UNIQUE GILT WOODEN SUKAH EMBELLISHMENT. Poland, 1883.

This elegant object was created as a frame; it would have contained parchment inserts with the names of the Seven “Ushpizin” Guests (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and David) who symbolically visit each Sukkah. No comparable carved wooden frames are known. For other examples of carved wood from Poland, see J. Ungerleider-Mayerson, Jewish Folk Art from Biblical Days to Modern Times (1986) p. 248. The elaborate carvings with foliate elements are reminiscent of tombstones such as those in the Jewish cemetery of Tarnopol, see Beth Hatefutsoth Catalogue, Treasures of Jewish Galicia (1996) no. 208, pp. 58-9