Rare, Unique Silver Torah Shield – Germany, ca. 1720 – Figures of Moses and King David

Torah shield, Germany, probably Kitzingen, [ca. 1720], inscription dated 5482 [1722].

Silver, cast, repoussé, and engraved (marked with two marks: the letter K in an oval frame, probably for Kitzingen, Germany; and a mark in the form of a turkey facing leftward, also in an oval frame, apparently the maker’s mark of silversmith Johann Ludwig Langenhan).

A rare and unique Torah shield resembling in design Torah shields from Nuremberg, but with several markedly unique features.

The shield as a whole is square-shaped, but with three arches on top. The margins are repoussé in a recurrent pattern, and all the other decorative elements are attached with screws. These ornaments include: At the top, a large crown-shaped ornament protruding forward, flanked on either side by a pair of large, rampant deer; a two-headed eagle, flanked by vegetal ornaments; a pair of spiraling architectonic columns each surmounted by a small crown, also protruding forward, and supported on large square pedestals each bearing a floral decoration; and a pair of figures standing atop the columns’ pedestals, specifically, on the right, Moses, holding up the Two Tablets of the Law, engraved with the abbreviated Ten Commandments, and, on the left, King David, wearing a crown and grasping a harp. At center, toward the bottom and between the pair of columns, is a rectangular compartment for interchangeable plaques, equipped with a large hinged cover, opening downward (no plaques included). Just above the bottom margin is a cartouche engraved with an inscription (I Samuel 15:1) alluding to the year the shield was created: "Then came the Lord unto / Samuel / saying… [the numerological equivalent of Hebrew year 5482 = 1722] / […]".

A strikingly similar Torah shield dated 1777 has been documented by Theodor Harburger, "Die Inventarisation jüdischer Kunst – und Kulturdenkmäler in Bayern", Schweinfurt, Germany, 1929, cited in an exhibition catalogue of the Jewish Museum of Franconia, Fürth, Germany, 1998, p. 703 (P160-428). Harburger believes that the shield documented in this source originates from Kitzingen, but it should be pointed out that silver marks very similar to those that appear on the present Torah shield were in use in Ilmenau, Germany at the time (see Marc Rosenberg, Der Goldschmiede Merkzeichen, Frankfurt A.M.: Frankfurter Verlags, 1922, nos. 2573, 2575).

Height: 26 cm. Width: 23 cm. Fair-good condition. Loose screw joints. Several nuts missing. Minor warping and fractures to edges. Old soldering repairs. One bell not original. Two bells missing clappers.

Provenance: Sotheby’s, Tel Aviv, April 6, 1994, Lot 147; Sotheby’s, New York, December 4, 2014, Lot 169.