Miniature combination of a siddur in Hebrew and a pocket calendar in Spanish, in a splendid binding with silver buckles. Amsterdam, 17th century.
Sephardi version of the standard Hebrew siddur (prayer book) for both regular days and the Sabbath. Amsterdam: David de Castro Tartas, 1663. Bound together with: Calendario de ros-hodes, fiestas y ajunos que los hebreos celebran cada año", a Spanish calendar for Hebrew years 5436-5460 (1675-1700). Amsterdam: Jahacob de Jehuda Senior (publisher) Gillis Ioosten Zaagman (printer), 1675. Spanish.
The binding is adorned with four silver ornaments: two buckles, and two additional ornaments reinforcing the spine (unmarked). All four ornaments are gilt. They are delicately and meticulously cast, partly with vegetal patterns and partly with images of infant angels (putti).
Rare edition. Only one copy known to exist, in the Bodleian Library, bound with a different calendar. See: Steinschneider, CB, no. 2162; and Lajb Fuks and R. G. Fuks-Mansfel, Hebrew typography in the Northern Netherlands, 1585-1815, Part 2. Leiden: Brill, 1987, p. 349, no. 435.

Siddur: 192 leaves; Calendar: 32, [3] pages, 10.5 cm. Height of binding: 11 cm. Minute holes to binding (chain or ornaments missing) and several open fractures. Gilt leaf edges, with gauffered floral pattern.

Exhibitions:
1. Presumably, London, Exhibition of Jewish Art and Antiquities, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1906, item no. 1096.
2. Basel, Jewish Museum of Switzerland, Basel, JMS 1016.
Provenance:
1. Collection of Solomon David Schloss (1815-1911).
2. Lewis Raphael Castle (1858-1932), son of the above.
3. Peter Castle (1922-2011), grandson of the above.
4. Heirs of the above.
This item appears in the inventory list of the Schloss Collection, dated 1923 (see appendix, pp. 146-148).