Decorated Wimpel with Color Illustrations – Germany, 1853

Wimpel (Torah binder / circumcision cloth) for Yitzchak son of Yosef. [Germany, probably Bavaria region], 1853.

Ink and

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Decorated Wimpel with Color Illustrations – Germany, 1853

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

May 12, 2026

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Decorated Wimpel with Color Illustrations – Germany, 1853

Opening: $400

Sold for: $938

Including buyer's premium

Wimpel (Torah binder / circumcision cloth) for Yitzchak son of Yosef. [Germany, probably Bavaria region], 1853.

Ink and paint on linen.

Composed of four sheets of nearly identical size sewn together, with an inscription naming the baby "Yitzchak son of Yosef", born on Wednesday, 6th Kislev 1853, with the blessing: "May G-d raise him to Torah, the wedding canopy and good deeds, Amen Selah".

The Wimpel is decorated and variously colored throughout with charming folk illustrations. All the letters are colored and illustrated with vegetal patterns, incorporating fruit, flowers, people and animals. Additional illustrations include: Isaac blessing Jacob (over the name "Yitzchak"), Joseph meeting Benjamin (over the words "son of Yosef"), next to a horse-drawn carriage, a bow and arrow (Sagittarius, under "Kislev"), figures playing (under "raise him"), a figure holding a Torah scroll, a lion holding a flag and a figure holding a Torah scroll (after, above and below "Torah"), a large illustration depicting a wedding ceremony (after "wedding canopy"), with figures in period dress, and other illustrations. Some letters stylized in zoomorphic patterns. At end of wimpel, at upper edge, small frame with remains of a deleted inscription: "This wimpel was made---".

The present item was exhibited in the Jewish Museum of London, and is documented in the museum's catalogue (Barnett, 1972), no. 567 (photograph in plate CL).

Height: 15.5 to 16.5 cm. Length: 287.5 cm. Overall good condition. Slight creases. Stains, slightly affecting illustrations and text.

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.

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Various Objects from the Simon Brueckheimer Collection

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