Pair of Torah finials. Yemen, [19th or early 20th century].
Cast brass (parcel silvered), repoussé and engraved.
Slender, elegant pair of Yemenite-style Torah finials. Faceted baluster form, upper body with two faceted pear-like knops; lower body with a decorated band and a gadrooned spheroid knop. Surfaces of both upper faceted knops with vegetal patterns and with two biblical verses, engraved in elegant Hebrew letters: "The Torah of the Lord is perfect / restoring the soul / the testimony of the Lord is sure" on one finial, and continuing: "making wise the simple. / The statutes of the Lord are right / gladdening the heart" (Psalms 19:8-9) on the other. Rings with bells. Lower sections of shafts decorated with minute arches.
These Torah finials are unusual insofar as typical Yemenite finials of this variety are almost entirely lacking in decorations, and in particular, inscriptions with biblical verses are very much the exception and not the rule.
Height: 31 cm. Missing bells. Minor fractures. Old soldering repairs.