FINE ITALIAN SILVER BINDING Binding: Rome, 1796

BINDING: Overall embossed with Baroque style decoration. Front, at center, within medallion, family crest depicting Priestly hands, with swirls, crown, buds, shell, all set within rope border and set off by striated background. Back: Same overall design; family crest depicting Levite pitcher. Spine enhanced with coordinated design. Two cast hasps secure closure. Marked on front, back, spine and hasps. (Bulgari, Vol. I, no. 141, p. 29.) H: 175mm. Fitted With: Machzor shel Kol Hashanna. According to Italian rite. Volume II. ff. 322. [Vinograd, Venice 1988]. Venice, Bragadin, 1772

For another copy of this Machzor in an equally elaborate silver binding, see Kestenbaum & Company, Sale VII, 22nd June 1999, Lot 152 In the 18th century, lavishly bound Hebrew prayer-books became preferred wedding gifts, often decorated with the crests, or symbols, of the two marital families. For a similar binding, see Stieglitz, no. 242, p.366