Childbed plaque

According to medieval Jewish legends, Adam’s first wife was Lilith, but she fled from him and bowed herself with the devil. In the stories, Lilith marches with host of demons and kidnaps newborn infants. It was customary to hang a paper-cut amulet or plaque in the room where the pregnant woman laid, which served to protect the expectant mother as well as the newborn from Lilith, the dangerous demon. These plaques are full of protective texts and illustrations. The childbed plaque (also known as kimpet-tsetl, from kimpet, which in Yiddish means childbed) made in Nitra, in 1854, is the work of Mordehai Sofer, a renowned copperplate engraver.