"Menorah" – Shiviti Plaque with a Lamnatzeach menorah, also serving as an amulet. [Morocco, late 18th or early 19th century].

Ink and paint on parchment.

A Menorah Plaque (called a Shiviti Plaque in Europe), containing various texts and decorated brightly and with motifs characteristic of the art of the Islamic lands.

The top of the Plaque features Holy Names and the captions "Know before Whom you stand", and "I place the Lord before me always" (Shiviti). The Ten Commandments (right) and Ten Remembrances (left) appear inside four pointed and stylized horseshoe arches. The center features a large Lamnatzeach menorah, surrounded by the initial letters of Ana BeKoach, in the Temple vessels and other initials; two large vases to the right and left of the menorah are placed on birds, with bouquets of flowers emerging from them. The bottom contains four more horseshoe arches, containing: text on the Segulah of viewing the form of the menorah daily; a dedication to "the reputable, distinguished and lofty… R. Yosef Ben Zaken. May the G-d of Abraham be at his aid and protect him as a shepherd does his flock"; and an abbreviated formulation of the Rambam's 13 Principles of Faith, based on the version in the Oriental rite. In the center – between the four arches – appears an illustration of a pair of lions leaning against a palm tree. The margins are decorated with a square frame, composed of two repeating patterns – a vegetal pattern in the upper and lower margins, and a geometrical pattern in the right and left margins.

26X33.5 cm. Fair-good condition. Old damage, professionally restored (creases, folding marks and minor tears). Several dark stains, mainly to bottom third and upper corners, affecting text and illustrations. Fading of ink and paint.

Documented in Jewish Life in Morocco, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1973 (Hebrew), p. 56, No. 82 (dated to the 18th century and displayed over an entire page).

Esther scroll, handwritten and illustrated by the scribe-artist Aryeh Leib ben Daniel of Goraj. Godziszów, Poland, 9th Elul 5492 [August, 1732].

Ink on parchment; turned wood.

Esther scroll written on 4 parchment membranes sewn together (the fourth membrane is particularly small), 13 columns of text, 18-19 lines per column. Enlarged words and emphasis of letters of Holy Names; the twelfth column is written in an unusual way, with the names of Haman's ten sons arranged in three lines integrated within the text, with about 13 verses from chapter 9 written smaller in a separate text block, next to the left margin. Mounted on a wooden roller.

An important and rare Esther Scroll, produced by Aryeh Leib ben Daniel of Goraj; the earliest work of this scribe-artist, which serves as the basis and prototype for the dozens of scrolls he would produce in the decades to come.

The scroll is richly decorated in a fixed pattern: each column of text is bordered on the right and left by a pair of large figures standing on rectangular pedestals. Above each text column appears a large illustration depicting a scene from the Megillah story. To the right and left of each scene appear various illustrations on a vegetal background (see below).

In the last eight columns, on the pedestals, Aryeh Leib signed his name in a detailed colophon:
"Finished on the 9th of Elul 1732 / in Godziszów, / the work of my hands / Aryeh Leib son of R. / Daniel / from Goraj: / near Zamość in Lesser Poland".

Aryeh Leib ben Daniel, a talented and prolific scribe and artist, produced dozens of illustrated Esther scrolls between 1732-1755, about 20 of which include a colophon in which he signs his full name, "Aryeh Leib ben Daniel" and mentions his hometown, the Polish town of Goraj ("Goraj, Lesser Poland"). In addition to the scrolls that he wrote and illustrated himself, he also signed about seven scrolls decorated with engravings by Francesco Grisellini, in which he served only as scribe. In many of the scrolls that he produced, Aryeh Leib also named the location of writing – allowing us to trace his wanderings from Goraj, via nearby Godziszów, to Radensdorf and Schwelm (in Germany), Venice, Brescello and Pisa (Italy), and finally – Avignon, France. The present scroll is the earliest one he produced, and probably also the only one he created while still in Poland, before he set out on his travels.

Illustrations:

The thirteen large figures placed between the columns of text depict Moses (holding the Tablets of the Covenant) and Aaron (wearing a breastplate and holding a censer), followed by figures from the Purim story, some dressed in royal attire, representing Ahasuerus, Mordecai, Haman, Vashti and Esther, and others in military dress – with armor and shields, helmets, spears, or swords – representing the Persian and Median nobles.

Above each column of text appears a large illustration – in a rectangular or oval frame – depicting a scene from the Purim story. To the right and left of each scene appear pairs of putti (cherubs), birds or lions, against a vegetal background.

The themes of the large illustrations are as follows:

• Ahasuerus' feast.

• Vashti's feast for the women.

• The beheading of Vashti (based on the Midrash).

• Mordecai sits at the king's gate and hears the plot to assassinate the king; in the background, the hanging of Bigthan and Teresh.

• King Ahasuerus gives his ring to Haman.

• The Jews of Shushan weep and lament following the news of Haman's plot.

• King Ahasuerus extends the golden scepter to Esther.

• The king is unable to sleep and asks to have the book of chronicles read to him.

• Haman leads Mordecai on horseback and Haman's daughter empties a chamber pot on his head (based on the Midrash).

• The hanging of Haman (Ahasuerus and Esther are visible in the background).

• The Jews of Shushan rejoice, play music and dance.

• The Jews strike their enemies, against the backdrop of the hanging of Haman's ten sons.

• Mordecai and Esther write the Purim letter.

In his illustrations and designs, Aryeh Leib generally based his work on earlier scrolls, including the engraved scrolls created by Shalom Italia in the Netherlands about a century earlier and scrolls decorated with engravings printed in the Netherlands in the first half of the 18th century. His most famous scrolls are those created between 1744 and 1755; they generally reflect a consistent, uniform artistic language, and include meticulous line drawings in sepia tones, the complete figures of characters from the Purim story elegantly dressed, illustrations of hissing lions and birds, scenes from the Purim story, and medallions with minor figures from the Megillah. The present scroll – his earliest, dated and bearing his full name – thus constitutes a prototype for the scrolls he would produce over the next twenty years. Although the round medallions are absent, many characteristics which here appear for the first time would be repeated in most of his work and become his hallmark, including the large figures, the illustrations of lions and birds, and the emphasis of Holy Names.

For more information and additional early scrolls by Aryeh Leib ben Daniel, see: Chaya Benjamin, The Stieglitz Collection: Masterpieces in Jewish Art, (The Israel Museum, 1987), item 186; Mendel Metzger A Study of Some Unknown Hand-Painted Megilloth of the 17th and 18th Centuries. An original article from the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library Manchester,  1963; René Braginsky Collection, S95; Sotheby's, New York, December 15, 2016, Lot 187; Sotheby's, New York, December 20, 2017, Lot 105; Sotheby's, New York, November 20, 2019, Lot 125; Jewish Museum of Amsterdam (JHM), item M000416; lecture by Sharon Liberman Mintz, A Wandering Scribe and his Illustrated Esther Scrolls (Center for Jewish Studies, Fordham University, March 2022, available on YouTube).

See also the next item.

Decorated Esther scroll, with matching leaf of blessings. [Italy, 18th century].

Ink and paint on parchment; turned wood.

Large-format Esther scroll, written on 11 parchment membranes sewn together (first and last membranes smaller and with no text). 27 columns of text, 15 lines per column. With serifs (Tagim); letters Chet with tall, circular raised top. Rolled on large wooden handle.

The scroll is decorated throughout with rich, skillful illustrations, with a fixed architectural pattern mimicking an arcade in Rococo style. Pillars and arches decorated with motifs characteristic of the period, including rocailles, twisting leaves and stylized cartouches, in light blue, light red, and shades of green, pink, gold, yellow and brown. The pillars are topped by vases holding interlocking bouquets of flowers.

The margin of the first membrane is trimmed artistically and decorated with a large, impressive cartouche slanted sideways, surrounded by flower branches and topped with a golden crown. The illustration in the interior of the cartouche depicts a house headed by a small stone bridge, possibly a family coat of arms.

The scroll is accompanied by a large leaf, containing the blessings recited before and after the Megillah reading. The blessings leaf is written by the same scribe, and is decorated with patterns and colors matching those of the scroll.

Height of parchment: 34.5 cm. Length of scroll: 466 cm. Height including handle: 68.5 cm. Overall good condition. Clean, bright parchment. Some stains. Erasures and corrections to text on third column. Light creases at beginning of first membrane. Last archway illustration without text. Blessings leaf: 32.5X33 cm. Overall good condition, with creases and some stains.

Illuminated manuscript, Maariv for Passover, with Passover Haggadah, and with a Judeo-Arabic translation of the Haggadah, produced by "Meir Yitzchak Meir Chaim Moshe Gabbai". Baghdad, 1884.

Ink and paint on paper.

Particularly impressive manuscript, written and artistically decorated, containing over 70 pages (all of the manuscript's leaves) decorated in purple, blue and brown. Oriental semi-cursive and square script. Headers and initial words in illustrated panels (enlarged, colored and with floral motifs), illustrations of animals (birds, fish and lions).

The manuscript begins with a "carpet" page. Two more "carpet" pages before the Haggadah, one with a Lamnatzeach menorah, with permutations of names and verses, and the other with the Seder plate, with the Seder mnemonic ("Kadesh Urechatz…").

The pages are framed and divided into two columns (usually separated by a floral decoration). In the Haggadah section, the right column features the Hebrew text, while the left column features the Judeo-Arabic translation.

The writer signs his name and the date of writing in several places throughout the manuscript, incorporated in the "carpet" pages, frames and decorations. For instance, at the beginning of the manuscript, signed "Meir Yitzchak Meir Chaim Moshe… Shevat 1884"; at the end of Maariv: "Meir Yitzchak Meir Chaim Moshe Gabbai".

The scribe and illuminator, Meir [son of] Yitzchak Gabbai, was the son of "Yitzchak Meir Chaim Moshe Gabbai", known to have produced illustrated works between 1848-1854, including six Esther scrolls he scribed and illustrated (two of which are preserved in the Israel Museum – one in the Feuchtwanger Collection and one in the Stieglitz Collection, and an additional scroll in the Heichal Shlomo Collection). We also know of an illuminated manuscript of the Passover Haggadah and Maariv prayer he wrote in 1854 (Kedem, Auction 92, Part II, Lot 131 – from the Gross Family Collection; see also: Kedem, Auction 93, Part I, Lot 92). The illustrations in the present Haggadah are reminiscent of the artwork of the scribe R. Moshe [son of] Yosef Avraham Somech (see: Kedem, Auction 92, Part II, Lot 133).

[37] leaves. 13.5 cm. Good condition. Stains and wear. Minor tears. Fading and smudging of ink on several leaves. Original leather bindings, with damage and tears.

Large parchment plaque with order of Sefirat HaOmer, presumably produced by Tzvi Hirsch son of David Sofer Stam of Amsterdam (see below). [Presumably Amsterdam, early decades of the 19th century (unsigned and undated)].

Ink on parchment.

Large micrographic work, with exceptional complexity of content and richness of decoration, including the order of Counting of the Omer and many mentions of and allusions to the Jewish calendar, customs and mitzvot: Shabbat, Havdalah, festivals and holidays, prayers and blessings, quotations from the Haftarah and Mishnah, amulets, Holy Names, names of angels, Five Megillot, and more.

The top of the plaque features the blessing for counting of the Omer, while the bottom features the verse "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill"; the center features an assortment of verses, blessings and illustrations, meticulous and rich in detail, including the blessings for Biur Chametz, Eruv Tavshilin, Sukkah, Chanukah candle-lighting, an illustration of the scales of righteousness and wickedness for Rosh Hashanah, the "Horn of Salvation", three crowns and additional decorations, all set within ornamented frames.

The center of the plaque features a masterful schematic illustration of the Temple structure, with the vessels of the Tabernacle – comprising a Lamnatzeach Menorah, the Two Tablets, the Ark, the Altar, the Table, and the Holy of Holies, among other sacred elements – enclosed within a separate frame surrounded by verses from Tehillim, Holy Names and the initials of the piyyut Ana BeKoach.

The plaque is encompassed by three decorative frames, executed in fine micrography containing the verses of the Five Megillot – the Books of Esther, Eichah, Kohelet, Ruth and Shir HaShirim. The outer frame is composed of a pattern of interlocking ovals; the central frame displays a repeating pattern of flowers and leaves (with eight-pointed stars adorning all four corners); the inner frame is composed of a repeating pattern of interlocking diamond shapes. A fourth, innermost frame, is composed of 49 circles and squares, each one representing a day of the Omer count.

Although the present plaque is unsigned, the artist appears to be Tzvi Hirsch ben David Sofer Stam, a scribe believed to have worked in Amsterdam, ca. 1815-1830 (according to another conjecture, his earliest work dates to 1800). Other micrographic plaques he produced, including some similar Sefirat HaOmer plaques, are held in public and private collections: a parchment plaque, dated 1800, auctioned in 2007 (Sotheby's, New York, December 19, 2007, Lot 190); another very similar plaque, dated ca. 1825, held in the JTS Library, B(NS)Mc43; a third plaque, on paper, dated 1830, auctioned in 2020 (Sotheby's, New York, December 17, 2020, Lot 173). In addition to these plaques, there are several extant manuscripts copied by Tzvi Hirsch ben David Sofer Stam, including: Year-round order of festivals, with Kavanot of the Arizal, Amsterdam, 1830 (Library Ets Haim – Livraria Montezinos, EH 47 C 19); and Seder Tefilat HaChodesh BeKitzur according to the Livorno rite, [Amsterdam?], 1831 (JTS Library, Ms. 4752).

Approx. 80X70 cm. Fair-good condition. Large stains, some dark, slightly affecting text and illustrations. Ink faded in several places. Small marginal holes, tears and open tears (partially repaired with parchment), not affecting text or illustrations. Remains of acid-free tape to verso. Several tears and cuts, professionally restored on verso.