Sale
15236 - Fine Jewellery, 6 Dec 2007
New Bond Street
Lot No: 16
A gold, ruby and diamond, 'Lion of Judah', cuff bangle, by Sah Oved, 1936
The convex cuff rendered in beaten yellow gold, decorated at intervals with vertical lines of rose-cut diamonds and mixed-cut rubies, with engraved spherical gold beads to the interior, the modelled Lion of Judah to one side with one wing doubling up as the clasp and opening to reveal the following inscription, 'I rocked Jacob to his dream of Eternity, my ribs were the ascending ladder for his angels, my head his stony pillow, and when he grew in stature to wrestle with a heavenly being my wings were scythes and my breath like a whirl-wind fought for him', unsigned, diameter 6.0cm, length 7.5cm.
Sold for £22,800 inclusive of Buyer's Premium
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Email: Sarah Elles
Tel: +44 (0)20 7468 8278
Footnote:
Sah made this piece for Mosheh in 1936. The British author Marghanita Laski, who was a friend of both Mosheh and Sah, wore it for her portrait by Jacob Epstein that year.
In a letter to Sir Roy Strong, written on 28th September 1974, Laski wrote, 'a few years ago you did me the honour of putting a photograph of me in your files and I think I suggested you should use one taken by Baron..I was mislead by coarse vanity and I now think it would be more interesting..for the National Portrait Gallery..if you were to file a photograph of a watercolour portrait I have of myself by Jacob Epstein..'
Laski also wrote to Sah and Mosheh's daughter, in 1974, 'I do very often think of the Lion of Judah bracelet and remember its beauty, both for sight and for touch and I should really love to see and handle it again... You may like to see the portrait of me that your father persuaded Epstein to paint in 1936. I'm wearing your father's old purple velvet robe and a magnificent array of your mother's jewellery, including the bracelet. When the National Portrait Gallery asked to photograph me for their records, I asked them to photograph this instead'.
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