s mark and German city mark).
Small Torah scroll, scribed in Ashkenazi script typical of the second half of the 18th century and early 19th century.
Small Torah scroll rolled up over a pair of wooden "atzei hayyim" (Torah scroll handles) featuring several types of decoration. The upper parts are coated in silver bearing vegetal patterns and marked with the city mark of Frankfurt am Main as well as the maker’s mark, "Jost Leschhorn" (Meister 1731; Rosenberg 2060); these parts are surmounted by crown-like ornaments (unmarked, not original), screwed on. The lower parts, adjacent to the handles, consist of two bands of silver fastened to the wooden discs. They are inscribed with a dedicatory inscription, dated Hebrew year 5630 (1869-70) which states that the scroll was dedicated by the parents of the young man Moshe Löwenstein on the occasion of his bar mitzvah: "Generously donated by Avraham Dov, son of the honorable Uri Shraga Löwenstein and his wife Mme. Yulka / on the day his son Moshe advanced to 13 years [of age] on the Holy Sabbath day, the 1st day of Passover 5630…" Based on this inscription, it appears the Torah scroll was actually re-dedicated in 1870, and the above dedication was added on the occasion of the bar mitzvah.
It seems likely that the Avraham Löwenstein who dedicated the Torah scroll in 1870 was the brother of Markus Löwenstein of Frankfurt; in 1849, the two brothers Abraham and Markus Löwenstein established the Gebrüder Löwenstein trading house for antiques and historical artifacts in Frankfurt am Main – a fact which may explain how he managed to obtain an 18th century Torah scroll.
Only a handful of works of Judaica created by the silversmith Jost Leschhorn – a member of a family of silversmiths active in Frankfurt throughout the 18th century – are known to be extant. His documented works include two fragments of Torah finials – consisting only of the upper ornaments – which are part of the collection of the Musée de Cluny, Paris. It is reasonable to assume these fragments represent the upper ornaments missing from the Torah scroll handles here. They are made to look like the upper section of a belltower, they have a square base, spiraling columns, and a perforated dome from which a dangling bell is suspended. These decorative items, whose provenance is the M. Strauss-Rothschild Collection, are kept today in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme, Paris (mahJ; item nos. D.98.04.140.CL, D.98.04.141.CL, formerly from the collection of the Musée de Cluny, Paris, item nos. Cl. 12271 a, b).
For comparison, see a very similar pair of 18th century Torah scroll handles with finials from Frankfurt am Main housed in The Jewish Museum, New York, item no. JM 42-52a-b (formerly from the collection of the Jüdische Museum der Stadt, Frankfurt am Main).

Height of parchment: 20 cm. Height of Torah scroll handles: 43 cm. Height of silver coating, incl. crowns: 13.5 cm; diameter: 7 cm. Good condition. The crown-like ornaments surmounting the Torah scroll handles represent a later addition, as explained above. New Torah mantle and Torah belt. Fissures and fractures to lower wooden discs.

Reference and exhibitions:
1. Eretz Moledet, edited by Michael Bar-Zohar. Jerusalem, 2004, p. 35 (Hebrew).
2. Collection de Strauss, Description des Objets d'art Religieux Hébraïques, Poissy, 1878, no. 41.
3. Catalogue raisonné de la collection juive du Musée de Cluny, edited by Victor Klagsbald, Paris, 1981, nos. 140-141.
4. The Golden Age of Jewish Ceremonial Art in Frankfurt: Metalwork of the Eighteenth Century, edited by Vivian B. Mann. Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook, no. 31 (1986), pp. 401-402.
5. Crowning Glory, by Rafi Grafman, New York, 1996, items 254 and 17; p. 49.
6. L'art en fête: Roch ha-Chana, Yom Kippour, Souccot, Hochana Rabba et Sim'hat Torah, by Michele Fingher. Jerusalem, 2012, p. 67.
Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, No. 044.012.005.
These Torah scroll handles are documented on the Center for Jewish Art (CJA) website, item 40920.