Torah finial

Jurgen Richels (German, 1664–1711)

1688-89

Medium/TechniqueSilver, parcel gilt

DimensionsOverall: 42.9 × 15.2 cm (16 7/8 × 6 in.)

Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds donated by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation and Jetskalina H. Phillips Fund

Accession number2019.634.2

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsRitual objects

Collections

Judaica

ProvenanceBy about 1910 until about 2000, said to have been in English collections [see note]. About 2000, purchased in London by Joe Levine, New York. June 5, 2019, anonymous (“Serque Collection”) sale, Sotheby’s, New York, lot 79, to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 19, 2019)

NOTE: Four of the bells on these finials were made by the London firm Rosenzweig and Taitelbaum around 1910/1912. According to Sotheby’s, the pair was for sale in the London Silver Vaults around the 1980s or 1990s.