Marriage Contract on paper. Uniting Israel, son of Nissim Isaac Katarfas and Zinbul daughter of David Abram ibn Shushin on Friday, 8th Tammuz, 1900

AUCTION 17 | Tuesday, November 12th, 2002 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts and Works of Graphic and Ceremonial Art From Various Owners

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Lot 444

(KETHUBAH).

Marriage Contract on paper. Uniting Israel, son of Nissim Isaac Katarfas and Zinbul daughter of David Abram ibn Shushin on Friday, 8th Tammuz, 1900

Text in brown ink, Sephardic square and cursive Hebrew scripts. Horizontally divided into two sections, the upper section contains rich floral motifs in vibrant watercolors of red, yellow, green, blue and purple. At the center is a circular roundelle containing another floral motif and surrounded by a circular textual border in monumental gilt letters. Atop, is an Ottoman tughra (seal of high office, or Royalty) in silver and red. The lower portion contains the text within textual border of monumental gilt letters. An outer border of decorative vegetal and floral motifs is on either side of the text. As is typical, the customary verse from Proverbs; “be’simana tava...” is incorporated along the horizontal dividing panel between the two portions in large square letters painted in gold. All within blue border. Upper margin, triangular shaped and decorativly trimmed with stylized gold semi-circles Light stains, trace foxed in places. Matted. 485x670mm

“Rudosnik” (near Istanbul) : 8th Tammuz 1900

Est: $6,000 - $7,000

Jewish cultural life in the Ottoman Empire was shaped by the Sephardi heritage interwoven with local Turkish elements. Kethubah decoration in the Ottoman Empire shows this mixture of the two cultures. The place of this marriage ceremony, “Rudosnik” is not a familiar place of Jewish settlement. Shalom Sabar suggests, based on the stylistic similarites to the Kethuboth of Istanbul, that Rudosnik is a suburb or small outlaying communty attached to Istanbul. What is particularly interesting about this particular Kethubbah, which combines decorative elements of both Istanbul and Izmir kethubah decoration, is that hand-decoration of kethuboth was all but superseded by printed documents by the end of nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire. Sabar suggests that the small community of Rudosnik, while not an outwardly observant settlement, held fast to traditional rituals that had become out-moded in the larger settlements in the big cities. See S. Sabar, Kethubah Metzuyeret Nedirah Me’ha’eimpariah Ha’ottomanit (Turkia) Shnat 1900: Analysis and Evalution (accompanying this lot)