Obj. ID: 37113 Torah finials, Essaouira (Mogador), circa 1930
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This text was prepared by William Gross:
The earliest known reference to Torah finials occurs in a document from 1159, found in the Cairo Genizah, from which we learn that by the 12th-century finials were already being made of silver and had bells. Around the same time, Maimonides mentions finials in the Mishneh Torah (Hilkhot Sefer Torah 10:4). Despite the variations on the spherical shape which developed over the centuries and the addition of small bells around the main body of the finial, the spherical, fruit-like form was the basic model for the design of finials in Oriental and European communities.
A most significant variation appeared in 15th-century Spain, Italy, and Germany, where the shape of finials was influenced by that of various objects of church ritual, whose design often incorporated architectural motifs, The resulting tower-like structure, which seems to have appeared around the same time in different parts of Europe, became the main type of finial in 18th-century Germany and Italy, as well as Morocco, brought there by Jews expelled from Spain.
Fine metalwork was an almost exclusive Jewish trade in Morocco. There are a wide variety of forms of Rimmonim from Morocco and it seems as if each community in Morocco had its own form. An extremely fine level of filigree silver work distinguishes this pair of Rimmonim. They were ordered for a synagogue in Fez in the 1920's from a particular Jewish silversmith in Essaouira. They might have been made by an Ashkenazi family by the name of Loeb living in Essaouira in which both the father and son worked in filigree, which is not a native technique from Morocco. There is another pair of Rimmonim with an accompanying crown, also in European style, as are these, in the possession of a Jewish family in Fez. The crowns which top this pair appear to have colored enamel work, but the material is a very stiff wax compound inlaid into the spaces where enamel would be normally placed and fired.
The crowns on top are identical to those on 050.001.060.