Machzor in magnificent silver binding. [Probably Germany, 19th century]. Silver, repoussé, pierced, and engraved (unmarked); print on paper; clothbound cardboard. Machzor in original cloth binding, covered by an elegant silver binding, pierced on both sides with a symmetrical pattern (openwork) bearing rich vegetal motifs in the form of leaves, flowers, and twisting tendrils, encircling a round, convex medallion. The spine is adorned with a matching pattern. The round medallions at the centers of the binding boards are engraved with initials, probably those of the bride and groom, in Gothic script, "G.C." on the front board and "A.C." on the back. Book: Year-round Italian rite machzor, Part II, comprising the second part of the "Bnei Roma Machzor", compiled by the scholar Shadal, Samuel David Luzzatto. Livorno: Salomone Belforte & Co., [1856].
18 pages, 217 leaves. Approx. 21 cm. Book block with gilt, gauffered edges. Fair condition. Stains, including dampstains, to numerous leaves; also including browning to title page and additional leaves. Several loose and detached leaves. Binding detached, along with several leaves at beginning and end of book. Silver binding: 22 cm. Overall good condition. Cloth cover worn. Buckle not original. Loose connections at hinges.

Esther scroll decorated with hand-painted engravings. [The Netherlands, late 17th century].

Copper engraving, ink and paint on parchment.

Magnificent Esther scroll, exemplary of scrolls in the decorative tradition prevalent among Dutch Jewish communities of Spanish-Portuguese origin from the 17th century onward. An utterly unique item in terms of both quality and rarity, unparalleled to the best of our knowledge.

"HaMelech" Esther scroll (i.e. most columns headed with the word "HaMelech" – "the king"), inscribed on a dozen parchment membranes sewn together, 23 columns of text, 20 lines per column, in square script typical of scribes of Spanish descent active in Amsterdam in those years. Adorned with 24 engravings, serving as decorative frames for the columns of text, in two alternating patterns, fashioned and painted by hand in a host of different colors. The first of these engravings, at the beginning of the scroll, provides a decorative frame for a large heraldic device, also hand-painted.

Decorations and Illustrations

Each parchment membrane is printed with two frame engravings, one oval-shaped and the other rectangular-shaped. The oval-shaped frames are designed as rich and densely filled floral wreaths; each wreath is arranged in a symmetrical composition and hand-painted, with the colors varying, giving the flowers a different appearance each time. The wreaths also include large tulips, which are particularly characteristic of the Netherlands. The oval frames are in turn surrounded by rectangular frames filled with vegetal patterns, hand-painted in red. The rectangular-shaped frames are also symmetrically composed and feature decorations of flowers, leaves and twisted branches, with four pairs of birds – songbirds, parrots and roosters – interspersed among them. These are all hand-painted, and bordered with a red outline.

The flowers, plants and birds appearing in this scroll are highly reminiscent of decorative elements created and signed by the artist-engraver Salom Italia for two Dutch ketubahs (Jewish marriage contracts) dating respectively from 1648 and 1654, as well as of decorative elements appearing on ketubahs in use among Dutch Jewish communities of Spanish-Portuguese extraction from the 1660s onward, inspired by the aforementioned ketubahs. The artistic style of Salom ben Mordechai Italia – who moved from Mantua, Italy to Amsterdam ca. 1640 – gained popularity in his day, and was subsequently imitated, inspiring and influencing engravings and other works in the second half of the 17th century, and through the 18th and 19th centuries. Apparently, the decorations adorning the present Esther scroll were similarly influenced by the work of Salom Italia, just a few decades after he was active, in late 17th century.

The first frame-engraving encloses a large emblem in the form of a Star of David, hand-painted in yellowish gold over a blue background. As a result of the wear typical to the beginning of the first membrane of Esther scrolls, it is difficult to determine with certainty the nature of this emblem, but it appears to be a family crest representing the owner of the scroll. Although the display of a family’s coat of arms at the beginning of an Esther scroll was prevalent mostly in Italy – where heraldic devices were most notably customary – such displays could also adorn scrolls from Amsterdam, typically among distinguished Jewish families of Spanish-Portuguese descent (for instance scrolls created by Salom Italia; see below).

Parallels and Comparisons

To the best of our knowledge, the present Esther scroll is the only extant manuscript of its kind; we are unaware of the existence of any identical scrolls, nor do we know of any examples of such engraved plates being used in other printed items. Nevertheless, there are a number of Esther scrolls related to this particular scroll in terms of their decorative elements, which are worth mentioning here in order to demonstrate both the affinity of the present scroll to the work of Salom Italia and its similarity to other contemporary Dutch Esther scrolls:

• Two 17th-century Dutch Esther scrolls with engravings by Salom Italia, from the collection of the Jewish Museum, Amsterdam, one scroll with round frame-engravings (M000432); and another with octagonal frame-engravings and with decorations similar to those of the present Esther scroll (M012276).

• An Esther scroll – also from the collection of the Jewish Museum, Amsterdam – that begins with an engraving in the form of a round floral wreath (M000415).

• Two items from the collection of the Klau Library, Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio: An Esther scroll decorated entirely with oval frame-engravings in the form of floral wreaths (dated to the 18th century, Scrolls 51 [V.5]); and a sheet of blessings with an oval frame-engraving with floral patterns (dated to the second half of the 17th century, Scrolls 12 [VIII.5]).

• And finally, an Esther scroll from Amsterdam that begins with an engraving in the form of a large, oval floral wreath, dated 1686, from the collection of the New York Public Library (Spencer Coll. Hebrew MS. 2).

Height of parchment: approx. 19.7 cm. Length of scroll: 339 cm. Stains and many creases to first and second membranes. Many tears and creases to beginning of first membrane, affecting decorations and illustration. Open tear to eighth membrane, repaired with later strip of parchment and text replacement. Two small repairs with strips of parchment to eleventh membrane. Edge of last membrane sewn onto later strip of parchment, in turn sewn onto later handle (19th century?); height of handle: 42.5 cm.

Enclosed: Detailed expert opinion by Prof. Shalom Sabar, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

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.

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).

Esther scroll, placed in decorated silver case and original box. Greece / Ottoman Empire, [late 19th or early 20th century].

Ink on parchment; silver: filigree and granulation; gilt; fabric; embossed iron sheet box.

Esther scroll, inscribed on seven parchment membranes sewn together, 22 columns of text, usually 18 lines per column.

Placed in silver case coated in reddish fabric, decorated on exterior with meticulous high-quality filigree and granulation – some gilt – in rich vegetal patterns, some of which include 4-5 layers of silver strings in complex three-dimensional patterns. The case is topped with crown-like ornamentations, a flower-like ornamentation and flower sepals holding filigree pendants.

The case is placed in the original iron sheet box, with matching decorations embossed on the cover.

The Jewish Museum of Greece collection has several scrolls with similar cases; see also: Center for Jewish Art (CJA), item 40969 (Gross Family Collection).

Height of parchment: 12 cm. Length of scroll: approx. 246 cm. Height of case: 14.5 cm; iron box: 42.5 cm, with light damage. Overall good condition. Light damage. One filigree pendant in upper ornamentation lacking.