Esther scroll decorated with engravings, in wooden case. [Amsterdam, early 18th century].
Copper engraving and ink on parchment; wood.
Esther scroll, inscribed on four parchment membranes sewn together, with 16 columns of text + an opening column, 23-26 lines per column. The blessings over the "megillah" reading appear at the beginning of the text in the opening column, written in Ashkenazic semi-cursive script (Vaybertaytsh).
The parchment scroll is decorated with numerous high-quality engravings. Eight of these, depicting scenes from the narrative of the Book of Esther, appear in the opening column. An additional sixteen engravings like these (in some cases representing midrashic interpretations of the narrative) decorate the lower margins of the columns of text. Another sixteen engravings can be found at the tops of the columns; these include landscapes – actually four distinct landscapes, each occurring four times in sequence. The columns of text are separated by large, ornamented architectonic columns, some of them with putti bearing baskets of flowers on their heads. Underneath each column, in the lower margin, is a large vase with flowers and fruit. These vases separate the engravings depicting scenes from the narrative of the Book of Esther.
This item belongs to a group of Esther Scrolls distinguished by bearing engravings – in a number of different type-versions – all created in Amsterdam in the course of the 18th century. Among the variations known to exist, the present type-version is evidently the earliest, and a copy of this type belonging to the René Braginsky Collection, Zurich (see below), has been dated to 1701.
For decades, scholars in the field of Jewish art have debated the question of the ultimate provenance of these Esther scrolls, and they have been attributed to a number of different points of origin in Europe.
In 2002, Adri K. Offenberg of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana of the University of Amsterdam examined an Esther scroll belonging to this group (albeit of a later type-version than the present scroll), printed on high-quality paper, and discovered watermarks on the scroll he identified as belonging to the "C & I HONIG" company, active in Amsterdam throughout the 18th century. To explain the apparent proliferation of Esther scrolls associated with this group all across Central and Eastern Europe (Germany, Bohemia, Moravia, and Poland), Offenberg proposed that the Amsterdam printers and publishers had specifically produced them with the intention of exporting them to all parts of Europe.
Copies of this particular Esther scroll can be found in collections in private hands as well as in prominent museums, including the Jewish Museum, Amsterdam; the Jewish Museum, Paris; the Jewish Museum, London; the Jewish Museum in Prague; the Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw; and other institutions. The scrolls belonging to the Amsterdam and Paris museum collections are housed in wooden cases similar to the one in which the present scroll is kept. Nevertheless, the present scroll is regarded as exceptional thanks to the fine state of preservation of both the scroll itself and the handsome wooden case it is housed in.
Height of parchment: 17 cm. Length of scroll: 172 cm. Overall good condition. Creases and stains to edges of parchment sheets and their lines of connection, affecting engravings (especially on leading edge of first sheet). Unraveled stitching at line of connection between first and second sheets, mended with paper on back of parchment. Few stains. Edge of last sheet stitched to wooden handle, 24 cm in length. This wooden handle may not be original; it may have served to replace an originally longer handle. Fissures to wooden case, some of them lengthy. An originally lengthy strip of wood was attached to the leading edge of the first sheet; upper portion of this strip now missing.
For additional information and comparison, see: Christie's Amsterdam, June 18, 2002, Lot 390; René Braginsky Collection, Zurich, Scroll 25 (Nummer 89 / English cat. no. 82); the Stieglitz Collection, no. 188.
Provenance:
1. Oscar and Regina Gruss Collection, New York.
2. Heirs of the above.
The Oscar and Regina Gruss Collection
In 1939, Oscar and Regina Gruss fled their hometown of Lvov (then part of Poland, now in Ukraine), narrowly escaping the Holocaust, and eventually settling in the United States. In the years following the war, they devoted themselves to assembling one of the finest collections of Jewish ceremonial art in the USA, with a particular focus on silverwork and 19th-century Jewish paintings.
Their collection featured masterpieces by celebrated artists such as Isidor Kaufmann, Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, and Solomon Alexander Hart. Many of these works were generously donated to The Jewish Museum, New York, while others remained within the family. The paintings in this catalogue are being offered at auction for the first time.
For additional items from the collection of Oscar and Regina Gruss in the present catalogue, see lot nos. 133, 144, 147, 153, 154, 204 and 205.
