Colorfully-Decorated Embroidered Wimpel, Incomplete – Germany, 1762

Wimpel (Torah binder / circumcision cloth). [Germany, probably Bavaria region], 1762.

Embroidery of silk thread of vario

Download picture

Colorfully-Decorated Embroidered Wimpel, Incomplete – Germany, 1762

10 PHOTOS

Auction 108 Books | Letters and Manuscripts | Scrolls and Jewish Ceremonial Art

May 12, 2026

Prices Realized

Browse Sale

Colorfully-Decorated Embroidered Wimpel, Incomplete – Germany, 1762

Opening: $800

Sold for: $1,000

Including buyer's premium

Wimpel (Torah binder / circumcision cloth). [Germany, probably Bavaria region], 1762.

Embroidery of silk thread of various colors on linen.

Incomplete wimpel, comprised of three fabric sheets of approximately the same size (of an original four), sewn together, and inscribed with the date Shabbat, 5th Tamuz 1762 and a blessing for the newborn: "May he grow in Torah, and to the wedding canopy and to good deeds, Amen Selah".

The caption is embroidered in a diverse range of colors, letters decorated with vegetal and geometric patterns, and decorations featuring animals (a butterfly and birds). Further decorations include a two-headed eagle over the date, a tree under the word "grow" and a Torah scroll and Torah crown after "Torah", and a depiction of a wedding after the word "wedding canopy", with figures in elegant period dress. Some Lamed letters decorated with vegetal patterns or a bird.

The present item was exhibited in the Jewish Museum of London, and is documented in the museum's catalogue (Barnett, 1972), no. 533 (photograph in plate CL).

Height: 14X17 cm. Length: 214 cm. Apart from sheet lacking from beginning of wimpel, overall good condition. Most embroidery in good condition, with minor unraveling and minute tears. Stains and creases to linen.

Provenance: Collection of Simon Brueckheimer.

The Simon Brueckheimer Collection

Simon Brueckheimer was born in Külsheim in 1889. He moved to Marktbreit in 1911, where he served as a schoolteacher from 1920 onward. In 1929, he initiated a project to document Jewish ritual objects and property in the communities of Bavaria, which he conducted during school vacations as part of the Verband Bayerischer Israelitischer Gemeinden (Association of Bavarian Jewish Communities).

During Kristallnacht, Brueckheimer fled to Frankfurt, where he was arrested and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp. After six weeks he was released, returned to Marktbreit, and in April 1939 emigrated with his family to London, where he continued his project of documentation of the Jewish communities of Bavaria.

During his travels among small communities, as well as after his emigration to London, Brueckheimer assembled a small collection of Jewish objects, which he gathered in the communities themselves or acquired later from Jewish refugees who had arrived in England. Highlights of his collection include a goblet used for the Chevra Kadisha meal of the community of Schwabach, now in the collection of the Israel Museum; and a Torah shield from Gossmannsdorf, sold by Kedem (Auction 106, February 24, 2026, Lot 14). His papers, documenting some 150 small Jewish communities throughout Bavaria, are preserved in the Yad Vashem archives in Jerusalem. Brueckheimer died in England in 1950.

Proceeds from the sale of items from the Brueckheimer collection will be donated in full.

Ask about this lot

Various Objects from the Simon Brueckheimer Collection

View Details