Jewish Book Bindings

Historical Jewish bindings encasing prayer books amaze the viewer today because of the precious materials, including silver, with which they are made.

Family crests or the initials of their first owner appear engraved into or enamelled onto the centre of their covers. Bespoke leather slip case protected them and they were handed down from father to son; within their pages annotations often recorded important family events such as births and weddings.

Book bindings are rare objects, they are still conserved by Jewish families, held in their community museums and in libraries, and sometimes they even appear on the market. 

Who knows how many life stories every one of these books could tell!