Torah shield, "From the Synagogue of Rashkov Wallihish" (Hebrew inscription engraved on verso). Rashkov, Podolia region / Wallachia, today the Transnistria region, Moldova, dedicatory inscription dated 5581 [1821].
Silver (unmarked), repoussé, pierced, and engraved; gilt; glass stone.
Ornate Torah shield, representing a tradition of art, craftsmanship, and silversmithing characteristic of sacred Jewish objects from the southern Polish region of Galicia. Its basic structure includes a thick, gilt back plate, mostly blank, to which a silver plate – pierced with rich vegetal patterns and images of animals – is attached with screws. The images pierced onto the silver surface layer include leaves, branches, large flowers and various animals: a two-headed eagle with a bulging red glass stone in the middle; other birds; at the center, a pair of rampant lions flanking a Torah ark; a pair of deer and a unicorn flank the dome-like ornament at the bottom. Screwed onto the shield, near the top, is a large convex ornament in high relief, also in gilt, in the shape of a crown, adorned, once again, with a pair of deer. The shield's design is inspired by the design of East-European carved-wood Torah Arks, and the animal-themed ornamentation (most of all the unicorn) is typical of Galician craftsmanship.
Stamped directly onto the back plate, behind the silver plate forming the surface, are two ornaments bulging frontward in high relief; the one in the center is in the form of a Torah scroll covered by a Torah mantle bearing a Star of David; the other, beneath this, is dome-shaped and superimposed over a disk which can be rotated to show the correct (Hebrew) inscription for any particular holiday: "Rosh HaShanah", "HaSukkot", "HaMatzot" ("Passover"), and "HaShavu’ot" (with the latter inscription broken up into two separate lines); such rotating discs are not commonly found in Galician craftsmanship, and the design of this feature in the present Torah shield is more likely inspired by Moldavian-Romanian traditions.
The mantled Torah scroll is concealed inside the Torah ark, and can be revealed by opening the ark’s two doors – shaped like the Two Tablets of the Law, with the abbreviated Ten Commandments engraved upon them – by means of a tiny door handle.
An inscription on the back plate, on verso, reads as follows: "From the Synagogue of Rashkov Wallihish"; "Wallihish" is most likely a reference to the region of Wallachia which constituted an independent Romanian principality until 1859, when it united with Moldova to form the "Romanian United Principalities".

Height: 29 cm. Width: 22.5 cm. Good condition. Minor blemishes.

For comparison, see: Crowning Glory: Silver Torah Ornaments of the Jewish Museum, New York, by Rafi Grafman. Boston, David R. Godine, 1996, Nos. 186-92.
Exhibition: Reise an kein Ende der Welt. Vienna, Jüdisches Museum Wien, 2001, pp. 60-61.
Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, 051.001.039.
This Torah shield is documented on the Center for Jewish Art (CJA) website, item no. 37241.