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Tallit (prayer shawl)

Dutch (Amsterdam)
mid 18th century

Medium/Technique Silk, gold and silver thread
Dimensions 220 × 114 cm (86 5/8 × 44 7/8 in.)
Credit Line Jetskalina H. Phillips Fund
Accession Number2021.114
CollectionsJudaica
ClassificationsTextiles
The Tallit is the prayer shawl worn by men for morning prayers as well as for Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). Talitot (plural) are used by Jews across the world, often showing the distinctive features of a specific region and time. This large silk example, made in Holland in the 18th century, was not just an everyday Tallit, but a special and festive one. It was almost certainly made for a holiday, and only used for one or two annual occasions.
It shows the traditional blue stripes woven onto white fabric, with the addition in the four corners of silk brocade imported from Lyons. The brocade corners are embroidered with flowers and leaves in purple silk and gold thread. The use of precious materials such as silk and gold thread and the addition of beautiful French embroidered brocade fabric is fitting to the patrons’ noteworthy identity: the wealthy Mendes-Da Costas, one of the first Jewish families to reach Amsterdam from Portugal in the 17th century.

ProvenanceMid-18th century, possibly made for a member of the Mendes da Costa family, Amsterdam; said to have passed by inheritance to the De Pinto family, Amsterdam; Sophia Wilhemina de Pinto (b. 1890 – d. 1944) and Jehuda Lion Palache (b. 1886 – d. 1944), Amsterdam; by inheritance to their son, Isaac “Leo” Palache (b.1926 – d. 1996), Amsterdam; about 1985, sold by the family of Leo Palache to Moshe Brown (dealer), Amsterdam; by 1994, sold by Brown to Abraham Paz, Amsterdam [see note 1]; about 1998, sold by Paz back to Moshe Brown; about 1998, sold by brown to Bernard Finkelstein, Antwerp; by descent to his son, Gideon Finkelstein, Antwerp and Raanana, Israel; February 1, 2021, Finkelstein sale, Pierre Bergé et Associés, Paris, lot 41, to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 24, 2021)

NOTES:
[1] Paz placed the Tallit on long-term loan to the Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam, beginning in 1994. See Orphan Objects: Facets of the Textiles Collection of the Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam (exh. cat., 1997), p. 137.