This delicate item is known as a papercut, which is a type of decorative work that was popular with Jews in Eastern Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. The condition is quite remarkable, with no tears or repairs, but it has been folded.

This piece, entirely cut and decorated by hand, is an exquisite example of the type of Jewish papercut known as a birth amulet. Jewish birth amulets were designed to counter the effects of evil spirits, and in particular those of the demon Lilith, believed to strangle newborn infants and to cause pregnant women to miscarry. This amulet is to be hung in the birthing room or placed near the child’s bed. It is decorated with birds, a lion, and a deer, referencing the verse from Pirkei Avot "strong as a lion, swift as a deer to do your will our Father in heaven". It is inscribed with kabbalistic formulae used to ward off Lilith and Satan, including the names of three angels that were sent by G-d to threaten Lilith to stop harming infants.

Aside from the delicate work this amulet reveals, the color scheme of green, orange, yellow, red, pink and blue is extremely unusual for a papercut birth amulet, as most extant examples in museum collections are either quite dull in color from their original colors having been faded, or were only given one color to enhance the border outline.

Although it is impossible to state where in Eastern Europe this hails from (Galicia?), the colors in this amulet are quite similar to those seen on a paper item that displays the times of Synagogue prayer that sold at the Sotheby’s sale of Judaica from the Steinhardt collection in 2013. That piece (lot 13), from Romania and dated 1878, sold for $37,500.

26.7 x 21 cm

Lot #172

An Important Papercut Amulet for protection of Mother and Child. Artist: David Elias Krieger, Circa, 1900

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An Important Papercut Amulet for protection of Mother and Child. Artist: David Elias Krieger, Circa, 1900

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