Sacred Splendor: Judaica from the Arthur and Gitel Marx Collection

A FINE ILLUSTRATED ESTHER SCROLL, AMSTERDAM, [CA. 1720]

Auction Closed

November 20, 08:47 PM GMT

Estimate

8,000 - 12,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

A FINE ILLUSTRATED ESTHER SCROLL, AMSTERDAM, [CA. 1720]

Scroll of 3 membranes (approx. 8 x 57 5/8 in.; approx. 203 x 1460 mm) made of parchment; written in eighteenth-century Sephardic square script in brown ink on 13 columns with thirty-one or thirty-two lines per column. Elaborately-illustrated engraved borders; panel at front featuring blessings, panel at rear featuring the concluding blessing and the piyyut (liturgical poem) Ashe heni; some later corrections. Scattered staining; small nicks in upper and lower edges; opening panel heavily thumbed and creased; lesser wear to later panels; small portion of engraving above final two columns replaced in facsimile. Mounted on a turned wooden roller, small portions of the upper portion of which are lacking.

The finely engraved border on this eighteenth-century Dutch scroll reflects the innovative technique of integrating printing technology with the age-old scribal tradition of writing by hand the entire text of the biblical book of Esther. Detailed narrative scenes of the Purim story unfold along the lower border, while portraits of the story’s characters are presented in cartouches above the text columns. The decorated opening panel contains the benedictions recited before the reading of the scroll, surrounded by a series of illustrations including Esther and Ahasuerus seated on a double throne, the hanging of Bigthan and Teresh, Mordechai refusing to bow down to Haman, Haman leading Mordechai through the streets of Shushan on the king’s horse, the hanging of Haman and his ten sons, and Esther and Mordechai writing the Purim missive.

This megillah belongs to a group of Esther scrolls produced in Amsterdam that share a similar border of engraved biblical scenes beneath the text columns. They differ in that some scrolls feature engraved portraits above the text, while others depict landscape scenes. The earliest known example of this group of megillot is dated 1701.

Literature

Evelyn M. Cohen, Sharon Liberman Mintz, and Emile G.L. Schrijver (eds.), A Journey through Jewish Worlds: Highlights from the Braginsky Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books (Amsterdam: Bijzondere Collecties, Universiteit van Amsterdam; Zwolle: Waanders, 2009), 234-237.