Silver and silver filigree etrog container, by Yehia Yemini, Bezalel School, Jerusalem, circa 1920.
Acid-etched decoration with grapes and vines on the lid, and with pomegranates and leaves on the base, decorated with silver filigree on the lid, above and below the Hebrew text, and around the feet. The central band inscribed in etched inscription: "And you shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of thick trees, willows of the brook", The lid signed in etching "Bezalel Jerusalem", and topped with pomegranate shaped finial.
Raised on four conic feet.
Yehia Yemini Born in 1897 into a family of San'a silversmiths, Yehia Yemini reached Jerusalem with his family at the young age of three. When Bezalel founded its Silver Department In 1908, Yemini became one of its employees, and helped other Yemenites to forge Bezalel's unique synthesis of East and West. After the dismissals of 1914, Yemini joined three groups of Jerusalem craftsmen who specialized in silver crafting in the manner of Bezalel: "Keter," "Kav Lavan," and "Sharar" (directed respectively by Shneior, Ossanovitch and Rabinovitz). Yemini was exceptionally talented and skilled in blending the traditions of Yemenite silver...
Category
Early 20th Century Israeli Boxes