Description: Celebrating the marriage of Ezekiel ben Solomon and Perl bat Aaron on Friday, 16 Tammuz 5667 (June 28, 1907).The text of the present ketubbah is inscribed in the central panel of an elaborately decorated papercut. Papercuts were an especially popular form of folk art among the Jews of Eastern Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This particular example may have originally been created to serve as a shivviti or mizrah, plaques that were designed to be hung on the wall of a home or synagogue to serve as a constant reminder of God’s presence or to orient the direction of one’s prayer toward the city of Jerusalem, respectively. Both genres of papercut plaques often featured the imagery found here: a stylized illustration of the menorah, as well as a panoply of richly colored animals including lions rampant, a pair of griffins that border the text of the ketubbah, and a variety of birds, all set amidst scrolling vines.In 1907, this papercut was deemed worthy to host the text of a marriage contract. The town in which the wedding took place, Krol Erman, is located in northwestern Romania, near the border with Hungary, and is today known as Carei. Although papercut ketubbot were created in Italy starting in the eighteenth century, the present lot is an extremely rare example of a later ketubbah executed in the papercut tradition of Eastern Europe. Physical DescriptionInk and gouache on paper with gilt decoration (19 3/4 x 14 1/8 in.; 500 x 360 mm). Dampstaining, soiling, and a few tears. Matted against red cotton, glazed, and framed in a wooden frame (27 1/2 x 22 in.; 700 x 560 mm); not examined outside of the frame. LiteratureJoseph and Yehudit Shadur, Traditional Jewish Papercuts: An Inner World of Art and Symbol (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2002).
Price: 19500 USD
Location: Pomona, New York
End Time: 2025-02-05T00:30:01.000Z
Shipping Cost: N/A USD
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All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Religion: Judaism
