An English Carved Wooden Miniature Torah Ark with Two Miniature Paper Torah Scrolls and Portraits of the King and Queen of England, Early 20th Century

The inscription reads: “Made by J. Blecher in the year aron kodesh [(5)655 (1895)],” but the portraits are of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, who came to the throne in 1901. One possible explanation for the discrepancy between the date and the portraits is that the word aron (ark) is here spelled without the expected letter vav, whose numerical value is six; perhaps the artisan accidentally left it out due to its similarity in appearance to the final nun. With the addition of the letter vav, the date would come out to (5)661 (1901), the year King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra's reign began.