Cotton embroidered with multicolored silk, sequins, and a fringe border (diameter: 34 in.; 864 mm).
Festive and colorful large round cloths were used by the Jews of Kurdistan to decorate the Sabbath table. They were embroidered by women for their families, and some were initially created to cover the large brass trays which held the foods and gifts exchanged between a future bride and groom on the occasion of their engagement. Hebrew lettering was central to the scheme of decoration, and this cloth is embellished with the biblical verses of Psalm 23 and Hebrew text from
Pirkei avot (Ethics of the Fathers) 3:3 and 6:4: “Rabbi Simeon began by saying: [...] If three have eaten at one table and have spoken over it words of Torah, it is as if they had eaten from the table of the Omnipresent, Who is blessed, as the verse says [Ezek. 41:22]: He said to me, ‘This is the table before the Lord’;” “Bread dipped in salt shall you eat, water in small measure shall you drink, on the floor shall you sleep [...].” Also included is a central dedicatory inscription blessing the one who acquires the cloth.
A plaque sewn to the back of the textile indicates that it was owned by Isaac Sassoon, who lived in London in the early twentieth century. Sassoon was a significant collector of Judaica and lent over twenty-five items to the famous 1906 exhibition of Jewish art and antiquities in the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. Related examples of cloths like this one are in the Jewish Museum, New York (F 6033), and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (161/4).
Provenance
Isaac Sassoon (rear plaque)
Literature
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and Cissy Grossman, Fabric of Jewish Life: Textiles from the Jewish Museum Collection (New York: The Museum, 1977), no. 174.
Ora Shwartz-Be’eri, The Jews of Kurdistan: Daily Life, Customs, Arts and Crafts (Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 2000), 164-167.
