The special items up for auction that Sunday in December smacked you right in your face as you walked through the door. They were laid out on tables, stacked on shelves in glass cases, hung on walls, propped against walls on glass shelves.
The auctioneers at one of my favorite auction houses had announced a month or so before that today would be their sale of Judaica. By the time I arrived, several people were already bent over the tables of magazines and books, and examining the artifacts in cases.
These specialized sales bring out both the collectors and sellers. It’s the same with silver and gold coins or toys or trains.
For me, coins and Judaica are the most baffling because my knowledge of both is very limited. I don’t even bother to drop in on coin sales, but I do occasionally pop into the sale of Judaica. I also search the tables to see what’s there and recognizable. Some of the items – the menorahs, the torahs– I know and understand how they are used. The text on many of the items is usually in Hebrew and I can’t decipher it.
So, the items at the Judaica auction intrigue me because they are so foreign to someone who was brought up as a Christian.
This auction house holds a Judaica sale (like its “Oriental” auction) at least once a year. It described its offerings this way: late 19thcentury Persian brass 35″ charger, menorahs, Etrog boxes, ritual washers, trays, Seder plates, silver Torah pointer, groggers, Torahs, Kiddush cups, Mezzuzahs, tallits, and paintings and graphics (by Chaim Gross and others). There were also a large amount of ephemera, including books on Israel and Jewish history. The auctioneer talked up some papers that a family had kept on the birth and life of a child who was born in the 1950s .
Many of the items mentioned were relatively new to me:
Groggers? I had written about these before. They’re actually noisemakers set off during the reading of the name “Haman,” the villain in the Book of Esther, during the Purim. The aim is to erase him and his evil plan to exterminate the Jews in the Persian Empire.
Etrog boxes? These are for carrying a citrus fruit called an etrog, which resembles a lemon, during the holiday of Sukkot. Not commonly seen in this country, according to my Google research.
Mezzuzahs or Mezuzahs? A parchment that is set on the door post of every door inside a home. The parchment is a prayer scroll that has been written by a Jewish scribe. It is customarily placed in a case or box.
Tallits? Prayer shawls.
The auction contained several menorahs – some with five holders but most with nine, the ones commonly used. Menorahs are the oldest symbol of the Jewish faith, and Israel has it in its coat of arms.
When I think of the menorah, I think of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah or the Festival of Lights. A seven-branched candelabrum was used in the Temple of King Solomon in Jerusalem. After the Temple was destroyed, tradition held that the seven-branched could not be duplicated, although it eventually came back into use.
The lighting of the menorah has a two-fold purpose: the Jewish victory over the Syrian army and re-taking of the Temple, and the miracle of a day’s worth of oil lasting eight days. There is a ritual in the process for lighting it over those number of days.
I wasn’t around to see how much the menorahs sold for, but the groggers (about 20-25 of them) went for $27.50. A Seder plate sold for $2, and other items ranged from $2 to $30. I’m sure that worked out well for collectors and anyone else interested in having an artifact that likely had been used by a real family. Each, I’m sure, had a story to tell.
That’s what the new National Museum of American Jewish History has in mind. Opened in November in Philadelphia, the museum tells the story of 350 years of Jewish life in America through art, artifacts, ephemera and electronic means.
I haven’t checked out the museum yet, but you bet I will. I can’t wait to see what treasures it holds. And then, by next year when the Judaica auction rolls around, I’ll do more than just pop in. I’ll stick around for awhile.
Dear Sherry,
I found the picture of the 35″ brass charger from the Judaica auction that was on your website. This weekend I bought a similar one at the Allentown Ephemera Show. Since I bought it I was researching for something similar and your site popped up. I was wondering how much that Charger in the Judaica auction sold for. I also wonder whether there were pictures, and if so what the theme of the pictures was. The charger I bought had etchings that looked like Folk Art with the theme of the Exodus. There were Hebrew words which we worked on interpreting. Some of the letters were imperfect using today’s standards. But it is art and I think we found the meaningful interpretation.
As you know pictures of shiny brass are not easy to see clearly, so it is hard to see what picture was on yours.
Your website looks very interesting. My husband and I love hunting for various types and themes of antiques.
Happy hunting!
Mindy
Hi Mindy. Good find on the charger. Unfortunately, I wasn’t around when the charger was sold, and I don’t recall what pictures were engraved on it. I usually hang onto my auction sheets with the descriptions, but I can’t seem to locate that particular one.
Sherry