Esther Scroll of Haham Raphael Meldola and Rabbi David de Sola Pool, [London:18th century]

Ink on Parchment, written in 12 columns on three membranes (height: 7 1/8 in.; 182 mm); first membrane backed and edged in crimson silk, fitted with three integral crimson silk ties (2 only partially attached). Mounted on a turned wooden roller, losses to roller; accompanied by a matching blessing sheet (5 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.; 140 x 140 mm), and a separate handwritten note, with details of provenance, written by Rabbi David De Sola Pool.

Haham Raphael Meldola (1756-1828); Goodluck (b.1821) and Julia (b.1820) Meldola; Solomon Pool; Elazar S. Pool; David de Sola Pool (1885-1970); Ithiel de Sola Pool (1917-1984). The provenance is recorded in an accompanying note written by Rabbi David de Sola Pool.

AN EXQUISITE SEPHARDIC RABBINICAL HEIRLOOM

The present scroll formerly belonged to Raphael Meldola (1754-1828) who served as rabbi of his native Livorno, and subsequently as Haham of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews of England. The scroll passed through several generations of the Meldola family, and eventually to David de Sola Pool (1885–1970), great-great-grandson of Meldola, and for 63 years, the important and influential rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel, the oldest American synagogue in the United States.

Meldola was known for his fastidious attention to all details concerning the reading, writing and pronunciation of sacred scriptural texts and it comes as no surprise that his own beautifully penned copy of the Scroll of Esther should be such a finely executed example of the scribal arts.