Significant Polish Torah Crown Silver; partially... Lot 518

Significant Polish Torah Crown Silver; partially gilded. The gilded base with an àjour decorated white silver mantle of finely chased leaf scallops, flowers and acanthus over a relief band with pairs of birds. The six bows in the form of sculpted rising lions, holding an acanthus wreath with suspended bells. The bows of the upper crown in the form of griffins; crowned by a stylized tree with an eagle holding a dove in its beak; below it the gilded figure of a lying lion. The browband of the upper crown with a circumferentially engraved Hebrew inscription: "The crown of the Torah, the crown of priesthood and the crown of kingship", dated 1819. In the bottom two cylindrical holders for the rods of the Torah scrolls. The lower and upper brackets with colored glass stones in capsule settings at the attachments; partially bumped or lost. Unmarked. H 32.5 cm, weight 1,499 g. Galicia (Poland/Ukraine), circa 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). A nearly identical crown is in the collection of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (inv. no. 5895). Similar designs are represented in major Judaica collections around the world, for example, in the Jewish Museum in New York or the Krakow Historical Museum. Literature See 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, see also cat. Treasures of Jewish Galicia, Lemberg/Lviv 2002, pp. 16, 19.