Auction 94 Part 2 Rare and Important Items
Small Torah scroll. [Poland?, ca. first half of the 19th century].
Ink on parchment, neat Beit Yosef script. 42 lines per column.
Rolled on Atzei Chaim and including a pointer, all wooden. Placed in a mantle made of blue velvet with gold-colored embroidery. On the mantle is a Star of David with the initials of the words "Keter Torah" in the center, under which is the year 5686 (1926) and the Latin letters L.R.B.
Height of parchment: 19 cm. Maximum height of Atzei Chaim: 37 cm. Overall good condition. Stains, including dark stains. Ink underwent process of conservation. Wear and tears to mantle.
Enclosed: certificate issued by Machon Ot (dated 2 August 2023), confirming that the present Torah scroll has undergone a process of preservation.
Provenance: the estate of R. David Moses Rosen, Chief Rabbi of Romania.
Minuscule Torah scroll. [Germany, 19th century].
Ink on thin parchment, Ashkenazic Stam (Beit Yosef) script; silver, turned and engraved; cloth mantle.
Minuscule Torah scroll, one of the smallest known Torah scrolls. Written in conformity with halachah, following the Vavei HaAmudim format (most columns beginning with the letter Vav). Membranes correctly sewn together with sinews.
Written on 54 thin parchment membranes, in 264 columns, 42 lines per column.
Wound on a pair of miniature silver rollers, engraved with fine vegetal motifs, and cloaked in a colorful mantle, decorated with gilt thread.
The scroll is placed in an elegant wooden box (new), designed as a book, which serves as portable Torah ark and folding bimah (an additional cavity in the box houses the scroll, with a velvet curtain and small door with metal handle for "Opening the Ark"). A metal plaque with the verse "Torah Tziva Lanu Moshe…" adorns the front of the box.
Height of parchment: 7.6 cm; rollers: 13.5 cm; wooden box: approx. 29.5X21X8 cm (minor breaks inside wooden box). Good condition. Some stains. A few parchment membranes darkened.
Minuscule Torah scrolls such as the present one are exceedingly rare, partly due to the complexity of scribing them and the great cost entailed. Such scrolls were usually scribed for exceptionally wealthy people, such as Sir Moses Montefiore whom a Torah scroll would accompany on his travels around the world. Likewise, such scrolls were prepared as gifts for prominent rebbes, so that they could easily carry them around, just like the practice of Jewish kings, in conformance with the verse "I have placed G-d before me constantly" (see Sanhedrin 21a-22a).
This Torah scroll was auctioned at Sotheby's, New York, 17 December 2013, lot no. 109 (illustrated; appears on the front cover of the catalogue).
Esther scroll, housed in decorated silver case. Vienna, 1886-1890; engraved inscription dated 1890.
Ink on treated parchment; silver, turned, sawed, repoussé and engraved (marked with maker's mark, initials KW = Karl Weichesmüller, active 1870-1893).
Esther scroll inscribed in neat Stam script, on five membranes of treated parchment; 16 columns of text, 20 lines per column.
The scroll is housed in a cylindrical silver case decorated with wide bands bearing a floral pattern in relief, framed by vertical borders with a blank, patternless surface. At the top of the case is a crown-shaped ornament surmounted by a wreath of leaves and flowers. The case's borders, bar pull, and handle are all adorned with recurrent patterns of delicate zigzag lines. In the center is a large cartouche, engraved (in Hebrew) with the owner's name and the date: "Sasson Farhi… 5650 [1890]" (possibly, the Sasson Farhi mentioned here is a known individual who lived somewhere in the Ottoman Empire – probably Bulgaria – in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; his name is mentioned in a number of newspaper articles from this period).
Height of parchment: 13.5 cm; height of case (incl. handle): 36 cm. Minor damage to bar pull and floral ornament at top. Minor damage to first membrane. Handwritten notation (Hebrew, more recent) in lower margin of first membrane: "Eretz Israel 14.3.1949"; scroll more recent than case.
Provenance: Estate of Rabbi Ze'ev Wolf Gottlieb (1910-1983).
Esther scroll housed in magnificent decorated silver case. Vienna, prior to 1886; engraved inscription dated 1905.
Ink on thin parchment, treated; silver, turned, sawed, repoussé and engraved (marked with Vienna city mark, and with year [faded] and silversmith's mark, initials CJ or CS?); gilt.
"HaMelech" Esther scroll – most columns begin with the word HaMelech, these words being "crowned" with an ornament; letters alluding to Holy Names enlarged in several places. Inscribed on four membranes of thin parchment; 14 columns of text, 25 lines per column.
The scroll is housed in a high-quality, elegant, slender cylindrical silver case, decorated with wide bands bearing a pattern of acanthus leaves in relief, framed by vertical borders with a blank, patternless surface. At the center of the case is a framed monogram with the initials "BJ". Engraved in the bottom margin is the Hebrew year 5665 (1905); this date represents a more recent addition. The case is surmounted by a gilt dome, enclosed within a "crown" with arms shaped like leafy branches. The "crown" is itself surmounted by a flower-shaped ornament. The bottom lid of the case, surmounting the handle, is similarly decorated with matching leaf-shaped ornaments.
Height of parchment: 14 cm; height of case (incl. handle): 35 cm. Good condition. Scroll likely more recent than case.
Provenance: Estate of Rabbi Ze'ev Wolf Gottlieb (1910-1983).