Esther scroll in large format, rolled onto wooden handle with silver ornaments. [Italy, probably Rome, 18th century].
Ink on parchment (Gevil); silver, cast and repoussé (unmarked); silver and gilt metal-thread embroidery and colored silk-thread embroidery on cotton fabric.
"HaMelech" Esther scroll (i.e. most columns headed with the word "HaMelech" – "the king"), inscribed on six light-brown parchment membranes, 20 columns of text, 23 lines per column. Tagim (decorative "crownlets") over designated letters.
This large-format Esther scroll is rolled onto a wooden shaft adorned with silver ornaments on its upper and lower part. The silver ornament covering the lower part (the handle) is divided into a number of segments bearing vegetal and geometric patterns. Its uppermost segment, at the base of the scroll, is cup-shaped, and reminiscent of Italian Torah pointers. The silver ornament of the upper part includes two crowns adorned with flowers and seashells. Between them is an ornament also decorated with flowers and seashells, as well as cartouches. Surmounting the middle of the upper crown is a bud-shaped ornament, encircled by small leaves.
The scroll is wrapped in an original cloth "mantle", embroidered with colorful silk thread and gilt metal thread in recurrent patterns, to which is sewn a set of three buttons.
Height of parchment: 33 cm. Length of scroll: approx. 415 cm. Height of shaft + handles: 70 cm. Cloth mantle: 33.5X25 cm. Overall good condition. Scroll detached from handle. Tears, including open tears, to edges of several parchment sheets. The number “214" stamped onto silver handle. Mantle in fair-good condition, with stains and tears, and with damage to embroidery. Mantle buttons probably more recent.
Two Esther scrolls with similar shafts and handles are kept in the collection of the Jewish Museum of Rome. See: Dora Liscia Bemporad and Davide Spagnoletto, eds., Consacrati al Signore, Argenti del Museo Ebraico di Roma, Sillabe, Livorno, 2024, Italian, pp. 360-61 (nos. XVIII.3, XVIII.4).
