Two sumptuously embroidered panels from a pair of Dutch circumcision chairs, The Hague: 1843 Metallic silver thread, with beads, sequins and raised work embroidery in ornate floral motifs, on red silk velvet backgrounds.

In every traditional Jewish circumcision ceremony, a special chair is designated for Elijah the prophet. In fact the circumcision itself is preceded by the pronouncement: "This is the chair of Elijah, blessed be his memory." An Elijah’s chair is usually paired with a second matching chair reserved for the sandak, who holds the baby during the ritual. Though there are regional differences in the chair's structural style, size and decoration, a chair designated to be used as a Chair of Elijah is usually much finer than chairs used in daily life: ornately carved, painted or upholstered in especially beautiful fabric.

Each gilt-framed chair back is copiously decorated with sumptuous metallic thread embroidery on a red velvet ground. Each features an elaborate embroidered border of flowering vines, with roses and pinecones; within the border, embroidered Hebrew text, above which are traditional Jewish symbols associated with the circumcision rite.  On the first chairback: a circumcision shield flanked by the two halves of a traditional double wine-cup used as a part of the circumcision ceremony (labeled kos shel berakha and kos shel metzitza). On the second chairback: a crown is depicted bearing the legend: “Crown of a Good Name” (Ethics of the Fathers, 4:13), alluding to the portion of the ceremony in which the newly circumcised child is named for the first time.

The embroidered text begins on the first panel:

Gift of the community leader, his honor Rabbi Gedalia Charlevil, may God protect him, and his wife, Madame Brendl, daughter of his honor, Rabbi Abraham;

The text continues on the second panel:

 For the elevation of the soul of his departed father, the community leader, his honor Rabbi Simon, son of the community leader Jacob Charlevil, may the memory of the righteous be for a blessing, who was among those who laid the cornerstone of the synagogue of our community, in The Hague, may God protect it, which was established on Tuesday, the 25^th of Nisan, [5]603, according to the minor reckoning. (= 25 April 1843).

Both Gedalia Charlevil and his wife Brendl (née Berendina van Gelder) were born in the Netherlands in 1899 and married in The Hague in 1842. The Charlevil family may have had its origins in the French city of the same name, but by the mid-nineteenth century, they were important pillars of the Jewish community in The Hague, as may be ascertained from the fact that Simon Charlevil is memorialized in this embroidered inscription as one of those who laid the synagogue cornerstone. Today, the same building houses a mosque, though the original cornerstone engraved in both Hebrew and Dutch is still visible at street level. It reads: "The first stone of the construction of the sanctuary of God, this Ashkenazi congregation Yeshurun , the holy congregation of The Hague, may God defend it, which was placed on Tuesday, the 25th of Nissan, 5603 [1843]."