Pair of Torah Finials

ArtistAttributed to Willem Hendrik Rosier Dutch, Amsterdam, 1707–1775

Datecirca 1765

MediumSilver, brass, partly gilded

Dimensions16 5/8 x 5 1/2 in. (42.2 x 14 cm)

ClassificationsMetal

Credit LinePurchased with funds from Margaret and Douglas Abrams, Marion Meyer-Robboy and Stanley Robboy, Connie C. and Robert D. Shertz, Laura and David Brody, Joan and Kalman Cohen, David C. Falk Sr., Elizabeth Kanof Levine and Ronald Levine, and other Friends of the Judaic Art Gallery

Object number2007.1/a-b

On View

On view

Label TextThese magnificent finials were once part of the treasury of Amsterdam’s Great Synagogue. Their architectural form recalls church towers from the 1600s to the mid-1700s, such as the crowned steeple of Amsterdam’s Oude Kerk (below).

During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, the Great Synagogue was desecrated and plundered. Fortunately, these finials were in a bank vault that the Nazis never discovered. Returned to Amsterdam’s Jewish community after the war, they were eventually consigned to auction, where they were purchased by the Museum.
["The People's Collection, Reimagined," 2022]ProvenanceCreated Amsterdam, ca. 1765; Great Synagogue, Amsterdam, ca. 1765(?); seized by German Occupation forces, ca. 1943; returned to Jewish Community of Amsterdam (NIHS), after 1945; [Sotheby’s, New York, December 13, 2006, no. 110]; sold to NCMA, 2006.
Published ReferencesImportant Judaica (auction catalogue) (New York: Sotheby's, December 13, 2006), lot 110, illus. (color).

Meir Ronnen, "Auctions: Sotheby's leads Judaica sales," The Jerusalem Post (December 28, 2006), mentioned.

John W. Coffey, "Torah Finials Survive Plunder of Nazi Occupation," in Preview: The Magazine of the North Carolina Museum of Art (Winter 2008), discussed 13, illus. (color) 12.

John W. Coffey, entry for Pair of Torah Finials, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 138, illus. (color) 16, 139.

Gabrielle Anna Berlinger and Ruth von Bernuth, editors, The Lives of Jewish Things: Collecting and Curating Material Culture (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2025), 206, illus (b & w) 207.Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement

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