Auction 81 - The Wily Lindwer Collection
Torah Finials in Turkish-Greek Style – Jerusalem 1884 – Melamed Family – Earliest Known Torah Finials from Jerusalem
Opening: $1,500
Unsold
Torah finials. Ottoman Empire – Jerusalem, [5644 (1884)].
Silver, cast and engraved.
Turkish-Greek-style Torah finials (Ottoman Empire). Conical head surmounted by bud-shaped finial. Body in form of two flattened spheres decorated with vegetal patterns and cartouches. Supported on slender, tapering shafts. Chains with bells.
Dedicatory Hebrew inscriptions, partly obscured, engraved on shafts. One reads: "This is the Torah finial dedicated by R. Reuven Melamed […] toward the elevation of the soul of his son Yosef Haim […] in the Holy City of Jerusalem[…]" followed by a chronogram representing the Hebrew year 5644 (1884), and the verse "For by me your days shall be multiplied, and the years of your life shall be increased" (Proverbs 9:11). A similar inscription, with minor differences, appears on the second shaft, with a different chronogram, likewise meant to represent 5644.
Among the earliest pairs of dated Torah finials known from Jerusalem, perhaps the earliest of all.
Height: 24.5 cm. Good condition. Old soldering repairs, with minor damage to dedicatory inscriptions. Minor blemishes. Loose screw joints.
Purchased in Jerusalem in 1998.
Silver, cast and engraved.
Turkish-Greek-style Torah finials (Ottoman Empire). Conical head surmounted by bud-shaped finial. Body in form of two flattened spheres decorated with vegetal patterns and cartouches. Supported on slender, tapering shafts. Chains with bells.
Dedicatory Hebrew inscriptions, partly obscured, engraved on shafts. One reads: "This is the Torah finial dedicated by R. Reuven Melamed […] toward the elevation of the soul of his son Yosef Haim […] in the Holy City of Jerusalem[…]" followed by a chronogram representing the Hebrew year 5644 (1884), and the verse "For by me your days shall be multiplied, and the years of your life shall be increased" (Proverbs 9:11). A similar inscription, with minor differences, appears on the second shaft, with a different chronogram, likewise meant to represent 5644.
Among the earliest pairs of dated Torah finials known from Jerusalem, perhaps the earliest of all.
Height: 24.5 cm. Good condition. Old soldering repairs, with minor damage to dedicatory inscriptions. Minor blemishes. Loose screw joints.
Purchased in Jerusalem in 1998.
Palestine
Palestine