Obj. ID: 37217  Torah shield, Warsaw, 1864

The following description was prepared by William Gross:

Breastplates – ornamental metal plates or shields hung in front of the Torah scroll – are found in all Ashkenazi communities, as well as Italy and Turkey, but designed differently in each community. In most cases the breastplate is made of silver or silver-plated metal. In Italy the breastplate is shaped like a half-coronet and known as the keter, "crown." In Turkey, the breastplate is called a tass, and assumes a variety of shapes – circular, triangular, oval, or even the Star of David. In Western, Central, and Eastern Europe the breastplate is called either tass or tzitz; its function there is not merely ornamental: it designates which Torah scroll is to be used for the Torah reading on any particular occasion, with interchangeable plaques. The most notable early breastplates, from 17th-century Germany and Holland, were either square or rectangular, but over time they became rounded and decorative, and bells or small dedicatory plaques were suspended from its lower edge. During this period, the design of breastplates was influenced by that of the Torah Ark and the *parokhet (curtain) concealing it, featuring various architectural motifs, the *menorah (the seven-branched candelabrum), Moses and Aaron, lions, or Torah crowns.

This is one of a series of similar Tassim produced by several silversmiths in the last half of the 19th century in Warsaw. They are quite elaborate, using some elements that appear in breastplates from Galicia some 100 years prior. The date, 1864, is really in the first decade and a half of the production of Jewish ritual art in Warsaw. A group of Jewish artisans worked in that city during the last half of the 19th century. Reiner was one of them and one of the first.

Inscription: Abbreviations for the Ten Commandments on the Tablets of the Law