Decorated parchment ketubah, for the wedding of Aharon son of Moshe Enriques and Avigayil daughter of Aharon Serano. Bayonne, France, 13th Kislev 5494 [November 20, 1733].
Ink and paint on parchment.
Written on a small rectangular parchment sheet, with upper margins cut in an undulating pattern. The text of the ketubah appears in the center, in brown Sephardic semi-cursive script, with the signatures of the groom and witnesses below, in Latin characters (illegible).
Decorated with a colorful, symmetric vegetal pattern, containing flower branches emerging from a pair of vases. At the top of the ketubah is a cartouche with the blessing "With an auspicious sign" (with serifs on letters). The text is surrounded by a red rectangular frame, and the margins are bordered in a matching frame.
This ketubah documents the marriage of a couple of Sephardic origin. Its decorations may have been influenced by the engraved borders that began to appear in ketubot of the Sephardic-Portuguese community of the Netherlands in the 17th century (based on engravings produced by the engraver and artist Shalom Italia).
27.5X34.5 cm. Fair-good condition. Creases, folding marks and stains, slightly affecting text and illustrations.
The NLI ketubah site documents only eight ketubot from Bayonne, most in museum or institutional collections.
This ketubah was formerly in the collection of Mozes Heiman Gans (1917-1987), Amsterdam, from which it was scanned onto the NLI ketubah site, listing 990003030970205171.
