Torah shield

This neo-rococo Torah shield was a typical ritual object of the 19th century in Austro-Hungarian territories, made by Pál Cseh, silversmith in Pest in 1864. Among its rich decoration of seashells and roses, two lions, standing on pillars, hold a crown above the two stone tablets of the ten commandments. The crown represents the Austrian imperial crown, except that the silversmith replaced the cross on top of the crown with a button. The silversmith left an empty space on the bottom of the object, surrounded by roses, which would have been the place to engrave the name of the person who donated the object to a synagogue. There is, however, no donor engraving, and it is unknown where the object was used, but it was purchased by the museum in 1960, at a state owned second-hand store, called BÁV. In those years, it was not customary to investigate the provenance of the objects, so several items stolen from Jewish communities could enter legal trade.