An Illustrated Marriage Contract, Jerusalem: 1870

Ketubbot produced in the Land of Israel in the nineteenth century often feature a distinctive artistic program: a vase overflowing with brightly colored flowers and an elaborate floral border. This floral imagery on the present ketubbah is highly characteristic of the first period  of decorated ketubbot from the Holy Land which lasted from the 1830s to the 1870s. The text is set within and architectural niche bordered by two columns, representative of the house that the new couple will build together.  The ketubbah is signed by the groom (bottom center) and two witnesses who have penned their names (at right and left) in elaborate Sephardic rabbinic signatures. Among the stipulations the groom agrees to in this ketubbah is that he may not take a second wife unless his wife has not given birth after 10 years of marriage.

Literature: A Local Wedding: Ketubbot from Eretz Israel 1800-1960, Eretz Israel Musem, Tel Aviv: 2005; Jonathan Benjamin, "Ketubah Ornamentation in Nineteenth Century Eretz-Israel" in The Israel Museum News vol. 12, 1977 pp. 129-137.