Pipe bearing colored portrait of Rabbi Eybescheutz, with Hebrew description. H: 100mm.

PORCELAIN PIPE HONORING RABBI JONATHAN EYBESCHEUTZ Southern Germany, mid-19th c.

The Hebrew inscription reads: "Portrait of the esteemed Rabbi Jonathan, may he rest in peace, Rabbi of the Holy Congregation of Altona-Hamburg." Very few of these Jewish-themed pipes are extant, though see I. Shachar, Jewish Tradition in Art: The Feuchtwanger Collection of Judaica (1971) nos.129-31. A child prodigy, R. Jonathan Eybescheutz, while still a young man acquired renown for his remarkably keen mind and enormous scholarship in the Talmud and Kabbalah. In addition, he was a splendid orator. None of his works were published in his lifetime, his influence amoung his contemporaries thus stemming from his oratory skills and personality.