License for a Jewish Pawnbroker.

Auction 98 | Thursday, June 16th, 2022 at 1:00pm

Fine Judaica: Rare Printed Books, Manuscripts, & Autograph Letters

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Lot 62

(AMERICAN-JUDAICA).

License for a Jewish Pawnbroker.

Annual license issued by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore for <<Solomon Engelmyer.>> It affirms that the fee of $500 has been paid, and that the license is valid if Engelmyer faithfully exercises the trade of Pawn Broking. It is signed by witnesses M. Pollock, and Henry Feig, as well as Baltimore mayor Elijah Stansbury, Jr. Printed with manuscript additions. One page.

Baltimore, MD: 16th May 1850

Est: $150 - $200

PRICE REALIZED $125

Solomon Engelmyer (1804-89), whose pawnbroker business was a a frequent advertiser in the Baltimore Sun since 1843, was also active in Jewish communal life. From 1851 to 1853 he was the president of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, and his name appears in the pages of the New York Jewish periodical The Asmonean, advertising for a chazan for his synagogue. His pewter seder plate, engraved with his Hebrew name, Shlomo Leib Engelmyer, and that of his wife, Channa, as well as Baltimore in Hebrew letters, is in the collection of the National Museum of American History.