Spice box

Spices were rare and costly in eighteenth-century Europe and people stored them carefully in valuable containers. This was also the case in Jewish households, where they were required for the ceremony at the end of the Sabbath Spices are called ‘besamim’ in Hebrew. This flat rectangular box, originally an everyday object, with a sliding cover and miniature lions was very popular in Jewish households in Frankfurt and was used as besamim box.