A coin-silver soup-ladle made by Solomon Ralph Biesenthal of Louisville Kentucky (1829-1903). Engraved “Remember Jetta Gerstley.” Marked: “SRBiesenthal Louisville.”

(AMERICAN-JUDAICA)

Louisville, Kentucky

c. 1858

Length: 13 inches.

Solomon Biesenthal (1829-1903) along with his wife Rosalie Samuelson, arrived in America from Poland around 1850. After a sojourn in Cincinnati, Biesenthal settled with his family in Louisville where he owned a silver and jewelry shop on Market Street. In 1860 he founded the Louisville Hebrew Mutual Benefit Society and and two years later, Louisville’s Chebrah Bikur Cholim Ukedosho. For further details concerning the Kentucky-based Jewish silversmith Solomon Biesenthal and this item of silver in particular, see Gary Dean Gardner, Kentucky's Unknown Story of Jewish Silver: Assessment Of A Kentucky Coin Silver Soup Ladle ca. 1858-1860 by Solomon Ralph Biesenthal, Louisville, KY: http://southernfoodandmaterialculture.blogspot.com/2018/08/kentuckys-unknown-story-of-jewish-silver.html.