An important parcel gilt Polish silver Torah crown
The gilt base with an openwork white silver mantle of finely chased rocailles, blossoms and acanthus over a band of relief with pairs of birds. The six bows in the form of sculpted lions rampant holding an acanthus wreath hung with bells. The bows of the upper crown in the form of griffins; crowned by a stylised tree with an eagle holding a dove in its beak; below the gilded figure of a recumbent lion. The browband of the upper crown engraved with a Hebrew inscription: "The crown of the Torah, the crown of priesthood and the crown of royalty", dated 1819.
The lower section with two cylindrical holders for the staffs of the Torah scroll. The lower and upper brackets with coloured glass stones in capsule settings; partly chipped or lost. H 32.5 cm, weight 1,499 g.
Unmarked, Galicia (Poland/Ukraine), around 1819.
The Hebrew engraving refers to a passage in the Mishnah: "There are three crowns: the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood and the crown of kingship. But the crown of the good name surpasses them all." (Pirke Avot 4:17).
An almost identical crown is in the collection of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (inv. no. 5895). Similar designs are represented in the major Judaica collections worldwide, for example in the Jewish Museum in New York or the Historical Museum in Krakow.
Literature
Cf. Rafi Grafman, Crowning Glory: Silver Torah Ornaments of the Jewish Museum, New York, New York 1996, 270, 273, and Abram Kanof, Jewish Ceremonial Art and Religious Observance, New York 1969, fig. 15. On the Torah crowns cf. also cat. Schätze des Jüdischen Galizien, Lemberg/Lviv 2002, pp. 16, 19.