A brass Birkat Hahamah (Blessing of the Sun), Ludwig Wolpert, New York, 1981

in the form of a stylized sun and inscribed in Hebrew

needs mounts
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The inscription is taken from Judges 5:31, "But they that love Him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might."

This piece was commissioned by the consignor and her husband from Wolpert in 1981, on the most recent occasion of the recitation of the Birkat ha-Hamah, a blessing traditionally recited once every 28 years to commemorate the return of the sun to its celestial position at the time of Creation; the next occasion will be April 8, 2009.  This commission, for which the consignor retains Wolpert's original design, was also among the artist's last.

Ludwig Wolpert was born near Heidelberg at the turn of the 20th century  and studied a the Frankfurt-am-Main School of Arts and Crafts.  He emigrated to Israel in 1933 where he headed the metal workshop at the New Bezalel School in 1936.  In 1956, Wolpert moved to New York where he founded the Tobe Pascher Workshop and School at the Jewish Museum.  Abram Kanof considers Wolpert "a pioneer in applying modern ideas and materials on the creation of Jewish sacred objects (Jewish Ceremonial Art and Religious Observance, New York, n.d., p. 49) while Jay Weinstein described his works as "strongly modernist creations, under clear Bauhaus influence, featuring an elegant absence of ornmentation, and clear, strong lines" (A Collector's Guide to Judaica, London, 1985, p. 219).  Wolpert died in New York in 1981.

This is thought to be his last work.  The design remains in the collection of the consignor.