Silver Kiddush Cup of the Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch – With Letter of Authenticity Signed by Rebbetzin Chanah Gurary

Silver Kiddush Cup of the Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch – With Letter of Authenticity Signed by Rebbetzin Chanah Gurary

Kiddush cup of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneersohn – the Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch.
Silver, marked: Moscow – 1853, maker's mark: СГ [SG].
Letter of authenticity enclosed (handwritten note, in English), signed in Hebrew by Rebbetzin Chanah Gurary (1899-1991), eldest daughter of Rebbe Rayatz: "I hereby gift… the kos used by the Tzemach Tzedek in the final years of His life. My grandmother [wife of the Rashab] gave it to me as a gift during the sheva brochos week when I got married". Dated – 26th November 1989. A wooden box which may have also been used by the rebbe or his family is enclosed (the box was given together with the kiddush cup, though it is not mentioned in the letter).

The Tzemach Tzedek discusses the kabbalistic concepts alluded to by the silver kiddush cup in several of his discourses: "The silver kiddush cup… is a receptacle for receiving salvations…".

Silver Utensils on the Seder Table of the Tzemach Tzedek
The first Chabad rebbes used to place their valuable utensils on the Seder table, in commemoration of the "great possessions" the Children of Israel took with them upon leaving Egypt.
Reputedly, the Tzemach Tzedek also owned a kiddush cup which he had inherited from his grandfather the Baal HaTanya. This cup, which had been used by the Baal HaTanya on the last Shabbat of his life, in Pena, contained the dried-up remnants of the Baal HaTanya's kiddush wine. The Tzemach Tzedek, and later the Maharash and his wife Rebbetzin Rivkah, would place it on their Seder Table, until one year the maid mistakenly rinsed it out.

Approx. 6X6 cm. Good condition. Minor bends.