Sacred Splendor: Judaica from the Arthur and Gitel Marx Collection

MINIATURE TORAH SCROLL, [EASTERN EUROPE: LATE 19TH-EARLY 20TH CENTURIES]

Auction Closed

November 20, 08:47 PM GMT

Estimate

30,000 - 50,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

MINIATURE TORAH SCROLL, [EASTERN EUROPE: LATE 19TH-EARLY 20TH CENTURIES]

Scroll of 25 membranes (approx. 3 1/4 in. x 26 1/4 ft.; approx. 83 mm x 8 m) made of parchment; written in Ashkenazic Beit yosef script in dark brown ink on 172 columns with fifty to fifty-five lines per column; especially-embellished tagin (crowns) added to certain letters in the immediate vicinity of the Song of the Sea and the Song of Moses. Mounted on decorated early-nineteenth-century (possibly Polish) silver rollers with acorn finials and accompanied by a modern golden silk Torah binder.

In order to fulfill the biblical commandment enjoining Jews to write their own Torah scrolls, people of means who are not themselves expert in the laws attaching thereto sometimes sponsor a scribe to copy one on their behalf. While most communal scrolls used in synagogues for ritual purposes are large and heavy, their privately-owned cousins tend to be diminutive and portable. This allows their owners not only to store them more easily, but also to transport them from place to place. Naturally, the degree of proficiency required to produce a tiny scroll like the present one is beyond the ability of all but the most skilled scribes. Torah scrolls of such minute dimensions are thus highly rare and greatly prized.