Auction 108 Books | Letters and Manuscripts | Scrolls and Jewish Ceremonial Art
Torah Pointer – Austria-Hungary, 19th/20th Century
Opening: $600
Sold for: $1,063
Including buyer's premium
Torah pointer. Austria-Hungary, late 19th or early 20th century.
Silver, cast and engraved (with Austro-Hungarian standard mark, in use 1886-1922, and maker's mark "RK").
Typical design of pointers from Austro-Hungary, with vegetal patterns. Original suspension chain.
Length: 34 cm. Maximal width: 3.5 cm. Weight: 147 g. Good condition.
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.
Various Objects from the Simon Brueckheimer Collection
Various Objects from the Simon Brueckheimer Collection