Silver Platter – Amsterdam, 1822 – With Illustration after "Friday Evening Blessing" by Moritz Oppenheim (Added ...

Silver Platter – Amsterdam, 1822 – With Illustration after "Friday Evening Blessing" by Moritz Oppenheim (Added Later, Between 1867 and 1906)

Silver, repoussé, engraved, and soldered.
Hallmarks: · Year mark, the letter "N" = 1822; · Maker's mark, the initials "JS" – Jacob Hendrik Stellingwerff (active in Amsterdam, 1812-1826); · Fineness marks.
Round platter, supported on three spherical legs. At center, enclosed within a round frame, is a scene depicting a father blessing his children – the so-called "Blessing of the Sons" – upon returning home from synagogue on Shabbat eve. Inscribed underneath the illustration are the German words "Freitag Abend" ("Sabbath Eve"). Various items are engraved in the margins: the family emblem (a shield marked with pair of diagonal lines forming an inverted "V", and three Stars of David) flanked by a pair of angels holding books and blowing trumpets, and three additional Stars of David, the bottom one flanked by a pair of cornucopias.
The illustration at the center of the platter is based on a renowned painting by the German-Jewish artist Moritz Daniel Oppenheim (1800-1882), "Friday Evening Blessing" ("Sabbath Anfang", 1867), which, as early as 1868, was reproduced in numerous editions and various formats as part of the series titled "Bilder aus dem Altjüdischen Familienleben" ("Pictures from the Life of the Traditional Jewish Family"). In all likelihood, Schloss – as a native of Frankfurt where Oppenheim was active – could readily identify with the scene depicted on the platter, insofar as it portrayed a memorable weekly experience from his own childhood.
The other decorations were added to the platter in the latter decades of the 19th century (certainly prior to 1906), probably as a product of the Jewish reawakening in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and a consequent trend toward a renewed interest in the Judaica market (for more on this subject, see the introduction to this catalogue, p. 15).

Diameter: 26 cm. Good condition.

Exhibitions:
1. London, Exhibition of Jewish Art and Antiquities, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1906, item no. 1122.
2. Basel, Jewish Museum of Switzerland, JMS 1035.
Provenance:
1. Collection of Solomon David Schloss (1815-1911).
2. Lewis Raphael Castle (1858-1932), son of the above.
3. Peter Castle (1922-2011), grandson of the above.
4. Heirs of the above.
This item appears in the inventory list of the Schloss Collection, dated 1923 (see appendix, pp. 146-148), and is documented in a 1931 collection photograph (see p. 11).