Two hanging Sabbath lamps ("Judenstern"). [Germany, 19th or 20th century].
1. Copper and bronze, cast, soldered and pierced.
Baluster-shaped shaft over an eight-spout wick holder. Adjustable suspension bar.
Total length: approx. 88 cm. Production defects. Welding repairs.
2. Brass, cast and turned.
Column shaft over a six-spout wick holder. Connector brackets and hollow screws inside each spout (possibly as part of past electric wiring).
Total length: approx. 125 cm. Good condition. Minor damage. Adjustable suspension bar presumably supplemented from a different lamp.

Decorated mezuzah cover from the house of the woman Rovida Alkobi. [Morocco, late 19th century to mid-20th century].
Low-grade silver, pierced and engraved; cloth and cardboard.
A silver shield-shaped mezuzah cover, pierced and engraved with palmettes and scrolling foliage. The divine name "Shadai" and the name "Rovida Alkobi" are engraved on top. The name Rovida, short for Orovida, is a Judeo-Spanish name meaning "golden life".
Elaborate mezuzah covers were of the most important religious artifacts in Jewish households in Morocco, and unlike other artifacts, were considered "feminine" objects, bearing the name of the lady of the household. The covers were usually embroidered goldwork on velvet in vibrant colors; some were made of silver and backed with velvet. Most of the silver mezuzah covers most probably originate from the mellah of Fez, which was home to many silversmiths who worked in this style. Similar silverwork is typical of Moroccan Hanukkah lamps, prayers shawl (tallit) bags and phylacteries (tefillin) bags.
The Mezuzah cover was often made for the bride's dowry, but in some cases the need for it arose only later; at first, the young couple would live with the husband's parents and only when children were born and the family moved to a more spacious house would a new mezuzah cover be made. Since Jewish houses in Morocco (like Muslim houses) were closed off for reasons of modesty and safety, and due to the value of the silver mezuzah covers, they were not hung on the door facing the street but rather inside the house, often at the entrance to the living room. Thus, the Mezuzah symbolized the central place of the wife and mother as the supporting pillar of the family, in the spirit of the Mishnaic saying "his house is his wife".
This mezuzah cover is documented in the Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art, item no. 7262.
18X26.5 cm. Good condition. A suspension loop on top. Bends. On a new cardboard base covered with fabric.
Literature: The Mezuzah Cover: A Special Artistic Ritual Object in the Life of the Jewish Woman in the Moroccan Cities, by Shalom Sabar (Hebrew). In Yahadut Marocco, January-June 2016, Issue 3, pp. 48-53.

Destruccio Iherosolime [Destruction of Jerusalem], double incunable leaf (f. LXIIII) from Hartmann Schedel's famed "Schedelsche Weltchronik" (also known as "Liber Chronicarum" or "Nuremberg Chronicle"). [Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 1493]. Latin. One of the first views of Jerusalem ever printed.
A woodcut depicting the destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple by Babylonian general Nabuzaradan in the year 586 BCE.
On verso, woodcuts depicting King Zedekiah, blinded and led into Babylonian captivity, and the kings and prophets of Judah: Jeconiah, Zerubbabel, Haggai, Malachi and others.
The "Nuremberg Chronicle" comprised a history of the world from creation up to the author's time, based on the Bible and on various other sources. The book, first printed in Anton Koberger's printing house in Nuremberg in 1493, is considered one of the best-documented incunabula. It was one of the first books to integrate illustrations and text and is famous to this day, mainly for its numerous woodcuts. The woodcuts were provided by the workshop of Michael Wolgemut, one of Nuremberg's leading artists at the time (in whose workshop Albrecht Dürer was apprenticed between 1486-9).
Leaf: approx. 42.5X59 cm. Matted (with adhesive tape to upper edge) and framed. Frame: 74X60 cm. Good condition. Small tears along vertical fold line (reinforced with two strips of paper mounted on verso).
Laor 1125.