Torah Binder
Germany, 1823
Linen, silk thread, embroidered

This is a late example of an embroidered torah binder, or "wimpel", from ashkenaz. By this time, in the 1820's, most Torah binders were being decorated by painting, a technique that began to replace the tradtional embroidery in the second half of the 18th century. In the four hebrew letters that indicate the year of birth the downstroke of the kuf is made into a fish. On Torah binders the inscription's letter and many of the empty spaces were decorated with both flowers and animals.

Inscription(s): Yishai ben Mordechai

Height: 21 cm, Length: 352 cm

enlarge